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Time is ticking for Terri
25/03/2005 09:11 - (SA)
Pinellas Park, Florida - A judge in US district court in Tampa suspended a hearing on the fate of brain-damaged Terri Schiavo late on Thursday with no decision made, as hopes faded for her parents and their supporters that Schiavo's feeding tube would be reinserted.
The judge, however, was expected to return within hours to issue a ruling, as 41-year-old Schiavo entered her eighth day without nutrients or hydration. Her parents and family said her appearance on Thursday had been that of a "Holocaust victim".
The latest efforts in court used testimony from a neurologist that Terri could be in a state of minimal consciousness, and not in a permanent vegetative state, as her husband and many other doctors say.
The mood was increasingly pessimistic outside the Pinellas Park hospice where Schiavo's feeding tube was removed last Friday, dozens of pro-life supporters remained, holding banners, praying and with candles lit.
Earlier on Thursday, the US Supreme Court in Washington, and a judge in Florida, rejected separate last-minute appeals to reinsert Terri Schiavo's feeding tube, dealing another double blow to relatives' desperate efforts to keep the brain-damaged woman alive.
Experts said the Schindlers face diminishing prospects for success after having exhausted most legal and legislative avenues.
Experts have also said she could die within days, or even within hours.
Her parents' lawyer David Gibbs said on Wednesday: "Terri is fading quickly and her parents reasonably fear that her death is imminent."
The US high court's decision was welcomed by George Felos, the attorney for Terri's husband Michael.
Felos said it should mark the final denouement in the heart-wrenching saga that began when his client's wife stopped breathing temporarily after a sudden heart attack and suffered permanent brain damage.
"We are very grateful for the court's ruling," said Felos. "We believe that effectively ends the litigation in this case."
Michael Schiavo, Terri's husband and legal guardian, said his wife's wish was to be allowed to die if she ever became severely incapacitated, but her parents for seven years have fought all efforts to remove her from life support.
Schiavo's relatives insist the woman has a chance of at least a partial recovery if given the proper therapy. The Schindlers accuse their son-in-law of having denied their daughter adequate rehabilitative medical treatment over the years.
The decision by both courts seems to suggest the beginning of the end in the family drama that has galvanized pro-life forces in the United State, and become a rallying cry for Christian conservatives, despite polls that show Americans, by a two-to-one margin, agreed with the decision to remove the feeding tube.
Outside the Pinellas Park, Florida, hospice where Schiavo is a patient, protesters expressed shock and dismay about the Supreme Court ruling.
- AFP
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