Appeal court to consider fresh plea in Schiavo case

Published on Thursday 31 March 2005 02:00

TERRI Schiavo’s family was offered a faint glimmer of hope in their frantic campaign to keep her from death yesterday, after judges allowed them to file a fresh appeal.

Branding her survival after 12 full days without food or water a "miracle", Ms Schiavo’s family rushed new legal papers into a federal court demanding a review of the evidence relating to her husband’s claim that it was her wish to die.

The disabled woman is weak and clinging to life at a hospice in Pinellas Park, Florida, having been deprived of nutrition since the removal of her feeding tube on 18 March.

In court papers filed for Ms Schiavo’s parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, lawyer David Gibbs urged judges at the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to order the reinsertion of the feeding tube immediately "in light of the magnitude of what is at stake".

Matt Davidson, a spokesman for the Atlanta court, said the court had agreed to consider the Schindlers’ request for a rehearing by all 12 judges.

The judges did not indicate when they might decide to rehear the case, he said.

Ms Schiavo, 41, suffered brain damage during a heart attack in 1990 and was diagnosed as being in a persistent vegetative state, although she did not require life-support.

Her parents assert that she is "awake and aware" and that her condition could improve if she is allowed therapy.

Michael Schiavo, her husband and legal guardian, claims his wife once told him that she would not want to be kept alive in such a way and has fought a 12-year battle with the Schindlers to remove her feeding tube.

Yesterday’s court appeal claimed Mr Schiavo had not produced "clear and convincing evidence" of his wife’s wishes.

"The life of Terri Schiavo cannot be ordained to be taken on the kind of oral testimony provided," the legal papers stated.

The case has created a major political, legal and ethical controversy and seen hundreds of Christian conservatives and pro-life activists stage protests at the hospice gates, with the Schindlers in a building opposite, with their lawyers, advisers and family. In a moving plea late on Tuesday, Mrs Schindler issued a new appeal to her son-in-law, who for the past ten years has lived with another woman, Jodi Centonze. The pair have two children.

"Michael and Jodi, you have your children. Please, please, give my child back to me," she urged, appearing ashen-faced and frail.

A total of 48 protesters have been arrested over the past week while trying to pass police at the hospice gates, carrying symbolic cups of water.

One man was felled with a stun-gun after rushing up the driveway, and sniffer dogs were brought in on Tuesday afternoon following receipt of a bomb threat.

In Philadelphia, Mr Schiavo’s sister-in-law, Joan Schiavo, told police that a man had stalked her home and told her: "If Terri dies, I’m coming back to shoot you and your family."