Terri Schiavo Life & Hope Network's Press Releases/Announcements

PHILADELPHIA, Nov. 19, 2015 /Christian Newswire/ -- After issuing controversial remarks at a Florida Republican Party conference on Fri., Nov. 13, Dr. Ben Carson has since clarified his perspective on medically vulnerable and brain-injured patients.

Initially describing Terri Schiavo's fight for life as "much ado about nothing," and stating that "We face those kinds of issues all the time," and that "your job [as a doctor] is to keep them comfortable throughout that process and not to treat everything that comes up." Dr. Carson has clarified these controversial comments, stating "When I used the term 'much ado about nothing,' my point was that the media tried to create the impression that the pro-life community was nutty…" Dr. Carson also stated, "When the patient is not terminal, as Terri Schiavo was not, the treatment plan should be determined on the basis of the consensus between the family and the healthcare providers."

Bobby Schindler, brother of Terri Schiavo and president of the Terri Schiavo Life & Hope Network, invites Dr. Ben Carson to dialogue with him—publicly or privately—on the subject of euthanasia. "What I and my family find troubling even about Dr. Carson's clarified remarks," explained Schindler, "is that he has not unequivocally condemned the killing of my sister. Indeed, would simple consensus within our family and among Terri's physicians justified her death by starvation and dehydration? If we had all agreed that it was right to deny her food and water, would that have made it right? Dr. Carson's latest remarks seem to indicate continued confusion on the basic rights of medically vulnerable patients. I would welcome the chance to dialogue with him, in good faith, in public or private, at a time of his choosing."

"Now more than ever," concluded Schindler, "it's important for pro-life leaders and the entire pro-life community to be united in the face of the normalization of medically imposed death and suicide. I believe Dr. Carson can provide such leadership, and welcome the chance for unity."

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, Terri Schiavo Life & Hope Network 

PHILADELPHIA, Nov. 16, 2015 / -- Dr. Ben Carson owes pro-life and medically vulnerable Americans an apology. Similarly, any pro-lifer supporting his campaign should take another look at the candidate’s values.

Speaking to reporters at a Florida Republican Party conference on Friday, November 13, Dr. Carson marginalized Terri Schiavo and other struggling and medically vulnerable patients.

Terri Schiavo, who died on March 31, 2005 from starvation and dehydration, was brain injured but otherwise healthy woman who was not reliant on life support. Michael Schiavo, her estranged husband and guardian, had led a national court case to remove her feeding tube—a means of nourishment which millions of patients rely on every day—in order to end her life almost a decade after warehousing her in a nursing home and suspending rehabilitative care.

When asked by a reporter whether he believed Terri Schiavo deserved Congress’s attempt to halt her court-ordered 13-day death by starvation and dehydration, Dr. Carson blithely responded, “I don't think it needed to get to that level. I think it was much ado about nothing."