PINELLAS PARK, Florida - A federal appeals court turned down early Wednesday an emergency request by the parents of a severely brain-damaged woman in Florida to have her feeding tube reinserted.
The judges of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, Georgia, voted 2-1 to deny the appeal filed by Bob and Mary Schindler, parents of 41-year-old Terri Schiavo.
Schiavo has now been five days without hydration since her feeding tube was disconnected Friday. Doctors estimate her time of survival in such circumstances at two weeks. She has been in a persistent vegetative state for 15 years since heart failure caused severe brain damage.
Her husband, Michael Schiavo, has said she should be allowed to die, and that was her wish, expressed in the past to him and others of his relatives. But her parents have for seven years fought efforts to remove her from life support, insisting she can get better.
Doctors have told several court hearings that Schiavo has virtually no chance of recovery.
The majority opinion of the Atlanta court said the plantiffs had "failed to demonstrate a substantial case on the merits of any of their claims." It concluded that an earlier Florida court's decision against ordering the feeding tube reattached while judicial proceedings continued did not violate Shiavo's rights.
The dissenting judge said denying the Schindlers' appeal "frustrates Congress' intent" to maintain Schiavo alive until federal courts can reconsider the case.
The US Congress passed an extraordinary bill over the weekend changing the jurisdiction of the case from state to federal courts, which President George W. Bush signed into law early Monday. The law allowed Schiavo's case to go before a federal judge.
Schiavo's parents filed the appeal in Atlanta on Tuesday after federal district court judge James Whittemore ruled that Florida courts had not violated their daughter's rights by ordering her feeding tube to be disconnected.
It was unclear what legal recourse was left to Schiavo's parents after Wednesday's ruling -- the US Supreme Court recently refused to take up the case, but late Tuesday they appealed once again to the Florida Senate to save their daughter.
"We only need one vote in the Senate to save my daughter, please, senators, I'm begging you, please don't let my daughter die," Mary Schindler said, in tears, outside the Pinellas Park hospice where her daughter's feeding tube was removed last Friday.
Scores of protesters have gathered at the hospice to strategize on ways to get the state legislature to intervene in the case.
In addition, the Schindlers and their supporters have also put pressure on Florida Governor Jeb Bush, younger brother of President George W. Busn, to intervene in the case.
"We'll make one more passionate effort with Jeb Bush ... to consider all executive options available to him," said Rev. Patrick Mahoney, of Christian Defense Coalition. The governor in the past was instrumental in getting the state legislature involved in the case.
Last week, a total of nine majority Republican senators in Florida's Senate, opposed a law aimed to intervene in the case, and on Monday at least six reiterated their opposition.
"We still have a little bit of work to do in the Florida Senate to convince a majority," Governor Bush said Monday.
US Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, one of the key proponents of the law that gave Schiavo another chance in the judicial process, wrote to Governor Bush thanking him for his "courageous stand on behalf of Terri Schiavo."
Michael Schiavo has expressed outrage at Congress' interference in the case.
If her parents win the case, Schiavo will be rushed from her hospice home to a hospital for rehydration and surgery to reconnect the tube.
Throughout the dispute, political leaders have brushed aside concerns of overstepping their constitutional limits and government intrusion into family affairs with the passage of the bill.
A CNN/USA Toda/Gallup poll found that Americans supporting the decision to stop feeding Schiavo outnumbered those opposed by 56 to 31 percent. A nationwide poll conducted for ABC News found that 70 percent of Americans considered Congress' intervention in the case "inappropriate."
For a group of supporters of Schiavo's parents keeping vigil outside the hospice here, the latest ruling by the Atlanta court of appeals came as a blow.
"We're losing hope," said 42-year-old Terri Butts. "Our justice system is not working. People on death row have more rights."
"It's a sad day for this country," said 63-year-old Steve Shay. "I know things were going to get worse. I don't think (Schiavo's) got much more chance.
03/23/2005 09:39 GMT