Supreme Court rejects latest Schiavo appeal

The Schindlers had asked the 11^th Circuit and the Supreme Court to order the reinsertion of their daughter’s feeding tube so a federal district court can review the case from its beginning, including whether there was enough “clear and convincing” evidence that she would have chosen to die in her current condition.

The parents asked that the feeding tube be reinserted immediately “in light of the magnitude of what is at stake and the urgency of the action required.”

The Schindlers’ motion included arguments that the 11^th Circuit in its earlier rulings did not consider whether there was enough evidence that Terri Schiavo would have chosen to die.

To be granted, the parents’ request would have needed the support of seven of the appeals court’s 12 judges. The court did not disclose the vote breakdown.

Judges Gerald Tjoflat and Charles R. Wilson, the same two judges who also issued a dissenting opinion last week when the full court considered the case for the first time, said the harried pace of appeals made it impossible to determine if state courts properly considered the evidence.

The two dissenters said Wednesday that “it is fully within Congress’s power to dictate standards of review” for federal courts. “Indeed, if Congress cannot do so, the fate of hundreds of federal statutes would be called into question.”

Federal courts were given jurisdiction to review Schiavo’s case after Republicans in Congress pushed through unprecedented emergency legislation aimed at prolonging her life. But federal courts at three levels have rebuffed her parents, and Birch said the court had no jurisdiction in the case because the law was at odds with the Constitutional principles of separation of powers.

The Schindlers’ Supreme Court appeal went first to Justice Anthony Kennedy, a Reagan appointee who has staked a moderate position on social issues. He referred the Schiavo case to the full nine-member court.

Swift decision
The order from the court was swift. Schiavo’s parents filed their request shortly after 9 p.m. EST, and the court released its order at 10:40 p.m. For the parents’ previous request, last week, it took the justices about 12 hours to reject.

The court’s decision was expected. Not only had justices repeatedly declined to intervene in the Schiavo case on previous occasions, but they routinely defer to state courts on family law issues.

Judges in various Florida courts have sided with Schiavo’s husband since she suffered brain damage in 1990, when her heart stopped for several minutes because of a chemical imbalance apparently brought on by an eating disorder.

Her parents doubt she had any end-of-life wishes and dispute that she is in a persistent vegetative state as court-ordered doctors have determined. They say she laughs, tries to speak and responds to them when they visit the hospice.

Fifty arrests 
Dr. Sean Morrison, a professor of palliative medicine at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, said it is hard to predict what would happen if the tube were to be reinserted because it is highly unusual to do that after life-prolonging treatments have been stopped.

He said that if her kidneys have already shut down, reinserting the tube at this point might prolong her life by just hours or days. However, it could also hasten her death, he said, because it would supply fluids to a body that can no longer get rid of them.

Three protesters were arrested Wednesday, including one who was arrested when he tried to take a plastic cup of water into the hospice. Officers stopped him at the gate as he shouted: “You don’t know God from Godzilla!”

Fifty protesters have been arrested since the tube was removed.

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