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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Brain-damage appeal refused

Gina Holland Associated Press

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court refused on Monday to step in and keep a severely brain-damaged woman hooked to a feeding tube, all but ending a long-running right-to-die battle pitting her husband against her parents.

It was the second time the Supreme Court dodged the politically charged case from Florida, where Republican Gov. Jeb Bush successfully lobbied the Legislature to pass a law to keep 41-year-old Terri Schiavo on life support.

The decision was criticized as “judicial homicide” by Schiavo’s father, Robert Schindler, but applauded by her husband, Michael Schiavo, who contends his wife never wanted to be kept alive artificially. The court’s action is very narrow, affecting only Schiavo.

More broadly, sometime after returning from their winter break, the justices will consider the Bush administration’s request to block the nation’s only law allowing doctors to help terminally ill patients die more quickly. Oregon voters passed that law in 1998, and more states could follow if justices find that the federal government cannot punish doctors who prescribed lethal doses of federally controlled drugs.

Terri Schiavo was 26 when she suffered brain damage in 1990 after her heart temporarily stopped beating because of an eating disorder.

Most of the legal wrangling has involved whether she is in a persistent vegetative state with no chance of recovery and whether her husband has a conflict of interest because he lives with another woman and has two children with her.

The legal battle between Schiavo’s husband and parents began in 1993 and appeared to reach its climax in 2003 when Michael Schiavo won a court decision ordering that the feeding tube be removed. But it was reinserted six days later, after the Legislature passed “Terri’s Law.”

The Florida Supreme Court ruled that the law was an unconstitutional effort to override court rulings. The nation’s high court refused without comment to disturb that decision.

George Felos, attorney for Michael Schiavo, said his client will have his wife’s feeding tube removed as soon as appeals are over and a stay is lifted.

Schiavo, who has lived in nursing homes, can breathe on her own but depends on a feeding tube to stay alive because she cannot swallow on her own. She left no written directive. Her parents contend their son-in-law is trying to rush her death so he can inherit her estate and be free to marry again. The Schindlers lost an emergency Supreme Court appeal in 2001.

The case now goes back to state Judge George Greer, who already has ruled the feeding tube can be removed.