Brain-damaged woman's feeding tube removed

The feeding tube of a brain-damaged Floriad Woman was removed yesterday at the heart of a furious right-to-die battle, her husband's lawyer said.

"Terri Schiavo's feeding tube was removed at 1.45 (p.m.) today," George Felos said.

A Florida court earlier yesterday cleared the way to remove the feeding tube that sustained Terri Schiavo after US lawmakers tried to prolong her life by subpoenaing her to appear before Congress.

Ms Schiavo had been kept alive since a heart attack starved her brain of oxygen in 1990, leaving her in what the courts declared was a permanent vegetative state.

Her husband and legal guardian, Michael Schiavo, says she would not have wanted to be kept alive in that condition. In a bitterly contested seven-year court case, Michael Schiavo won permission to remove the feeding tube after 1 p.m. (1800 GMT) yesterday, which would bring his wife's death in seven to 14 days.

Republican congressional leaders made a last-minute bid to stave that off by subpoenaing Ms Schiavo to appear before hearings and committees later in the month, a move that would have granted her protection as a witness in a congressional inquiry.

Her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, fighted to keep her alive, saying she responds to them and could improve with rehabilitation and have lobbied lawmakers to intervene.

Congressional leaders issued the subpoenas after failing to enact legislation allowing federal courts to review the case.

Through five years of hearings and appeals, the Florida courts have ruled in Michael Schiavo's favour and the US Supreme Court has refused three times to intervene.

Dr Felos, said the US Congress had no authority in the case.

"The state does not own Ms Schiavo's body and Congress cannot simply order her to remain alive contrary to her medical treatment wishes and court order," Dr Felos said.

The order to remove the feeding tube was briefly stayed while the Florida judge presiding over the case, Circuit Judge George Greer, held a telephone hearing to consider the congressional effort to intervene.

Judge Greer rejected the bid and reinstated the order allowing the removal of the feeding tube, but congressional lawyers immediately appealed the decision before the Florida Supreme Court.

The US courts and legislative bodies have set a broad legal framework for such end-of-life decisions but have generally considered them a private matter for families to settle according to their own beliefs.

The long and public dispute between Ms Schiavo's husband and parents has galvanised activists on all sides of the right-to-die issue and ignited new debate about state and federal powers.