Feeding-tube case prompts calls of victory

CLEARWATER, Fla. -- It took the governor, the Legislature, right-to-life supporters, and a set of determined parents, but together they have claimed victory in Florida as a feeding tube once again pumps liquids into the body of Terri Schiavo, the severely brain-damaged woman whose husband says her life should be ended to spare her misery.

In an emotional conflict unfolding at the intersection of morality and power, Schiavo was resting yesterday at a hospice near here after Governor Jeb Bush on Tuesday ordered the pump reinserted once the Legislature empowered him to do so, a move that upended years of court rulings.

Earlier in the day, outside the Morton Plant Hospital in this central Florida city, supporters of Schiavo's parents gathered in the parking lot awaiting word on whether they might finally see the woman on whose behalf they have fought for more than three years.

"This is God's work," said Jana Carpenter, a nurse and board member of the pro-life group Professionals for Excellence in Health Care, which is aligned with Schiavo's parents. "As far as the governor and Legislature go -- the people spoke to them."

An attorney for Terri Schiavo's husband, Michael Schiavo, said on NBC's "Today Show" that she suffered organ damage during the six days she was without the feeding tube. A state judge allowed its removal.

Schiavo, 39, has relied on a feeding tube since Feb. 25, 1990, when she collapsed after cardiac arrest from a suspected potassium imbalance. Her husband maintains that she would rather die than be kept alive artificially, though her parents said she never told them of such a wish. A state judge ruled Tuesday against her husband's request for an injunction to stop the feeding, saying the legal arguments had to be resubmitted.

Medical specialists said Terri Schiavo probably suffered dehydration during the feeding tube hiatus but that it was unlikely she sustained serious damage.

"We would expect her to have become moderately dehydrated but probably completely restored when fluids resumed," said Dr. John R. Anderson, chief of the Division of Geriatric Medicine at Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge. "When you turn on the fluids again, the body avidly holds onto them."

Meanwhile, the legal battle that has stretched for more than five years, highlighting the ethics of the right-to-die movement, summoned new arguments as legal specialists questioned the Legislature's authority to contradict a series of court rulings by giving the governor the authority to require the feeding to continue.

The Legislature's maneuver, some Florida legal specialists said, deepens the animosity that has prevailed for years between Florida's Legislature and its courts, and underscores the uncertain legal terrain governing the rights of patients or their relatives to make life-or-death decisions about medical treatment.

"It is amazingly dangerous to individual liberty and to the structure of government," said Michael P. Allen, a professor of constitutional law at Stetson University in Gulfport, Fla.

Once the dispute returns to Florida courts, and perhaps ultimately reaches the US Supreme Court, it also will test the scope of a 1990 decision by the justices that assumed -- but did not directly declare -- that there is a constitutional right of privacy that includes a right to decide to forgo food and water necessary to life.

Florida's own laws carry out that decision, according to a West Palm Beach lawyer who practices hospital law, Valerie G. Larcombe. "We have special provisions that we can follow in order to honor a person's federal constitutional right to privacy," she said.

But the Legislature has now acted differently, she said, with "an intrusion into what has been well-settled, well-thought-out legislation to protect a patient's rights and to maintain the integrity of the medical profession."

Bush's decision to wade into the dispute -- which has attracted major conservative activists, including right-to-life activist Randall Terry -- was a delayed one. Florida courts for years largely sided with Michael Schiavo, who serves as his wife's guardian. Bush filed a friend-of-the-court brief in early October arguing that it is unconstitutional to end her life without first determining if she could swallow food on her own. The courts rejected that argument.

In a special session on Monday, the Florida House introduced "Terri's Bill," which authorizes Bush to prevent the withdrawal of feeding tubes when the patient is in a persistent vegetative state, has no living will, and has a family member challenging the removal. The Senate voted 23-15 for legislation to feed Terri Schiavo. Within minutes, the House voted 73-24 to send the bill to Bush. The governor signed it and issued his order about an hour later mandating that Terri Schiavo's tube be reinserted.

Yesterday afternoon, the scene outside the hospice where Schiavo lived for nearly three years was quiet, the protesters gone and vigils ended. Schiavo's parents, Mary and Bob Schindler, were gone, too, decamped from the RV they had made their home near the hospice.

Pat Anderson, an attorney for the Schindlers, said she had received notice that immediate relatives of Terri Schiavo would be permitted to see her. Anderson said she had been permitted to visit Schiavo at the hospice and was disappointed to be excluded from visitation.

Anderson disputed that Schiavo's body had suffered damage during the time the feeding tube was removed.

"I'd be interested to know how he knew that," she said, referring to George Felos, the attorney for Michael Schiavo. "There have been no tests done, and he is just speculating."

Felos did not return phone calls last night.

Back at the hospice, Terri Schiavo rested, the drip of liquids once again nourishing her body. Her supporters awaited word of what will come next.

"In my opinion, it's pretty much a miracle," said George Tregos, an attorney and supporter of Terri Schiavo's parents. "I used to work in the Legislature and I never thought I'd see anything like this."

Schweitzer reported from Clearwater, Denniston from Washington. Stephen Smith of the Globe staff contributed to this report from Boston.