MIAMI, Sept 23 (AFP) - The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday sided with the husband of a woman, kept alive on a feeding tube for 14 years, who wants her to be allowed to die.
The court ruled that Florida Governor Jeb Bush, the brother of the US president, had acted illegally when he had the life-support tube re-attached to 40-year-old Terri Schiavo.
Schiavo has been hospitalized for 14 years -- since suffering a heart attack -- in what medical experts have called a vegetative state with no hope of recovery.
Her case has attracted national attention as her husband Michael wants the woman to be allowed to die with dignity. And the seven Florida justices unanimously overturned a law which Bush had passed to keep her alive.
The court declared the law "unconstitutional as a violation of separation of powers, as a violation of the right of privacy and as unconstitutional retroactive legislation."
The Republican-dominated Florida state legislature passed "Terri's Law" in October to authorize the governor to overrule a judge's decision, which allowed the removal of the feeding tube used to keep Schiavo alive.
Jeb Bush, who is firmly opposed to euthanasia, has joined with the women's parents, Robert and Mary Schindler, in fighting to keep Schiavo alive.
After "Terri's Law" was passed, the tube was reinserted, six days after it had been removed.
However, the Florida state constitution protects the right of terminally ill patients to die "with dignity."
The Schindlers say Schaivo has given signs of conciousness, and insist that she could recover with proper treatment. Schaivo has been unconscious since 1998.
"The evidence is overwhelming that Theresa is in a permanent or persistent vegetative state," reads the Supreme Court ruling.
"Medicine cannot cure this condition. Unless an act of God, a true miracle, were to recreate her brain, Theresa will always remain in an unconscious, reflexive state."
Schiavo's attorney, Thomas Perrelli, told AFP that Bush could still ask the Florida Supreme Court to rehear the case, or can appeal to the US Supreme Court. But he added that both scenarios seemed unlikely.
Bush's office made no immediate statement on the case.
A Florida judge ruled in May that "Terri's Law" gave the governor "unbridled discretion in making the ultimate decision regarding the life or death of a private Florida citizen without standards, direction, review or due process protection of that citizen's private desires."
Michael Schiavo has been backed by several civil associations and several courts have in the past found in his favor, ruling that Terri's recovery was improbable.
He claims Terri Schiavo told her in conversations she did not want to be kept alive artificially. The Schindlers point to the fact however that the young woman did not leave any written instructions.