WASHINGTON - The US Supreme Court refused Thursday to order the reinsertion of Terri Schiavo`s feeding tube, apparently ending the last legal avenue available to the severely brain-damaged Florida woman, who has been in a persistent vegetative state for the past 15 years.
The decision not to take on the controversial right to die case is the fifth time the Supreme Court has rejected requests that it intervene.
"The application for stay of enforcement of judgement ... is denied," the court wrote in its ruling.
Schiavo`s parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, filed their appeal with the US Supreme Court late Wednesday after exhausting other legal and legislative options.
Similar petitions were rejected Wednesday by an Atlanta, Georgia appeals court and a bid for special legislation protecting patients in a vegetative condition failed in Florida`s senate.
Schiavo, 41, entered her seventh day without nourishment Thursday, after doctors cut off her feeding tube last Friday and experts have said she could die within days.
03/24/2005 16:10 GMT