Parents Take Schiavo Case to High Court

Terri Schiavo’s parents went to the U.S. Supreme Court late Wednesday in a desperate attempt to keep their daughter alive, after a day in which a federal court in Atlanta turned away their appeals and Florida lawmakers decided not to intervene.

One other legal avenue was made available, when Gov. Jeb. Bush petitioned to have Schiavo placed in state custody.

Bob and Mary Schindler said that their severely brain-damaged daughter, whose feeding tube was removed by court order Friday, was fading.

“She has to start getting hydration; if she doesn’t, she’s not going to be with us much longer,” Bob Schindler said. The Schindlers’ lawyer, David C. Gibbs III, said they were watching her “skin crack, her nose bleed.” He said Schiavo was having “pangs of hunger and thirst.”

In their high court brief, the Schindlers said that Schiavo’s constitutional rights to due process and religious freedom had been violated. They also contended that the extraordinary law allowing federal courts to review the matter -- passed by Congress and signed by President Bush earlier this week -- indicated that lawmakers had intended for the tube to be reconnected while the issue was being reexamined.

The emergency appeal was filed with Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, who oversees the Southeast region; he almost surely will send it to the full court.

The case is certain to get attention from the justices, if for no other reason than the unusual congressional action. Most legal experts assume the high court, like two lower courts, will decide that Schiavo has had the full due process of law required by the Constitution.

But the justices could decide that because Congress called for a new review, they should order the reattachment of Schiavo’s feeding tube while they consider the handling of her case.

In Pinellas Park, dozens of protesters maintained a vigil outside Woodside Hospice, where the 41-year-old Schiavo was being cared for. Authorities arrested 10 people -- including three children -- who allegedly tried to enter the facility in a symbolic attempt to bring her cups of water.

“It’s the least I can do. I have experience with starving and dehydration, as I was in a prison camp in 1945,” said Eva Edl, 69, of Aiken, S.C. Edl said she was separated from her parents at the end of World War II and interned in Yugoslavia. “I’m alive today because someone brought me food and water and I was later able to escape.”

For seven years, Schiavo’s parents have waged a court battle against her husband, Michael, who says Terri did not want to be kept alive through artificial means.

In 1990, a potassium imbalance brought on by an eating disorder caused Terri Schiavo to have a heart attack, which temporarily cut off oxygen to her brain. She has been in what doctors say is a persistent vegetative state ever since. Schiavo can breathe on her own, but cannot eat or drink.

A feverish day of activity began early Wednesday, when a three-judge panel of the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta rejected a request from the Schindlers to order the tube reinserted.

Gibbs then requested that the full 12-judge panel rehear the parents’ petition. Within three hours, the court voted 10 to 2 against revisiting the case.

And at an often emotional afternoon session of the Republican-controlled Florida Senate in Tallahassee, lawmakers for the second time in a week refused to pass an emergency measure designed to keep Schiavo alive. The bill was defeated 21 to 18.

The legislation, sponsored by Republican Daniel Webster, would have made it illegal for Florida caregivers to withhold food and water from patients who had been diagnosed as being in a persistent vegetative state and had left no written care instructions. The Florida House passed a similar bill last week.

Noting that some physicians had disputed Schiavo’s diagnosis, Webster pleaded with his colleagues to give her a chance. “All I ask you to do, if we don’t know, is to err on the side of life,” Webster said. “Have mercy on Theresa Marie Schiavo.”

But Democratic Sen. Larcenia J. Bullard was unswayed. “Let Terri Schiavo die with dignity,” Bullard said.

In 2003, the Florida Legislature passed a law designed to save Schiavo, but the state Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional.

While the senators were debating, Gov. Bush announced that the state was attempting to gain custody of Schiavo in order to investigate allegations that she had been neglected and exploited. He said that Dr. William P. Cheshire, a Florida neurologist, had filed a supporting affidavit arguing that Schiavo might be more correctly diagnosed as “minimally conscious” and thereby legally entitled to life support.

“I’m doing everything in my power to make sure that Terri is afforded at least the same rights that criminals convicted of the most heinous crimes take for granted,” Bush said.

Raquel Rodriguez, general counsel in the governor’s office, said that under a Florida law designed to provide emergency protective services for vulnerable adults, the Department of Children and Families could take Schiavo into protective custody.

At an afternoon hearing in Clearwater, state Circuit Judge George W. Greer issued an emergency order at Michael Schiavo’s request, barring the department or anyone acting in concert with it from taking custody of Schiavo or restoring her food and water. In 2000, Greer signed the original order authorizing the removal of the tube.

He is due to issue a decision on Gov. Bush’s petition today.

George J. Felos, Michael Schiavo’s attorney, said Wednesday that reinserting the feeding tube would be “an assault, a battery, a trespass” against her.

Police guarding the hospice confirmed that they remained under orders to prevent her removal without a court order.

“She has a guardian, and that’s Michael Schiavo,” said Lt. Kevin Riley. “And unless we hear otherwise from a judge, she stays here.”

Still, Bob Schindler was buoyed by Gov. Bush’s position that the state had legal grounds to take custody of his child.

“[Gov. Bush] confirmed what we have been saying for God knows how many years: that Terri is not in a persistent vegetative state,” Schindler said as he shuttled between his daughter’s bedside and a thrift shop across the street that the family has been using as a retreat.

The space the hospice provides for relatives was being used by Michael Schiavo. He and his in-laws have avoided each other since their once-close relationship deteriorated.

President Bush -- during an appearance at Baylor University in Waco, Texas -- said Wednesday that he had not discussed with his brother, the governor, what further steps might be taken to keep Schiavo alive.

“This is an extraordinary and sad case,” President Bush said. “And I believe that in a case such as this, the legislative branch, the executive branch, ought to err on the side of life, which we have. And now we’ll watch the courts.”

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Williams reported from Pinellas Park and Dahlburg from Tallahassee. Times staff writers Ellen Barry in Atlanta and David G. Savage in Washington contributed to this report.