Terri Schiavo Dies

Terri Schiavo, the severely brain-damaged woman kept alive by a feeding tube for 15 years during an epic legal and medical battle, died Thursday morning, 13 days after the tube was removed.

Schiavo died at 9:05 a.m. at the Pinellas Park hospice where she lay for years while her husband and her parents fought over her fate in the nation's bitterest — and most heavily litigated — right-to-die dispute.

The feud between the parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, and their son-in-law continued even after her death.

Rev. Frank Pavone, a spiritual adviser to the Schindlers, said the couple had been at their 41-year-old daughter's bedside ten to 15 minutes before she died, but were not there at the moment of her death because Michael Schiavo did not want them in the room.

Pavone said, "This is not only a death, with all the sadness that brings, but this is a killing, and for that we not only grieve that Terri has passed but we grieve that our nation has allowed such an atrocity as this and we pray that it will never happen again."

David Gibbs III, a lawyer for the Schindlers, said: "This is indeed a sad day for the nation, for the family. Their faith in God remains strong." He added: "God loves Terri more than they do. She is at peace."

Michael Schiavo's attorney, George Felos, announced the death but had no immediate comment beyond that. Michael Schiavo's whereabouts were not immediately known.

"She's got all of her dignity back. She's now in heaven, she's now with God, and she's walking with grace," Michael Schiavo's brother, Scott Schiavo, said at his Levittown, Pa., home.

Outside the hospice, a small group of protesters could be heard singing hymns and praying with each other after 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.

An autopsy is planned, with both sides hoping it will shed more light on the extent of her brain injuries and whether she was abused by her husband, as the Schindlers have argued. Michael Schiavo will get custody of the body and plans to have her cremated and bury the ashes in the Schiavo family plot in Pennsylvania; his in-laws oppose those plans and another court challenge is expected.

In the meantime, the Schindlers are planning a memorial service for Thursday night.

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.

One of the appeals court judges rebuked the White House and lawmakers Wednesday for acting "in a manner demonstrably at odds with our Founding Fathers' blueprint for the governance of a free people — our Constitution."

"Any further action by our court or the district court would be improper," wrote Judge Stanley F. Birch Jr., appointed by President Bush's father.