Husband's lawyers challenge law's constitutionality

CLEARWATER, Fla. -- The husband of a severely brain-damaged woman on Wednesday challenged the legality of a hastily passed state law empowering Gov. Jeb Bush to keep her alive.\nIn a court filing, attorneys for Michael Schiavo contended that the law violates Terri Schiavo's right to privacy and the separation of power provisions of the Florida Constitution.\nThe statute, dubbed "Terri's Law" by Florida lawmakers, gave Bush the authority to order Terri Schiavo's feeding tube be reinserted Oct. 21.\nMichael Schiavo has been battling in court for years to carry out what he says is his wife's wish to not be kept alive artificially.\nHis in-laws, Bob and Mary Schindler, have fought him, saying their daughter had no such wishes and is not in a permanent vegetative state, as a probate judge has declared. They say she is responsive and could improve with therapy.\nTerri Schiavo suffered severe brain damage in 1990 when her heart stopped. The legal battle over her fate is one of the nation's longest and most contentious right-to-die cases.\nShe went without food and water for six days under a court order which allowed her husband to withdraw the tube. But within hours of the Legislature's action last week, the tube was reinserted.\nFlorida courts have repeatedly affirmed Michael Schiavo's legal right to remove his wife's feeding tube. The state Supreme Court has twice refused to hear the case; the U.S. Supreme Court also refused to hear it.\nPresident Bush said Tuesday that Gov. Bush, his younger brother, did the right thing in ordering the feeding tube reinserted.