KRT Wire | 03/25/2005 | Schindlers’ lawyers claim Schi­a­vo attempt­ed to speak:

The par­ents’ lawyers also offered a new motion in state court, telling a cir­cuit judge in Clear­wa­ter, Fla., that three wit­ness­es — includ­ing one of the lawyers — heard the severe­ly brain-dam­aged woman attempt to say “I want to live” on the day her feed­ing tube was removed.

In response to a ques­tion from lawyer Bar­bara Weller and “in the pres­ence of Suzanne Vitadamo Schi­avo’s sis­ter and Suzan­ne’s aunt, Mrs. Schi­a­vo attempt­ed to ver­bal­ize the sen­tence,” the motion said. “She man­aged to artic­u­late the first two vow­el syl­la­bles, first artic­u­lat­ing ‘AHHHHH’ and then vir­tu­al­ly scream­ing ‘WAAAAAAA.’ She became very agi­tat­ed but could not com­plete the vocal­iza­tion attempted.”

How do they know that she was­n’t try­ing to say “I want to die”? Or “I want my hus­band”? Or “I want to be left alone”? Or “I was dream­ing”? Or “Ah, what beau­ty”? Or that ran­dom nerve fir­ings did­n’t cause her to make ran­dom noises? 

Giv­en the state of her brain (Warn­ing, these CAT scans may be dis­turb­ing), these are impor­tant ques­tions. I’m not pre­judg­ing the answer, and I think that, if these affi­davits are true, the ques­tions deserve open discussion.