PINELLAS PARK, Florida - Police on Wednesday handcuffed and led away three children and seven adults who tried to take water into the hospice where brain-damaged Terri Schiavo is being cared for.
With mounting international attention on the Schiavo right-to-die battle, activists gathered outside the hospice after a federal appeals court became the latest to turn down attempts by Schiavo's parents to get a feeding tube lifeline reinstalled.
The tube was taken out last Friday. The 41-year-old woman has been in what doctors call a persistent vegetative state for 15 years. Her husband says she did not want to be kept alive artificially and should be allowed to die. Her parents say Schiavo's condition could improve with treatment.
The demonstrators, who were carrying cups of water, refused to move off the property of the Woodside hospice in Pinellas Park, Florida, and were led away one-by-one by police, handcuffed and put in a police van.
Some read messages for Schiavo before being handcuffed. Others knelt on the ground.
One 14-year-old girl and two brothers aged 12 and 10 were among the 10 people taken away by police.
"I am proud of them," said the boys' mother Geilen Keys from Texas. "They are very mature and they said 'we want to go and offer some water to Terri'."
Another woman was arrested for staging a similar protest on Tuesday.
03/23/2005 18:38 GMT