A US federal judge yesterday rejected a request to reinsert the feeding tube of Terri Schiavo, the brain-damaged Florida woman, dealing a blow to attempts by her parents and President Bush to save her life.

Bob and Mary Schindler, Mrs Schiavo’s parents, immediately appealed against the ruling to a three-judge appeals court in Atlanta, as their daughter entered her fifth day without food or water and the family’s hopes of keeping her alive faded.

In a 13-page ruling issued at dawn, after the Republican-controlled US Congress and Mr Bush had forced through unprecedented emergency legislation obliging a federal court to review the case, Judge James Whittemore denied the Schindlers’ request for an order to reinsert the tube, saying that their case was too weak.

Mrs Schiavo, who court-appointed doctors say has been in a persistent vegetative state since suffering a heart attack that starved her brain of oxygen 15 years ago, had her feeding tube removed on a judge’s order on Friday.

That was the tenth decision in seven years siding with her husband’s wishes to let her die, in a case that, until Congress’s extraordinary weekend intervention, has been a matter for Florida’s state courts. Doctors say that Mrs Schiavo could live for up to two weeks.

Judge Whittemore, who was appointed to the federal bench by President Clinton, said that he was obliged to follow the law and grant only an order to reinsert the tube if Mrs Schiavo’s parents could show that their case was likely to succeed at a later, full hearing.

Acknowledging the “gravity of the consequences” of his decision, he nevertheless said: “This court concludes that Theresa Schiavo’s life and liberty interests were adequately protected by the extensive process provided in the state courts.”

Whatever the decision of the Atlanta Appeals Court, one of the sides in a right-to-die case that has divided the US will appeal to the Supreme Court.

Michael, her husband and legal guardian, who has two children with a new partner of ten years, has successfully argued in Florida state courts, and by implication again yesterday, that she left no will and would not have wanted to be kept alive by a feeding tube to the stomach. Her parents dispute this, saying that she responds to them and would improve with rehabilitation.

The Vatican continued its campaign to keep Mrs Schiavo alive yesterday, saying that removing her feeding tube amounted to capital punishment for someone who had committed no crime. (AP)

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