Court Denies Parents’ Appeal

Terri Schiavo’s parents lost more legal challenges Friday, with her father saying that “the people who are anxious to see her die are getting their wish. It’s happening.”

Bob and Mary Schindler also issued another appeal to Gov. Jeb Bush to get their brain-damaged daughter’s feeding tube reinserted as she entered her eighth day without nutrition.

“With a stroke of his pen, he could stop all of this,” Bob Schindler said late Friday. After visiting his daughter earlier in the day, Schindler said: “Terri is weakening. She’s down to her last hours. So something has to be done and has to be done quick.”

The crowd of increasingly strident and emotional protesters outside the Woodside Hospice where Schiavo, 41, is being cared for swelled to more than 200 on Friday. Employing the symbolism of the Easter weekend, they dragged a 15-foot crucifix and plaster-cast Jesus in a sidewalk procession.

But their hopes for keeping Schiavo alive waned when a three-judge panel of the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta rejected the Schindlers’ petition to have her feeding tube reinserted, saying that it had ruled on most of the issues involved.

It marked the third time in four days that the 11th Circuit had denied such an emergency request. A lawyer for the parents said they planned to appeal again to the full court.

In a late-afternoon filing, the Schindlers asked Pinellas County Circuit Judge George W. Greer to order reinsertion of the feeding tube, based on what they said was new evidence that Schiavo had tried to say “I want to live.”

Lawyer Barbara Weller said that before her sustenance was discontinued, Schiavo was asked about her end-of-life wishes and responded: “Ahhhh,” then “Waaaaa,” and became agitated when she couldn’t continue.

Doctors who have examined Schiavo say that her facial expressions and guttural utterances are involuntary responses, not conscious expressions of pain, pleasure or thought.

Greer, who had ordered the tube removed March 18, said he would rule on the latest appeal by noon today.

George J. Felos -- the lawyer of Schiavo’s husband, Michael -- rejected the Schindlers’ latest claims, telling Greer that Terri had been subjected to unwanted medical treatment and that discontinuing her artificial life support was intended to let her “go in peace.”

“The great tragedy of Mrs. Schiavo’s life is not what lies ahead; it is in what she is trying to leave behind,” the brief read. “Her tragedy was the cessation of her heartbeat 15 years ago, and the persistent vegetative state that has trapped her since.”

In 1990, a potassium imbalance brought on by an eating disorder caused Schiavo to have a heart attack, which cut off oxygen to her brain. She can breathe on her own, but cannot eat or drink.

For seven years, Schiavo’s husband and parents have waged a court battle over her care. Michael Schiavo says that his wife did not want to live through artificial means; the Schindlers maintain that her condition could improve with therapy.

Earlier on Friday, a federal appellate judge reiterated his Tuesday ruling that denying food and water to Schiavo was not a violation of her civil rights. But U.S. 11th Circuit Judge James D. Whittemore took the unusual step of expressing his sympathies for “the difficulties and heartbreak the parties have endured” and praised both sides for maintaining their decorum amid such fevered emotions.

As the day wore on, the mood among protesters shifted from one of opposition to the judicial system to anger at Bush.

About two dozen people stood vigil outside the governor’s mansion in Tallahassee, Fla., singing hymns and demanding that Bush send state security agents to take custody of Schiavo.

Standing outside the hospice and holding a basin of foil balls labeled “30 pieces of silver,” Meta Bruno of Rochester, N.Y., said politicians had betrayed Schiavo and would be punished by the voters if they failed to save her.

“The governor should put Terri’s life or the life of any human being above the law,” Bruno said.

“Laws can be modified or changed, but death is final.”

The Miami Herald reported that on Thursday, a team of state agents had been en route to seize Schiavo and have her feeding tube reinserted -- but the agents stopped short when local police told them police would enforce a judge’s order that she not be moved.

Eight protesters, including three children, were arrested Friday when they trespassed onto the hospice property in symbolic efforts to take water to Schiavo.

“I don’t want her to die,” said 10-year-old Joshua Heldreth of Charlotte, N.C., who came with his father to take part in the vigil.

Elsewhere, a North Carolina man was arrested for allegedly offering over the Internet $250,000 for the murder of Michael Schiavo and $50,000 for an unnamed judge. CNN said the judge targeted was Greer.

And police in Seminole, Fla., arrested a 20-year-old Illinois man who they said had tried to rob a gun store and expressed an intent to “rescue Terri Schiavo.”

Williams reported from Pinellas Park and Barry from Atlanta. Times researcher Lynn Marshall in Seattle contributed to this report.