Schiavo appeal hits high court
WASHINGTON – Terri Schiavo’s parents made a desperate appeal to the Supreme Court on Wednesday, asking justices to order resumption of nourishment for their severely brain-damaged daughter.
In the emergency filing, Bob and Mary Schindler say their 41-year-old daughter faces an unjust and imminent death based on a decision by her husband to remove a feeding tube without strong proof of her consent. They alleged constitutional violations of due process and religious freedom.
The filing also argues Congress intended for Schiavo’s tube to be reinserted, at least temporarily, when it passed an extraordinary bill last weekend that gave federal courts authority to fully review her case.
Time is of the essence. Schiavo’s feeding tube was removed last Friday and doctors have said she likely would die within a week or two at a hospice in Pinellas Park, Fla.
The filing is seen as a long shot. The Supreme Court has declined four other opportunities to get involved in the Schiavo case and legal experts say there is little reason to believe justices will intervene this time.
The Schindlers’ request goes first to Justice Anthony Kennedy, a Reagan appointee who has staked a moderate position on social issues. He has the option to act on the petition alone or refer it to the entire court, which he did on the last emergency request involving Schiavo.
There was no immediate word when the Supreme Court might act on the petition.
The appeal came after a U.S. appeals court refused twice to order Schiavo’s feeding tube restored and a Florida judge issued an emergency order barring state officials from taking the brain-damaged woman into protective custody.
“When I close my eyes at night, all I see is Terri’s face, dying, starving to death,” said Mary Schindler from outside the hospice where Schiavo resides. “Please, someone out there stop the cruelty, stop the insanity. Please let my daughter live.”
Schiavo, 41, has been without food and water since her feeding tube was disconnected Friday. Experts said her organs were beginning to sustain injury and she could die within days.
At one point, Florida officials appeared prepared to take Schiavo from the hospice and have her feeding tube reconnected.
During a news conference in Tallahassee, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush announced a new and more optimistic diagnosis by a doctor who spent less than an hour at Schiavo’s bedside and didn’t fully examine her.
“Terri may have been misdiagnosed and it’s more likely she is in a state of minimal consciousness rather than in a persistent vegetative state,” Bush said. “If there is any uncertainty, we should err on the side of protecting her.”
Other state officials filed a court motion that could be a precursor of an attempt to place her under state custody. They acknowledged that an attempt to remove her from Hospice House Woodside in Pinellas Park could come at any time.
“We are looking at every potential opportunity to be of assistance,” said Lucy Hadi, secretary of Florida’s Department of Children and Families. “There’s nothing about this case that has been clear-cut except our concern.”
The basis for the possible action: allegations that Schiavo was abused through, among other things, her husband’s insistence that the tube be removed. The state’s motion also cited allegations that Michael Schiavo abused her by administering morphine and keeping her isolated.
But the lawyer for Michael Schiavo said such action would be tantamount to kidnapping. “They have no more power than you or I or a person walking in the street to come in and say we have a right to take Terri Schiavo or to feed her,” George Felos said.
Late Wednesday, Florida Circuit Judge George Greer issued an emergency injunction, saying it appeared state action was “imminent.”
“DCF is hereby restrained from taking possession of Theresa Marie Schiavo or … otherwise (interfering) with this court’s final judgment,” Greer said.
It was unclear if DCF would appeal the ruling.
The drama over the possible seizure of Schiavo came against a backdrop of legal setbacks for the Schindlers, who’ve fought bitter court battles for years against her husband, who says Schiavo should be allowed to die.
A federal appeals court in Atlanta refused on a 10-2 vote to review a three-judge panel’s rejection of their plea to order the tube reconnected. The panel backed, 2 to 1, the decision of a U.S. district court judge not to order the tube reinserted, saying there was little likelihood that the Schindlers would prevail in court.
“There is no denying the absolute tragedy that has befallen Mrs. Schiavo,” the panel’s majority opinion said. “We all have our own family, our own loved ones and our own children. However, we are called upon to make a collective, objective decision concerning a question of law.
“In the end, and no matter how much we wish Mrs. Schiavo had never suffered such a horrible accident, we are a nation of laws, and if we are to continue to be so, the pre-existing and well-established federal law governing injunctions … must be applied to her case.”
Florida state senators, too, rejected by a 21-18 vote legislation that would have prohibited patients like Schiavo from being denied food and water if they haven’t expressed their wishes in writing.
Supporters of the Schindlers modestly escalated their civil disobedience outside the hospice.
About a dozen people, including children, submitted to police after carrying water and Bibles toward the hospice.
During his news conference, Gov. Jeb Bush said William Cheshire, a neurologist with the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, concluded that Schiavo may not be in a permanent vegetative state as determined by many other doctors.
“This new information raises serious concerns and warrants immediate attention,” the governor said. “It is imperative that she be stabilized so that the adult protective services team can fulfill their statutory duty and review all the facts surrounding the case.”
Another state official said Cheshire “made personal observations” of Schiavo earlier this month. He stood at her bedside observing her for less than an hour and, two days ago, watched two of the six videotapes in the court’s possession, officials said.
In his report, Cheshire said Schiavo’s behavior frequently appears “context specific,” her face brightens and she lifts her eyebrows when “jubilant” piano music is played, and she seems to have responded to some commands.
“She demonstrates a number of behaviors that I believe cast a reasonable doubt on the prior diagnosis” of persistent vegetative state, Cheshire wrote.
Other experts, including one who spent many hours with her, came to a contradictory conclusion during years of court hearings.
Jay Wolfson, a Tampa-area professor of public health and medicine who served as Schiavo’s guardian at law and spent 20 days at her bedside, described similar behavior in a 2003 report to the state.
“When awake, she sometimes groans, makes noises that emulate laughter or crying and may appear to track movement,” Wolfson said in his report. “But the scientific medical literature and reports this (guardian) obtained from highly respected neuro-science researchers indicate that these activities are common and characteristic of a person in a persistent vegetative state.”