The husband of a woman who was at the centre of an infamous “right-to-die” case has rounded on Jeb Bush after supporters used her image in advert designed to show his evangelical credentials.
The Right to Rise USA super PAC, which is supporting Mr Trump, ran an advert containing the image of Terri Schiavo, a Florida woman who fell into a vegetative state after suffering a heart attack in 1990.
The woman’s husband and legal guardian, Michael Schiavo, said it would have been his wife’s wish to have her feeding tube removed. Her parents - backed by many conservatives and politicians, among them Mr Bush, who was Florida governor, fought to keep her alive. At one point, Mr Bush issued an executive order that forced doctors to keep her on life support.
She eventually died on March 31 2015 after a long and bitter public battle, that exposed a faultline within the US's culture wars. Many religious conservatives said it was adamant she be kept alive. Others said she should be alllowed to die with dignity.
The 30-second advert broadcast this week in South Carolina, showed an image of Ms Schiavo, who was in what doctors called an irreversible vegetative state.
The narrator in in the advert praised Mr Bush, saying he was “a man of deep faith who fought time and again for the right to life.”
The late woman’s husband blasted the decision to use his wife’s image.
“It is simply disgusting that Jeb Bush and his super PAC would exploit my wife’s tragedy for his crude political gain. Shame on Jeb Bush,” Mr Schiavo said in a statement.
“Using his disgraceful intervention in our family’s private trauma to advance his political career shows that he has learned nothing.
“He’s proud of the fact that he used the machinery of government to keep a person alive through extraordinary artificial means - contrary to the orders of the court that were based on the court’s determination, made over six years of litigation, that doing so would be against her wishes.”
The Right to Rise PAC has not responded to Mr Schiavo’s criticisms.
