Schiavo Parents To Appeal Again

As Terri Schiavo drew closer to death Saturday, a state judge rejected another attempt by the brain-damaged woman's parents to reconnect her feeding tube, leaving the couple with little hope they could keep her alive.

Her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, planned to appeal the ruling to the state Supreme Court later Saturday, family spokesman Gary McCollough said. The high court last week refused to intervene for the Schindlers.

Pinellas Circuit Judge George Greer rejected the parents' argument that Schiavo tried to say "I want to live" before her tube was removed March 18. They argued that she said "AHHHHH" and "WAAAAAAA" when asked to repeat the phrase.

Greer said Saturday that "all of the credible medical evidence this court has received over the last five years" suggests Schiavo's behavior is not a product of cognitive awareness. Doctors have said Schiavo's past utterances were involuntary moans consistent with someone in a vegetative state.

When informed of Greer's rejection, Bob Schindler reacted with somber sarcasm: "He did? Great surprise."

David Gibbs III, the Schindlers' lead attorney, said the Schindlers had ended their federal appeals less than a week after Congress passed an extraordinary law to let them take the case to federal court.

"There is nothing that can be brought back to the court federally that will in any way help Terri," Gibbs said.

The Schindlers are still holding out hope for an unlikely intervention by Gov. Jeb Bush, who has said he has done everything in his power to take custody of Schiavo.

The governor still had several legal appeals pending on a state request to let the social services agency take emergency custody of Schiavo, but he had no plans for new action, Bush spokesman Jacob DiPietre said.

The Miami Herald reports that state law enforcement officers were on the way to seize Terri Schiavo on Thursday when local police told them to back off.

For a brief period, local police prepared for what sources described to the Herald as called a showdown.

"We told them that unless they had the judge with them when they came, they were not going to get in," a source within the local police told the Herald.

As of Saturday afternoon, Schiavo had been without food or water for eight full days, and doctors have said she would probably die within a week or two of her feeding tube being pulled.

Her lawyers, however, have said Schiavo — whose dehydrated body has begun to shut down — may not survive the weekend.

"Time is moving quickly, and it would appear most likely — absent the state court stepping forward — that Terri Schiavo will pass the point that she will be able to recover over this Easter weekend," Gibbs said.

The 11th Circuit Court has denied three emergency requests made by Schiavo's parents, most recently on Friday. The U.S. Supreme Court, without explanation, refused to order the feeding tube reinserted.

The motion filed Friday before Greer had been considered a long shot. Greer had repeatedly ruled against the Schindlers. Attorneys for Michael Schiavo, Terri's husband, argued Friday that the Schindlers had abandoned all pretense of the law and were simply making "a pure emotional appeal."

Michael Schiavo says his wife would not want to be kept alive artificially. Attorney George Felos didn't return a phone message seeking comment Saturday.

By Friday, dehydration was taking its toll on the 41-year-old woman. Terri Schiavo's tongue and eyes were bleeding and her skin was flaking off, Schindler attorney Barbara Weller said.

Before learning of Greer's ruling, Bob Schindler said his daughter was showing signs of starvation but was "fighting like hell to stay alive." He again implored the courts and Bush to step in.

"I am asking the powers that be to know that it's not too late to save her. Anybody that has the power to save Terri, it's not too late."

Terri Schiavo suffered brain damage in 1990 when her heart stopped briefly from a chemical imbalance believed to have been brought on by an eating disorder. She left no living will.

She went without food and water in 2003 when the feeding tube was removed for six days and five hours. It was reinserted when Bush and the Legislature pushed through a law that was later thrown out by the state Supreme Court.

Outside the hospice, eight more people — including a 10-year old boy and 13-year-old twin girls — were arrested Friday for trying to bring her water.

"I'm so discouraged, I feel so helpless," said Christine Ambrusko, a student from Atlanta. "I don't know how in our civilized country we can allow a person to be starved to death with so many questions unanswered."

But on Saturday, Bob Schindler asked one of the protest leaders to end any efforts to get people arrested.

"Please tell your people here, do not make any scenes," Schindler told the man.

On Friday, the FBI said a man was arrested in Fairview, N.C., on charges of sending an e-mail threat, allegedly for offering a $250,000 bounty for Michael Schiavo's death and $50,000 for that of a judge in the case. The FBI did not identify the judge.

CBS News Correspondent Mark Strassmann reports some of the faces protesting in Florida have been seen in other conservative causes, like the 10th Commandments protests in Alabama two years ago, when a monument of the commandments was rememoved from an Alabama courthouse. There is a core-group, including Dave Daubenmire from Columbus Ohio, who travel on a

"It's a religious road show because someone has to go stand for the cause of Christ," said Daubenmire. "I could be sitting home on Easter weekend. But I feel the cause is so great at this time and place. This is the Roe vs. Wade of euthanasia."