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Schiavo's parents urge Gov. Bush to take action

Appeal to Gov. Bush

PINELLAS PARK, Fla. -- As Terri Schiavo entered her ninth day without food or water, her parents lost another court battle Saturday and abandoned their quest for a federal court review.

Saturday night, through a spokesman, Bob and Mary Schindler asked Gov. Jeb Bush to take Schiavo into protective custody in a last-ditch effort to save her life.

"Gov. Bush, you do have the authority to stop the killing of Terri Schiavo," said Brother Paul O'Donnell, a Schindler family spokesman. "... We beg you to have courage and take action."

O'Donnell said at about 9 p.m. EST that Terri "is really showing signs of starvation and dehydration. ... Tonight, we begin the holy celebration of Easter. The family would request that everyone go home. Be with your children. Hold them close. And cherish every moment you have with them.

"Tomorrow, as we celebrate Easter, they pray that you gather in the churches of your own denominations and if you would, offer a prayer for their daughter Terri."

He said the family would give no more interviews.

Earlier in the day, after a visit with his daughter, Bob Schindler said she was "fighting like hell to stay alive," and that he wanted "the powers that be to know that. It's not too late to save her."

"She's not throwing in the towel," he said. "She doesn't want to die."

Schiavo has been in what doctors have termed a "persistent vegetative state" since collapsing in 1990.

Michael Schiavo has said his wife would not want to be kept alive artificially, and has fought the Schindlers' efforts to have a feeding tube re-inserted. George Felos, Michael Schiavo's attorney, contended Saturday that "any fair observer of this situation would say the legal struggle is over here," and that "any further legal action is going to be futile."

He also said he felt neither Bush nor legislators would step in.

"There's a real perceptible shift in public opinion here. I think the politicians have backed off this case," he said. "I think the politicians here realize they made an erroneous judgment as to what might be in their interests."

He said he could understand the parents' "desperate efforts in this case, but I would hope that at some point before Terri's death they would leave that behind and begin to try to cope with this more on a personal level."

As before, there were conflicting reports about how she looked.

Felos said he had been to see Terri earlier that day, and she was "calm, peaceful, resting comfortably." In fact, he said, she looked "beautiful" and that in the eight years he has been working on the case, he had never seen her have such "a look of peace and beauty."

Terri's brother, Bobby Schindler, however, lashed out later, saying Felos' comments were "the most absurd thing I have ever heard. ... They mischaracterized her condition today, just as they mischaracterized it for five years. It is sick, it is heinous."

He said he was suggesting that his parents not go visit Terri any more.

Felos said it was "obvious that those opposed to carrying out Terri's wishes, lacking a legal case, have tried to stir up emotions and get people angry and to have people believe that something wrong is occurring here. And it's just simply not the case."

On the day before Easter, the families also sparred over whether Terri, a Roman Catholic, could be given communion.

Felos said that the court had ordered that the sacraments could be administered twice. A family friend, Msgr. Thaddeus Malanowski, administered last rites shortly before Terri's feeding tube was taken out on March 18. The priest said he used an eye dropper to put a small amount of wine into the tube.

Felos said the timing of the last communion would be up to Michael Schiavo and Terri's health care providers.

It was a somber day outside the Woodside Hospice, with demonstrators shushing the crowd when the Schindlers appeared and calling after them as they left, "God Bless You."

News photographers have previously jostled each other and surrounded the family as they made their way across the street to the hospice from a small store where they have secluded themselves; Saturday, they formed a more orderly cordon and the Schindlers walked through unimpeded.

By late afternoon, the crowd of demonstrators had swollen to nearly 300 people, all but about three or four in favor of reinserting Terri's feeding tube. More than 100 stood praying and singing "Ave Maria" as Msgr. Malanowski performed mass at an impromptu altar made from a folding table.

A single demonstrator was arrested for trespassing, bringing the total to 31, including six juveniles, the youngest of whom is ten, said Pinellas Park Police Capt. Sanfield Forseth.

He said demonstrators had been alerting the police when they saw potential problems. "They want a peaceful event," Forseth said. "They don't want anyone to mess it up."

When Felos spoke outside his office, four law enforcement officers stood nearby. Security has been tight for those involved in the case; Pinellas Circuit Judge George Greer and Michael Schiavo have received death threats.

Greer's ruling Saturday was another setback for the Schindlers. Greer rejected the family's claim that she tried to say "I want to live" hours before her tube was removed. The family appealed that ruling, but late Saturday the Florida Supreme Court rejected their appeal.

In addition, Bush and the state have two appeals pending in their fight to support the Schindlers; those appeals are before the state's 2nd District Court of Appeal.

Bush has already tried to take Schiavo into protective custody, but was denied by a Pinellas Circuit judge. On Thursday, Bush said his powers "are not as expansive as people would want them to be. ... I cannot go beyond what my powers are and I'm not going to do it."

If medical estimates that Terri Schiavo's death could take place 10 to 14 days after her feeding tube is removed are correct, she could die within days.


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Posted by Editor at March 27, 2005 07:25 AM