Carson calls Terri Schiavo’s brother to explain comments, but declines meeting

Republican presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson spoke by phone with Bobby Schindler, brother of Terri Schiavo, on Friday morning, but the latter expressed disappointment with the former’s clarification of his controversial comments on his sister’s case.

On November 13, the retired neurosurgeon told a reporter that the 2005 controversy over taking Schiavo off life support was “much ado about nothing” and didn’t require Congressional intervention. After a few days of criticism by pro-life leaders, Carson walked back the comments, claiming he meant to say “the media tried to create the impression that the pro-life community was nutty and going way overboard with the support of the patient.”

However, Schindler expressed concern that Carson might still be too open to allowing patients in his sister’s situation to be taken off life support if their family agreed to do so, and stated his desire “to speak privately with Dr. Carson to share our perspective in good faith.”

Now, Schindler has told the Daily Caller’s Evan Gahr that their conversation was only “a few minutes” and “I don’t remember him apologizing. I don’t think starving somebody to death is much ado about nothing.”

He went on to lament that Carson “basically repeated his clippings” and declined a request for an in-person meeting: “He basically said he was going to be unavailable and had no time.”

He did, however, note that Carson prayed for Terri and the Schindler family in 2005.