Court denies Schiavo family request

PINELLAS PARK, Fla. -- With time running out for Terri Schiavo, a federal appeals court Wednesday rejected her parents' latest attempt to get the brain-damaged woman's feeding tube reconnected.\nThe Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed to consider an emergency bid by Bob and Mary Schindler for a new hearing in their case, raising a flicker of hope for the parents after a series of setbacks in the case. But the court rejected the bid 15 hours later -- the fourth time since last week the court ruled against the Schindlers.\n"Any further action by our court or the district court would be improper," wrote Judge Stanley F. Birch Jr., who was appointed by former President Bush. "While the members of her family and the members of Congress have acted in a way that is both fervent and sincere, the time has come for dispassionate discharge of duty."\nBirch went on to scold President Bush and Congress for their attempts to intervene in the judicial process, by saying: "In resolving the Schiavo controversy, it is my judgment that, despite sincere and altruistic motivation, the legislative and executive branches of our government have acted in a manner demonstrably at odds with our Founding Fathers' blueprint for the governance of a free people -- our Constitution."\nThe decision came as Schiavo approached her 13th day without food or water.\nTo be granted, the parents' request would have needed the support of seven of the court's 12 judges. The court did not disclose the vote breakdown.\nJudges Gerald Tjoflat and Charles R. Wilson, the same two judges who issued a dissenting opinion last week when the full court considered the case for the first time, also issued a statement in Wednesday's ruling.\n"The relevant question here is whether a rational factfinder could have found by clear and convincing evidence that Mrs. Schiavo would have wanted nutrition and hydration to be withdrawn under these circumstances. The plaintiffs carry a heavy burden, but I do not believe that this question can be determined in this expedited fashion without a hearing on the merits," wrote Tjoflat, who was appointed to the bench by Gerald Ford. Wilson was nominated by former President Clinton.\nThe Schindlers visited their daughter Wednesday morning at her hospice and urged their supporters to keep trying. "I was pleasantly surprised by what I saw," Bob Schindler said. "So she's still fighting, and we'll keep fighting."\n"We know that some of her organs are still functioning. ... It's not too late," he said.\nThe request for a new hearing asked that the tube be reinserted immediately "in light of the magnitude of what is at stake and the urgency of the action required."\nIn requesting a new hearing, the Schindlers argued that a federal judge in Tampa should have considered the entire state court record and not whether previous Florida court rulings met legal standards under state law. The Schindlers' motion also said the federal appellate court in Atlanta didn't consider whether there was enough "clear and convincing" evidence that Terri Schiavo would have chosen to die in her current condition.\nGeorge Felos, the attorney for Schiavo's husband, declined to comment.\nDoctors have said Schiavo, 41, would probably die within two weeks after the tube was removed March 18.