A MAN who has battled for 15 years for the right to terminate the life of his brain-damaged wife has been offered $1 million (£520,000) to spare her at the eleventh hour.

Michael Schiavo has until Monday to decide whether to accept the cash in return for dropping his insistence that doctors remove the feeding tube that has kept his wife, Terri, alive since 1990.

Mr Schiavo, who now lives with another woman, has fought a bitter battle with his wife’s parents, who have used every legal device to save a daughter who, they believe, may yet recover.

Robert Herring, the California businessman who made the offer, said that he felt “compelled to act” before a court order allowing the removal of the tube goes into effect on Friday.

“I believe very strongly that there are medical advances happening around the globe that very shortly could have a positive impact on Terri’s condition,” he said. “I have seen miraculous recoveries occur through the use of stem cells in patients suffering a variety of conditions.”

But George Felos, Mr Schiavo’s lawyer, labelled the offer “offensive”.

“Michael has said over and over again that this case is not about money for him,” he said. “It’s about carrying out his wife’s wishes. There is no amount of money anyone can offer that will cause him to turn his back on his wife.”

Terri Schiavo, 41, has become a cause célebrè since she suffered severe brain damage on February 25, 1990, when a potassium imbalance thought to have been triggered by the eating disorder bulimia caused her heart to stop beating and cut off oxygen to her brain.

While she is able to breathe on her own, she is unable to swallow and has relied on a feeding tube at a Florida hospice to survive. Doctors have ruled that she is in a “persistent vegetative state” with no hope of recovery.

Mr Schiavo says that he once promised his wife that he would not keep her alive by artificial means and wants the feeding tube removed. If that happens, she is expected to die in about two weeks.

But her parents, Robert and Mary Schindler, have fought a seven-year legal battle to keep their daughter alive, insisting that she laughs, weeps and responds to them and could be taught to swallow. They question her husband’s motives because he now lives with another woman with whom he has two children. He recovered $1 million in damages in a malpractice case against his wife’s doctors and would inherit all of it if Mrs Schiavo died, instead of having to share it with her family if the couple got a divorce.

The case has become a rallying cry for right-to-life groups. The Schindlers have asked Randall Terry, the founder of Operation Rescue, the anti-abortion group, to organise protests on their daughter’s behalf. Mr Schiavo’s home in Clearwater, Florida, has been picketed by demonstrators chanting “Thou shalt not kill” and “Let Terri live”.

Yesterday the Vatican took the unusual step of intervening in the case to call for Mrs Schiavo to be kept alive. Speaking “in the name of the Holy See”. Mgr Elio Sgreccia, head of the Pontifical Academy for Life, said that removing the tube would “create a legal precedent and would present euthanasia as a right before the courts of the United States. Silence in this case could be interpreted as approval, with consequences that would go well beyond the specific case.”

Mrs Schiavo’s surgically implanted feeding tube was first removed in 2001 after a court sided with her husband, but it was reinserted after another court reversed the ruling two days later. The tube was disconnected for six days in 2003, until the Republican-controlled legislature passed a law empowering Jeb Bush, the Governor of Florida, to order it reattached.

“Terri’s Law”, as it was called, was ultimately declared unconstitutional by the Florida Supreme Court, and the US Supreme Court refused to intervene, leaving the Schindlers with few remaining options.

Mr Herring, who lives in San Diego and made his fortune in electronics, submitted his offer in writing to Mr Schiavo’s lawyer and has already deposited the money into a trust account at a Los Angeles law firm.

Legal battle

February 1990 Terri Schiavo collapses in her home, possibly due to a potassium imbalance. Oxygen is cut off to her brain when her heart temporarily stops
July 1993 Bob and Mary Schindler, Terri’s parents, file a petition to have husband Michael Schiavo removed as Terri’s guardian. The case is dismissed
May 1998 Michael Schiavo files a petition to remove Terri’s feeding tube
April 2001 The tube is removed but reinsertion is ordered two days later by a circuit judge
October 2003 Florida lawmakers pass “Terri’s Law,” a Bill allowing Governor Jeb Bush to intervene. Nearly a week after the tube’s removal is once again ruled, Bush orders its reinsertion
September 2004 The Florida Supreme Court strikes down “Terri’s Law” as unconstitutional
January 2005 The US Supreme Court upholds Florida’s ruling and refuses to reinstate “Terri’s Law”

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