US: The distressing video of brain-damaged woman Terri Schiavo continued to dominate America's cable TV news programmes yesterday as the struggle by her parents to keep her alive moved through the courts system.
The condition of Mrs Schiavo, whose feeding tube was removed on Friday after 15 years, is now seen to be deteriorating rapidly and the restoration of nutrition looks increasingly unlikely.
The issue has become deeply partisan, with Republicans claiming to champion her right to life and Democrats accusing Republicans of hypocrisy.
It dominates talk radio, where conservative Rush Limbaugh told his listeners that liberals "want this woman dead" and said she was being treated "worse than prisoners in the war on terror".
Liberal commentator Al Franken told Radio America that Senate majority leader Bill Frist, a surgeon, was "willing as a medical doctor to spread misinformation for political purposes". Senator Frist had said, after watching a video of Terri Schiavo in hospital, that she was "responsive", contradicting doctors who had diagnosed her as being in a "permanent vegetative state".
In Florida yesterday, federal judge James Whittimore refused to order the reinsertion of Terri Schiavo's feeding tube. The case had been referred to the federal court under a law passed by Congress and signed by President George Bush under intense pressure from conservative Christian groups across the US.
The law allowed the 41-year-old woman's parents to request a federal court to order the reinsertion of the feeding tube, which was removed under state law.
After Judge Whittimore ruled that they had not established a "substantial likelihood of success" at trial, the parents' lawyer filed a notice of appeal to the 11th US Court of Appeals in Atlanta, Georgia.
Three judges of the appeals court were last night considering whether Florida law was violated, using e-mail, fax and telephone rather than hearing arguments in court.
The woman's husband, Michael Schiavo, told the appeals court that her rights would be violated if the judges ordered the feeding tube to be reconnected.
"That would be a horrific intrusion upon Mrs Schiavo's personal liberty, and the status quo should therefore be maintained until this court issues its final ruling," he stated.
The Bush administration "would have preferred a different ruling", White House press secretary Scott McClellan told reporters after hearing the ruling of the federal court.
Meanwhile, Christian evangelicals say that the controversy has galvanised the anti-abortion movement.
"The right-to-life issue has been with us for over 30 years but never has it dominated the news headlines day after day as it is doing now," said Louis Sheldon, chairman of the Traditional Values Coalition.
Tony Perkins, president of the conservative Christian Family Research Council, said that the controversy was based in the "pro-life momentum generated in this country over the past 10 years".
However, opinion polls show that a majority of Americans support Mrs Schiavo's husband. According to a CNN-USA Today-Gallup poll, about six in 10 people believe that the feeding tube should not be reconnected. An ABC News poll found that 63 per cent favoured keeping Mrs Schiavo's feeding tube out.