Schiavo In-Law Gets Death Threat

Terri Schiavo entered her 11th day without food and water Monday, as her parents and her husband's lawyer offered conflicting accounts of her condition in the Florida hospice where the severely brain-damaged woman is dying, in accordance with what her husband says would be her wishes.

In Philadelphia - hometown to both Terri and her husband, Michael - police are investigating an incident in which they say a man approached a Schiavo in-law on her way to work and threatened her life and the lives of other relatives.

Police Sgt. Andy Smith says a man walked up to Joan Schiavo, wife of Michael Schiavo's brother William, and "called Mrs. Schiavo a murderer. And she responded very nicely to him that, 'You don't even know the family.' And that's when he said, 'Well, if Terri dies, I'm going to come back and shoot you and your family.'"

Police say they are taking the threat very seriously

So far no one has been arrested.

Protesters on both sides are continuing to demonstrate, at the Pinellas Park, Fla., hospice where Schiavo has lived for the past few years, as well as outside Michael Schiavo's home, in front of the White House, and many other places around the nation.

Some of the faces outside the hospice are famous - the anti-abortion activist Randall Terry, who has demonstrated on behalf of Schiavo's parents and has been in touch with them - and the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who will be visiting the hospice Tuesday for the first time.

Eight protesters who tried to bring water into the hospice for Schiavo were arrested Monday for trespassing. A total of 46 people have been arrested there since the day Schiavo's feeding tube was removed.

Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, have many times asked President Bush, Congress and the president's brother, Gov. Jeb Bush, to again intervene in the case - although past interventions have not worked.

Bob Schindler said he recognizes that his 41-year-old daughter is dying but insists it is not too late to save her and that she is "fighting like hell to live and she's begging for help. ... She has just incredible strength to live."

"She's still communicating, she's still responding. She's emaciated, but she's responsive," Bob Schindler told reporters Monday after a bedside visit, saying Terri showed facial expressions when he hugged and kissed her. "Don't give up on her. We haven't given up on her and she hasn't given up on us."

George Felos, attorney for husband Michael Schiavo, was also at the hospice Monday and says Terri looked "very peaceful. She looked calm." He said the room was decorated with flowers, had music playing, and Schiavo had a stuffed tabby cat under one arm.

"I saw no evidence of any bodily discomfort whatsoever," said Felos, adding that her breathing seemed "a little on the rapid side," her eyes are sunken and she has not urinated since Sunday night.

Since Terri became ill 15 years ago, her parents and husband have agreed on very little and even now have been fighting over the funeral arrangements - Michael's plan to have her cremated and buried in the Schiavo family plot.

The Schindlers oppose that but have no legal power to prevent it.

The families do agree on one thing: the need for an autopsy, which Michael wants as proof of the extent of her brain damage, and the Schindlers hope will yield clues to "unanswered questions" about the nature and extent of her illness.

President Bush's aides have said they ran out of legal options to help the woman. Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said Monday that while it "made sense" to have federal courts review the case, he had to respect their decisions last week not to order the tube reinserted.

"I have not seen any means by which the executive branch can get involved. My legal counsel has talked to the Schindler family and their lawyer over the weekend," said Gov. Bush. "My heart is broken about this."

At least two more state-filed appeals seeking the feeding tube's reconnection are pending, but those challenges are before the state 2nd District Court of Appeal, which has rejected Gov. Jeb Bush's previous efforts in the case.

Schindler said he feared the consequences of morphine that has been used to relieve his daughter's pain.

"I have a great concern that they will expedite the process to kill her with an overdose of morphine because that's the procedure that happens," he said.

Felos disputed that, saying that according to hospice records Schiavo had been given two low suppository doses of morphine - one on March 19 and one on March 26 - and that she is not on a morphine drip. The records show that the second dose was given after nurses noticed "light moaning and facial grimacing and tensing of arms," he said.

Hospice spokesman Mike Bell said federal rules kept him from discussing Schiavo specifically, but said "a fundamental part of hospice is that we would do nothing to either hasten or postpone natural death."