Members of Congress scrambled to return to Washington from their Easter recess last night for an extraordinary midnight debate on legislation that could prolong the life of brain-damaged Florida woman, Terri Schiavo.
President George Bush also abandoned plans to stay at his Crawford, Texas ranch this week and flew back to the White House to sign a Republican bill, that if passed would refer the case to a federal court.
A feeding tube that has kept Terri Schiavo (41) alive since she suffered severe brain damage in 1990 was removed on Friday on the orders of a Florida state judge who ruled in favour of husband Michael Schiavo that his wife would not want to live in a vegetative state.
Ms Schiavo's parents mounted an emotional appeal to Congress and President Bush to intervene and keep her alive, and the issue has been taken up by Christian pro-life groups and the Republican majority in the House.
Outside their daughter's hospice in Pinellas Park, Florida, where supporters gathered all weekend to pray, Ms Sciavo's mother Mary Schindler appealed to Congress members opposed to the bill: "Please don't use my daughter's suffering for your own personal agenda."
Doctors said Ms Schiavo, whose heart stopped briefly 15 years ago due to a chemical imbalance, could live for up to two weeks before dying of dehydration.
In 2001 a judge ordered the tube removed and she went without food and water for two days before a different judge ordered the feeding to resume.
When the tube was removed again in October 2003, Florida Governor Jeb Bush pushed through "Terri's Law," and it was reinserted after six days, but the Florida Supreme Court ruled in September 2004 that Governor Bush had acted unconstitutionally.
In Washington yesterday House Republicans failed during a brief, sparsely-attended session to pass an emergency bill referring the case to a federal court, after Democrats refused to agree to a voice vote.
House members who had gone home for Easter were hastily called back to make up a quorum of 218 of 435 legislators for a session scheduled for one minute past midnight today.
Explaining the president's rush back to the capital, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Ms Schiavo's feeding tube was removed, "so time was important at this point: hours do matter".
Democrat Robert Wexler said Republicans were now intent on stripping the Florida court of its jurisdiction "so that maybe there can be another outcome".
Mr Schiavo said he was "outraged that this government is trampling all over a personal family matter."