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Gov. Bush: I can't help Terri Schiavo

Jeb: I Can't Help

TALLAHASSEE, Florida -- Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said on Sunday there is nothing else he can do to save Terri Schiavo's life.

"I cannot violate a court order," Bush said after attending Easter Sunday church services. "I don't have powers from the United States Constitution or -- for that matter from the Florida Constitution -- that would allow me to intervene after a decision has been made."

To Terri Schiavo's parents -- who have said Bush should do more to help their daughter -- the governor said: "I can't. I'd love to, but I can't."

The governor has been under public pressure from Bob and Mary Schindler, parents of the 41-year-old brain-damaged woman, and many religious groups to intervene further in the case.

On Thursday, a Florida state judge denied a petition by Gov. Bush and the state Department of Children and Families to take Schiavo into state custody.

The Florida Supreme Court dismissed on Saturday -- for the second time in a week -- an emergency petition by the Schindlers to have their daughter's feeding tube reconnected.

"I'm sad that she's in the situation that she's in," Bush said, commenting publicly on the case for the first time since Thursday. "I feel bad for her family. My heart goes out to the Schindlers and, for that matter, to [her husband] Michael [Schiavo]," Bush said. "This has not been an easy thing for any, any member of the family. But most particularly for Terri Schiavo."

The fight has garnered much national attention in recent weeks, including special legislation enacted by Congress and the governor's brother, President Bush.

Outside Terri Schiavo's hospice in Pinellas Park on Sunday, her brother Bobby Schindler asked protesters to stop volunteering to be arrested.

"It's not going to help at all to do anything that's going to lead to arrests," Schindler said. Police "are here to do a job," Bobby Schindler said.

"I don't care if you're here prayerful and peaceful. But if we could keep it prayerful and peaceful."

Security outside the hospice was doubled Sunday from the day before to between eight and 10 police.

Doctors do not expect Terri Schiavo to live beyond next Friday. An attorney for her parents suggested the battle between her husband and her parents was all but over.

"Terri is declining rapidly," Schindler attorney David Gibbs said on CBS' "Face the Nation." "We believe at this point she has passed where physically she would be able to recover."

Anti-abortion activist Randall Terry, who is acting as a spokesman for Schiavo's parents, said Gibbs' description of Terri Schiavo as past the point of recovery is "absolutely untrue."

Gibbs also said Terri Schiavo is receiving morphine for pain.

In a petition denied Saturday by the Florida court, Schiavo's parents argued that a court order to remove her feeding tube was akin to "mercy killing." They had wanted their daughter to be medically re-evaluated, so that a new judgment could be made about her cognitive skills.

The ruling Saturday night was the third legal blow Schiavo's parents received within 24 hours.

Their motions were also denied earlier in the day by Circuit Court Judge George Greer in Clearwater, Florida, and Friday by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, Georgia.

Her parents have now lost nearly 30 legal opinions in both state and federal courts, which have consistently sided with Michael Schiavo, who also is Terri Schiavo's legal guardian. Michael Schiavo has said that he is simply following his wife's wish not to be kept in a persistent vegetative state.

'She looked beautiful'

Speaking with reporters Saturday, Michael Schiavo's attorney, George Felos, said, "I would hope that the parents' side realize that any further legal action will be futile. We can understand their desperate efforts in this case. But I would hope that at some point, they leave that behind and begin to cope with this on a more personal level."

Felos said that he had visited Terri Schiavo for 20 minutes earlier in the day at her hospice in Pinellas Park.

"Frankly, when I saw her...she looked beautiful. In all the years I've seen Mrs. Schiavo, I've never seen such a look of peace and beauty upon her."

He disagreed with charges made by Schiavo's parents that her lips were bleeding, her skin was peeling and that she appeared in discomfort.

Felos said that "it felt right and appropriate that Mrs. Schiavo not be fed and sustained through an artificial device" and that "she has a right to die with dignity" and "in peace" without the release of video and photographs of her at this time.

Additionally, Felos said that Schiavo received last rites, which includes Communion, the day the tube was removed, and that a court has ordered that she be able to receive the sacrament one more time before she dies.

Felos said no exact time for those rites has been set, but they would be administered by the hospice priest.

He said Schiavo's breathing has been regular and that her death doesn't appear "imminent." He said that Schiavo's remains would be cremated and interred in a family plot in Pennsylvania, where she and her husband grew up.

Felos said Michael Schiavo has been at his wife's bedside around the clock, except when her other family members want to visit.


http://www.cnn.com/20
05/LAW/03/27/schiavo/

Posted by Editor at March 28, 2005 06:16 AM