This ends it. I don't think the full court will agree to set, and the Supremes won't touch it.
latimes.com
Parents Lose Appeal in Schiavo Case
The federal appeals court refuses to order the reinsertion of the brain-damaged woman's feeding tube.
By John-Thor Dahlburg
Times Staff Writer
March 22, 2005
PINELLAS PARK, Fla. — A federal appeals court refused early Wednesday to order the reinsertion of Terri Schiavo's feeding tube, denying an emergency request by the severely brain-damaged woman's parents.
The three-judge panel ruled 2-1 to deny the request, a day after a federal judge in Florida also refused a similar appeal.
Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, vowed yet another appeal Wednesday.
The severely brain-damaged woman's feeding tube was disconnected by court order Friday. Deprived of nutrition and fluids, doctors say, Schiavo probably will die within 10 days.
The appellate court action came after U.S. District Judge James D. Whittemore ruled Tuesday morning that a special law passed by Congress did not require him to act to keep Schiavo alive while her parents made their case in federal court.
Schiavo's husband, Michael, maintains that she did not want to be kept alive through artificial means. Her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, have been fighting to gain control over her care.
As the drama moved into its fifth day since the gastric tube was removed, lobbying efforts increased in Tallahassee to pass a special state law to save Terri Schiavo (pronounced SHY-voh). Her mother pleaded with lawmakers to act.
"For the love of God, I'm begging you, please don't let my daughter die of thirst," Mary Schindler said, weeping outside the hospice in Pinellas Park where Schiavo is being cared for.
Mike Tammaro, Schiavo's uncle, visited her in Woodside Hospice on Tuesday afternoon; afterward, he said her condition had deteriorated.
"From last night till now, she seems weaker," Tammaro said. "She is not as responsive. Her color was not all that great."
Bob Schindler added: "She is still there, but it is taking its impact."
To the more than 80 protesters who gathered outside the hospice, the legal waiting game kindled dismay and outrage.
"The courts have made it illegal to give her water. They no longer know right from wrong," said David Miller, 45, a software developer from Crystal River, Fla. He carried a Bible opened to the Book of Matthew where Jesus says: "I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink."
A woman was arrested for trespassing after she tried to take a bottle of water inside to Schiavo, police Lt. Kevin Riley said.
In a separate argument to the 11th Circuit, Michael Schiavo said Tuesday that reinserting the feeding tube "would be a horrific intrusion" upon his wife's rights. Michael Schiavo's lawyer, George J. Felos, said he would go to the U.S. Supreme Court if the tube was ordered reconnected.
Earlier this week, Congress and President Bush enacted the emergency legislation aimed at keeping the Florida woman alive.
That law entitled the Schindlers to have their daughter's case reviewed in federal court. They have asserted, in more than seven years of legal proceedings, that her due process and religious rights have been trampled on.
Whatever decision the three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit makes, the case almost certainly will wind up before the U.S. Supreme Court — where late-night appeals in life-or-death matters are commonplace.
The clerks to the justices are on duty at odd hours, and can read and study legal pleas. The justices often are called at home and decide based on a quick reading of the briefs.
In the Schiavo case, however, all the justices are likely to take a close look at the claims filed on the woman's behalf.
Schiavo, 41, has been in what doctors have described as a persistent vegetative state since 1990. A potassium imbalance brought on by an eating disorder caused her to have a heart attack, which temporarily cut off oxygen to her brain. Schiavo can breathe on her own, but cannot eat or drink.
Doctors have said that she has a severely damaged cerebral cortex, the brain's center for intelligence, personality and sensation.
In denying the Schindlers' request, Whittemore said that they hadn't demonstrated a "substantial likelihood" of proving their claim in federal court that their daughter's rights had been violated.
The judge, who said in his decision that Schiavo's "life and liberty interests" had been adequately protected by the legal system, added: "This court appreciates the gravity of the consequences of denying injunctive relief." But even in "difficult and time-strained circumstances," Whittemore said, he had no choice but to follow the law.
The Bush administration "would have preferred a different ruling," White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan said Tuesday in Albuquerque, N.M., where the president was visiting a senior center.
"We hope that they would be able to have relief through the appeals process," McClellan said.
In his 27-page appellate brief, Gibbs, the Schindlers' lawyer, said that if the Atlanta judges did not rule in the their favor soon, Schiavo may die and "the appeal will become moot."
But an affidavit attached to Michael Schiavo's appeal from a Florida internist maintained that Terri Schiavo would suffer no permanent harm for six days after the feeding tube was removed. The device was removed for six days in 2003 before a Florida law, later struck down as unconstitutional, allowed Gov. Jeb Bush — the president's brother — to order it reinserted.
In Tallahassee, the campaign to keep Schiavo alive used Wild West-style "wanted" posters to target nine GOP state senators who had opposed legislation to make it illegal to cut off food and water to people diagnosed as being in persistent vegetative states who had not made their wishes clear.
Bob Kuntz, who runs a Christian youth outreach program in the Tampa area, said Schindler supporters were flooding the senators' offices with phone calls and e-mails.
But Republican state Sen. Daniel Webster, who has led the legislative efforts to keep Schiavo alive, said he hadn't been able to persuade any of his colleagues to change their votes.
State Sen. Jim King of Jacksonville was one of the Republicans who was standing firm in opposition. "We think that Terri will be happier in the heaven that we know exists," King said.
On Tuesday, Msgr. Thaddeus F. Malanowski, a retired Roman Catholic priest who has been serving as the Schindlers' chaplain, visited Schiavo.
"We prayed all the saints in heaven for Terri. And there are a lot of them," he said.
"Her body is warm. It looks like she is trying to smile. Her eyes are wide open, wide awake," Malanowski said.
Dahlburg reported from Pinellas Park and Barry from Atlanta. Times staff writers Josh Getlin in Pinellas Park and David G. Savage in Washington contributed to this report.
Copyright 2005 Los Angeles Times |
