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Time Running Out in Schiavo Case

HeadlineMar 25, 2005

Now to the Terri Schiavo case. As she begins her seventh day without food or water, her parents are running out of legal options. A U.S. District Court judge is now deliberating the parents’ latest plea. The same federal judge earlier this week refused to order Schiavo’s feeding tube reinserted. A four-hour hearing before the judge ended late Thursday, with no ruling announced. Anti-abortion activist Randall Terry, who is acting as a spokesman for Schiavo’s parents, said their new motion raises “evidentiary issues that were ignored in the first crack at federal court.” But legal experts say it is unlikely to succeed. The U.S. Supreme Court declined yesterday to hear the case. The high court did not explain its decision to turn aside the case, just as it had declined to do in four previous appeals. None of the justices registered a dissent. That action was followed by rulings Thursday from a Pinellas County Circuit Judge who barred the state from trying to take custody of Schiavo and reaffirmed that she would not want to be kept alive through artificial means. Schiavo’s condition deteriorated visibly seven days after her feeding tube was removed by court order and death could come at any time.

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