PINELLAS PARK, Florida - A Florida court refused to hear arguments Thursday that would have allowed state authorities to take custody of Terri Schiavo, spurning a last-ditch bid by relatives and right-to-life advocates to reinsert the severely brain damaged woman's feeding tube.
Judge George Greer of Florida's sixth circuit court turned down efforts spearheaded by Florida Governor Jeb Bush to remove Schiavo from the care of her husband Michael, and make her a ward of the state.
Greer ruled that the petition filed by Florida's Department of Children and Families (DCF) "does not furnish a basis for relief" in the case, and that custody is to remain with Schiavo's husband Michael.
The ruling comes just hours after the US Supreme Court refused to order the reinsertion of Schiavo's feeding tube.
Over the past two days Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, also suffered setbacks in an Atlanta, Georgia federal appeals court, and in the Florida legislature.
The refusal by the Florida court to hear the case may finally exhaust legal avenues available to Schiavo's relatives, who insist that the 41-year-old woman, who has been in a persistent vegetative state for the past 15 years, has a chance of at least a partial recovery if given the proper therapy.
The Schindlers accuse their son-in-law of having denied their daughter adequate rehabilitative medical treatment over the years.
The Florida court decision is the latest turn in the case that has galvanized pro-life forces in the United State, and become a rallying cry for conservatives, despite polls that show Americans, by a two-to-one margin, generally agree with the decision to remove the feeding tube.
Michael Schiavo, Terri's legal guardian, said his wife's wish was to be allowed to die if she ever became severely incapacitated, but her parents for seven years have fought all efforts to remove her from life support.
US politicians, from the US Congress to the Florida governor and his brother, US President George W. Bush, have joined the parents' fight, making several high-profile interventions first in a bid to keep Schiavo on her feeding tube, which was removed last week, and then to attempt to force it to be reinserted.
Terri Schiavo 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 20:29 GMT