Despair Sets In As Time Runs Out

Schiavo's Parents Almost Out of Options

Mar 24, 8:37 PM (ET)

By JILL BARTON

PINELLAS PARK, Fla. (AP) - With Terri Schiavo visibly drawing closer to death Thursday, her parents refused to give up the fight to reinsert their brain-damaged daughter's feeding tube, despite being rebuffed by both the nation's highest court and a Florida judge.

Bob and Mary Schindler held onto the slim hope that Gov. Jeb Bush would somehow find a way to intervene or a federal judge who had turned them down before would see things their way. But Bush warned that he was running out of options.

As of Thursday afternoon, Schiavo, 41, had been without food or water for six full days and was showing signs of dehydration - flaky skin, dry tongue and lips, sunken eyes, according to attorneys and friends of the Schindlers. Doctors have said she would probably die within a week or two of the tube being pulled.

"It's very frustrating. Every minute that goes by is a minute that Terri is being starved and dehydrated to death," said her brother, Bobby Schindler, who said seeing her was like looking at "pictures of prisoners in concentration camps."

A lawyer for Schiavo's husband, Michael Schiavo, said he hoped the woman's parents and the governor would finally give up their fight.

"We believe it's time for that to stop as we approach this Easter weekend and that Mrs. Schiavo be able to die in peace," attorney George Felos said.

The Schindlers and their lawyers appeared before a federal judge in Tampa on Thursday evening to make another emergency request that the feeding tube be reattached while the parents pursue their claims that Schiavo's religious and due-process rights were violated. U.S. District Judge James Whittemore previously rejected a similar request.

As the hearing began, Whittemore asked Shindler lawyer David Gibbs III to focus on the legal issues because he was aware of Terri Schiavo's declining health. Gibbs argued that, as she lay dying, her rights to life and privacy were being violated.
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The comment by Felos is an insult to any Christian.

"We believe it's time for that to stop as we approach this Easter weekend and that Mrs. Schiavo be able to die in peace."

To invoke the resurrection of Christ in his diabolical crusade to kill Terri is beyond the pale.