US Supreme Court refuses to intevene to save Schiavo

The politically and religiously charged fight to save Terri Schiavo's life appeared all but over after the US Supreme Court refused to become involved in her case and a Florida judge rejected a petition by the Governor, Jeb Bush, ruling the state had no legal grounds to place the brain-damaged woman in its custody.

Outside the hospice in Las Pinellas, near Tampa where Ms Schiavo was disconnected from her feeding tube a week ago, a score of supporters kept up a sombre, increasingly despairing vigil yesterday. Some held placards denouncing "State-Sponsored Murder."

Both the Florida Governor and President George Bush - who earlier in the week signed an emergency bill from Congress in an attempt to keep Ms Schiavo alive - indicated their "sadness" and disappointment at the Supreme Court ruling. The White House said, however, that the Bush brothers had not "co-ordinated" their handling of the case.

The lawyer for Michael Schiavo last night was confident that his long campaign for his wife to be allowed to die in dignity was all but won. "We believe this effectively ends the litigation in this case," George Felos, the attorney, said after the Supreme Court decision was announced. "The only way she will leave the hospice is if she is kidnapped."

If the feeding device is not reinstated, doctors say Ms Schiavo, who has been in what is officially termed a "persistent vegetative state" since 1990, is likely to die within little more than a week.

"Michael is constantly there with his wife," Mr Felos said. "Terri is peaceful, is resting comfortably in her death process, being attended to by a team of wonderful compassionate healthcare workers." Spokesmen for her parents, Mary and Bob Schindler - who have campaigned to save their daughter - say she is sinking fast, her skin parched and her eyes sunken.

Neither of yesterday's two legal decisions was a surprise. The Supreme Court had several times previously declined to take up the case, while George Greer, the Florida judge who has long handled the case, was always considered unlikely to reverse his previous rulings.

Governor Bush had based his petition on a new opinion by a neurologist, that Ms Schiavo was in a condition of "minimum consciousness", suggesting that she was aware at some level of what was happening to her, and alleging neglect by those looking after her.

But the credentials of the neurologist, William Cheshire, have been challenged. He has conducted only an observation, not a full examination, of Ms Schiavo. Supporters of her "right to die" also point out that he is a bioethicist and an active member in Christian organisations, including two whose leaders have spoken out against the removal of the feeding tube.

As the Schiavo case has reached its climax over the past seven days, it has shown how the US judiciary tends to close ranks against political attempts to influence the system.

The federal courts, culminating in the Supreme Court yesterday, have upheld the earlier judgments of local and state courts in Florida. Their rulings have even indirectly chided Congress in Washington for entering the case.

The only hope for the Schindlers now rests on some form of executive action by Governor Bush, but this would be in defiance of earlier court rulings, experts said, and thus would thus set up precisely the sort of conflict between the executive and judicial branches that the US constitution seeks to avoid.

The bitter legal battle unleashed by the tragic case of Terri Schiavo has, however, had at least one positive consequence, by reminding Americans of the value of a "living will", whereby a person makes clear that he or she does not want to be kept alive artificially when all realistic hope of recovery is gone.

Ms Schiavo had not prepared such a document. Had she done so, the entire controversy would not have arisen. Many law firms and specialist agencies report a ten-fold jump in living will requests since the case has taken over the front pages here in the past few days.