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ST. PETERSBURG, Florida, March 22 /Christian Newswire/ -- The Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation is expressing shock at the March 21, 2010 airing in prime time of Fox's The Family Guy, which featured satire about Terri Schiavo, the deceased Florida woman, who was starved to death in 2005 after a lengthy court battle.
The horrific sketch was titled "Terri Schiavo: The Musical."
In this sketch, Schiavo is mocked and the memory of the suffering she endured ridiculed - portrayed as someone on a number of mechanical life support systems. She is referred to as a vegetable. Both inferences are false regarding Terri's case! The sketch ends with characters calling for pulling the plug.
Terri's brother, Bobby Schindler stated: "My family was astonished at the cruelty and bigotry towards our beloved sister, and all disabled people that we witnessed in this show. My first thought was how this attempt at satire must have been enormously difficult and painful for my mother.
"After further thought, I realized that using my deceased sister as fodder for satire also validates what our family has been saying for many years. There is growing, deep-rooted prejudice against people with brain injuries and other cognitive disabilities. This sort of bare-faced bigotry is dehumanizing to those with disabilities and cruel to those who work tirelessly to ensure that people with disabilities are provided the proper care, protection and respect. People are not vegetables."
Terri Schiavo was not kept alive on mechanical life support. She made use of a feeding tube after some doctors determined it safer for her than swallowing food and fluids on her own.
"The depiction of Terri in The Family Guy episode on March 21 is not only inaccurate," states Schindler, "it seems to take the position that certain people are simply not worthy of receiving medical care because they are viewed as burdens on the health care system."
Schindler also believes it is not a coincidence that this terrible prime time skit took place 10 days prior to the five year anniversary of Terri's death (3/31/05), and just weeks before the foundation's first ever Terri's Life and Hope Concert featuring Randy Travis and Collin Raye, slated for April 11th in Indianapolis, Indiana.
The Foundation is calling on all disability rights organizations and pro-life organizations to join us in admonishing the producers and writers of The Family Guy. It will also begin pursuing the sponsors and advertisers of The Family Guy, urging them to stop advertising in this program.
The Terri Schindler-Schiavo Foundation was established by the surviving family members of Terri Schiavo to protect the rights of people with disabilities. It has communicated and supported with more than 1,000 families since Terri's Death - families who have loved one's living with brain injuries.
For interviews or questions, please contact Suzanne Vitadamo at the following:
Office: (727) 490-7603
Mobile: (727) 463-7578
svitadamo@terrisfight.org
