Feud Continues After Terri's Death

Parents Complain They Were Kept From Bedside In Final Moments

(CBS/AP) 
A small group of protesters sang hymns and prayed with each other after learning of Terri's death. One woman said, "Words cannot express the rage I feel." She added, "Is my heart broken for this? Yes."

President Bush, who signed an extraordinary bill March 21 that let federal judges review the case, said he joins the millions of Americans saddened by Schiavo's death.

"The essence of civilization is that the strong have a duty to protect the weak," Mr. Bush said in Washington. "In cases where there are serious doubts and questions, the presumption should be in favor of life."

Schiavo suffered severe brain damage in 1990 after her heart stopped because of a chemical imbalance that was believed to have been brought on by an eating disorder. Court-appointed doctors ruled she was in a persistent vegetative state, with no real consciousness or chance of recovery.

The feeding tube was removed with a judge's approval March 18 after Michael Schiavo argued that his wife told him long ago she would not want to be kept alive artificially. His in-laws disputed that, and argued that she could get better with treatment.

During the long legal battle, Florida lawmakers, Congress and President Bush tried to intervene on behalf of Schiavo's parents but state and federal courts at all levels repeatedly ruled in favor of her husband.

Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, whose efforts to have Schiavo's feeding tube reconnected also failed, said in a statement, "Many across our state and around the world are deeply grieved by the way Terri died. I feel that grief very sharply as well."

The Florida State House observed a moment of silence for Schiavo Thursday morning.

In Washington, other figures who were deeply involved in the extraordinary federal intervention in Schiavo's case also weighed in on her passing.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said her death was a "regrettable loss of life" that deeply saddened him. "May God bless her memory," he said.

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, called Schiavo's death a "moral poverty and a legal tragedy."

In Rome, Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, head of the Vatican's office for sainthood, called the removal of the feeding tube "an attack against God."

After the tube that supplied a nutrient solution was disconnected, protesters streamed into Pinellas Park to keep vigil outside her hospice, with many arrested as they tried to bring her food and water.

The Schindlers pleaded for their daughter's life, calling the removal of the tube "judicial homicide."

The parents disputed until the end that their daughter was in a persistent vegetative state, as court-appointed doctors have determined. They maintained that while Schiavo was weak, her organs were functioning and she was responsive.

The case spent seven years winding its way through the courts, with the Schindlers repeatedly on the losing end. The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to intervene for the sixth time. Hours earlier in an 9-2 ruling, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta declined to grant a new hearing in the case — the fourth time since last week that it ruled against the Schindlers.