From The New York Times:

Parents of Woman in Florida Lose Bid to Keep in Feeding Tube
By LYNN WADDELL
Published: February 22, 2005

CLEARWATER, Fla., Feb. 21 - The parents of a severely brain-damaged Florida woman failed in an 11th-hour effort on Monday to halt a court order that will allow the removal of a feeding tube that has kept her alive for 15 years.

Barring an emergency court order, the feeding tube will be removed from the woman, Terri Schiavo, on Tuesday, said a lawyer for her husband, Michael.

Ms. Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, had asked the Second District Court of Appeal in Lakeland to block the order from taking effect as scheduled, at 1 p.m. Tuesday. On Monday, the court declined.

The Schindlers suffered a further setback when Judge George Greer of Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Court postponed until Wednesday a scheduled hearing on their request for a stay from him.

Mr. Schiavo has twice succeeded in having the tube removed from his 41-year-old wife.

The last time, Gov. Jeb Bush ordered the tube reinserted until the Legislature created a law to prevent its removal. The law was declared unconstitutional by the Florida State Supreme Court, and in January the United States Supreme Court refused to hear the case.

Since then, the Schindlers have appealed on the grounds that their daughter, a Roman Catholic, would have not wished to violate a recent declaration by Pope John Paul II that people in vegetative states have a right to nutrition and hydration. Judge Greer rejected the argument, but he issued a stay on the removal of her feeding tube pending the Schindlers' appeal of his decision to the Second District Court of Appeal.

Any removal of the tube may be brief. At the hearing on Wednesday, the Schindlers will ask Judge Greer for an emergency stay until they can make an appeal to the United States Supreme Court on the ground that Mrs. Schiavo lacked proper representation at the 2000 proceeding that led to the ruling that her husband had the right to remove the tube.

David Gibbs III, a lawyer for the Schindlers, also said he planned to file a motion on Wednesday to stop the removal of the tube in light of what he said were recent medical advances that hold promise for recovery for the brain-damaged.

"These medical advances are exciting," Mr. Gibbs said, pointing to the case of a Kansas woman who resumed speaking after 20 years in a coma.

Mr. Gibbs said that even if Judge Greer refused to grant the stay, there were other legal avenues to prolong Mrs. Schiavo's life.

Apart from asking the Supreme Court to step in, Mr. Gibbs says, the Schindlers still have pending motions to remove Mr. Schiavo as their daughter's guardian.

Mrs. Schiavo's heart stopped beating briefly one night when she was 26, and she has been severely brain-damaged and unable to eat or drink on her own ever since. She can, however, breathe on her own.

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I feel so sorry for this poor woman. Her parents need to put aside their selfish desires and honor their daughter by letting her die with some dignity.

We've got three more weeks to eat....hope they don't take it out.

I don't think they should have put it back. I would never want to "live" like that. I don't think it is even about her anymore. I think it is all about the hate between the husband and the parents. And shame on them all!!

Now you have my opinion. As you know I have had to face this myself. If it was my wife or child I think I would have took care of it myself. I would rather be in prison than to see someone I love treated like those SOBs have treated her.!!

And yes I called A Bush that. That is one Bush I would never vote for. And this is the reason.

But, they think the husband did something to her, so they have to keep her alive to find out how she got that way. The husband was so neglectful of her when she was first "injured" that she lost valuable time in her rehabilitation. I don't know either, I just hate to see her starve to death. If she's going to die, let it be painless.

So they will torture her just to get him. If they don't know now only an autopsy will tell. After all these years I doubt that it will tell much. And they need to let this poor woman rest. If she did wake up, I don't think she would thank anyone involved. She has already lost so much.

I have to agree with shouse on this. No way would I want to live like that,not even if my husband did it. He will have to live with that and pay for it in the end.

Colleen,

This woman just exists, not lives. Modern medicine is a marvelous and wonderful thing, but it has one flaw: the mind and soul can leave a person, but the body can be kept functioning. This poor woman's body still functions, but her Self is gone. All we are seeing and feeling sorry for is a shell. It is a shell made of limited neurological functions and nerve impulses. Terri is no longer in that shell. That shell should be freed of what little burdens it has left.

Thankfully my mind--my Self--has always been intact. I had to make the decision this summer to be taken of life support or be trached. You all know what I chose. Everyone should have that right. They should make living wills. They should never be forced to merely exist; and that is exactly what Terri's parents are doing to their daughter.

Death, really, is the ultimate freedom. It should never be feared. The loved ones of people in Terri's condition should embrace it because it will free the person they love from untold pain and indignities. The only ones that loose are the people that are left behind.

Joseph you are wise beyond your years. And very young to have learned this lesson. I am so glad that we gave each other another chance to be friends.

Thank you! I am glad we gave each other another shot, too. It's easier here. We enjoy each other for our similarities, not needle at each other constantly over our few differences.

I can see all points to this discussion, any way you look at it it's sad. And yes, Joseph is wise beyond his years.......wait he's wise beyond my years. OK...well, I don't have the answer, I'm just sad.

Yes, it is sad.

I don't consider myself wise. I have just learned what I know out of self-defense.

I am going to ask everybody to get a living will, I did not have one until Jerry died. I really think everyone needs one.
He got a DNR while he was ill so it took it out of my hands and we-the children and I-did as he wished.

And yes Colleen it is sad any way you look at it.

Congress and Bush need to stay out of this. It is time they quit playing with this poor woman. This has been beat to death for years. And now they want "just one more look" at it. Those SOBs will just keep on until they get it their way.

If they knew what it felt like to have a g-tube or nG-tube reinserted over and over, they may change their mind.

I don't think either side gives a damn about what she goes through. If they did they would have not put her through this over and over. Congress and everyone else has known about this for years. Now they are just grandstanding. In my opinion they are playing to the so called (right-wing conservatives. )
I really don't know why some democrats are joining in. The Conservatives will not vote for them anyway. I guess I just don't get it. And I am one of them.

I have to disagree.

She is hooked up to a feeding tube. Not some fancy breathing machine, or something else as drastic as saying she could not live without it for more than a few seconds. No matter how you word it, they stopped feeding her. She is going to die from starvation/dehydration. Some say the body lives, but the mind doesn't and she is merely a shell that'll never be who she once was. Well, that is partly true, and partly not.

She is different, she experienced a life altering event. You can’t expect her to be the same after that. Who she once was is lost, but the question is, who is she now? Is she just a shell with diminished capacity or no capacity at all? Or is she in the background waiting for a miracle. No one truly knows. And if this was all there was to say I’d still say she should be kept alive. But then there is the possibility of future discoveries which in the end may help her, stem cells anyone? Who is to say what is possible or not in the future.


So why keep her alive? Well because we can.

If you left a dog or a horse in that condition for that long you would go to jail. And they had years to do something. The tube has been removed and put back more than once. I understand what you are saying. But with what me and my family have been through they are scaring the hell out of me. We have all the paperwork for it not to happen. But after it is to late some Damn congressmen and a silly ass president may say no!! You must linger and suffer because it makes us feel so good. This is the kind of stuff that makes sick people blow their brains out. They have to die a lonely and hard death. They have had more than enough time in my opinion to sh.. or get off the pot.

I let some of them know just how I felt about it too. I guess I am so out of step that I can't dance with either side anymore.

Just because shes not the same as she was doesn't mean she isn't still valuable as a human. I watched the videos of her and I think she recognizes her family. Shes still there. Just because shes not functioning the same doesnt mean she should be starved. If they want to kill her they could find a more humane way.

My mom's dog had cancer and got to bleeding out real bad yesterday and the vet came to the house and let him go easy. It is a shame we can't help people who can't wipe their butt the same way. The taking care of me in the bathroom is very important to me.

I agree, it would be better if they just gave her enough morphine so that she would go to sleep and never wake up. This starving stuff is horrible.