[Previous entry: "Activists Protest Iraq War on Anniversary"] [Next entry: "Labeling Kids Mentally Ill for Profit"]

03/20/2005:

"Husband hits at bid to save coma wife"

The husband of a severely brain-damaged woman condemned to a slow death by starvation has launched a vitriolic attack on last-minute efforts to keep her alive.

After a week of political and legal manoeuvring, doctors at a Florida hospice chose to follow a long-standing order from a state judge to stop feeding Terri Schiavo, who has been in a persistent vegetative state for 15 years. Without nourishment, she will die within three weeks.

Their actions defied the instructions of members of Congress, who issued subpoenas to attempt to block 'the barbaric' removal of her feeding tube on Friday just hours before the 1pm deadline set by George Greer, the Florida Circuit Court judge who has presided over the case for a decade.

One leading Republican has called the tube's removal 'the murder of a defenceless American citizen'.

However, the lawyer for Michael Schiavo, who insists that his wife never wanted to be kept alive artificially, has accused the Washington politicians of 'acting like the Soviet Politburo'.

'I feel like the government has just trampled all over my personal life,' Schiavo said hours after nutrition to his 41-year-old wife was withdrawn for the third time since he began his fight with her family a decade ago.

'It is incomprehensible that a government can walk all over somebody's private judicial matter because of their own personal feelings. It is just horrible the way the government is acting. This is what Terri wanted. It is her wish.'
Full Article: observer.guardian.co.uk