US: "Terri is weakening. Something has to be done, and it has to be done quick. She is down to her last hours."
Terri Schiavo's father, Bob Schindler, was clearly in distress as he made this plea after a 15-minute visit to his daughter's hospice in Pinellas Park yesterday morning.
He and his wife Mary have practically given up hope now of keeping Terri Schiavo alive but nevertheless they made one last legal appeal yesterday. Their lawyers asked a federal appeals court to order that a feeding tube be re-attached to their brain-damaged daughter.
Schiavo is today on her eighth day without food or water since the feeding tube was removed by order of state judge George Greer, and it is unlikely that nourishment could be successfully restored at this stage.
A Good Friday vigil was held at the hospice just outside Tampa, and also at the office of Florida Governor Jeb Bush in Tallahassee. Former presidential candidate Alan Keyes, a leader of the anti-abortion movement, arrived in Tallahassee yesterday, insisting that Governor Bush had the power to to take Terri Schiavo into protective custody.
"He not only has the right to follow his conscience in this matter, he has the constitutional duty to do so," Mr Keyes said, according to the Tallahassee Capitol News Service.
Even if that meant a tug-of-war between officials and police in Terri Schiavo's hospice room, "so be it". A spokesman for Mr Bush reiterated yesterday that the governor did not have the executive power to take custody of Ms Schiavo. The latest moves by the Schindlers came after District Judge James Whittemore, for a second time in four days, refused to reopen the case, prompting them to appeal to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta.
Yesterday Judge Whittemore turned down four points raised by lawyers for the Schindlers. In the first they claimed that Terri's husband, Michael Schiavo, violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by refusing to provide her rehabilitation, but the judge ruled that applied to "public entities" and not individuals.
On the second he ruled that the hospice was not discriminating against Terri Schiavo in refusing to reconnect the feeding tube, as it was complying with a court order. Thirdly, the judge rejected their claims that there was no convincing evidence that she wished to die - several friends and relatives testified that Ms Schiavo told them before her illness she would not want to live with artificial support.
Finally, the judge dismissed a contention that it was "cruel and unusual punishment" forbidden by the US constitution to withhold food and water, as this section only applied to the punishment of criminals.
Yesterday the Schindlers' lawyers said that Terri Schiavo was showing signs of dehydration and could slip away quite soon. Attempts by Governor Bush to have the medical evidence challenged were also rejected by Judge Greer yesterday.
On Wednesday Governor Bush said that Dr William Cheshire, a neurologist at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, had concluded, mainly by watching videos supplied by the parents, that Ms Schiavo could be in a state of minimal consciousness.