THE fate of Terri Schiavo was in the hands of Jeb Bush last night as the Governor of Florida considered the dramatic and politically explosive step of taking the brain-damaged woman into state custody, in defiance of the US courts.

After a day in which the US Supreme Court refused to intervene to keep Mrs Schiavo alive, and a Florida judge rejected a last-ditch request by Governor Bush to allow the state to take custody of her, the governor’s aides conceded that all legal options had been exhausted, but refused to rule out another political intervention.

The decision by the Supreme Court, the fifth time it has refused to hear the case, ended a dramatic and fruitless four-day dash through the US federal court system by Mrs Schiavo’s parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, all but extinguishing their hopes of saving their daughter’s life.

As Mrs Schiavo, 41, entered her seventh day without food or water, the Supreme Court’s decision also stopped the unprecedented emergency legislation forced through last weekend by President Bush, which ordered a federal judicial review of a case that until now has been dealt with by Florida’s state courts. With all legal avenues exhausted, Governor Bush, the president’s brother, took centre stage in the efforts by America’s conservative religious Right to defy the courts and reconnect Mrs Schiavo to her feeding tube, removed under a judge’s order on Friday.

On Wednesday night Governor Bush declared that Mrs Schiavo, who court-appointed doctors say has been in persistent vegetative state for 15 years, had been misdiagnosed. He based his assertion on “new information” provided by William Cheshire, a Florida neurologist, who says that she may only be in a “minimally conscious” state.

Although Dr Cheshire, a leading member of the Christian right-to-life movement, did not examine Mrs Schiavo, he observed her for an hour on March 1. Governor Bush maintained that his testimony was compelling enough for the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) to take her into protective custody.

On Wednesday night, amid allegations that Florida state officials were “mobilising” outside Mrs Schiavo’s hospice, Florida Circuit Judge George Greer issued an emergency restraining order prohibiting DCF agents from seizing her.

Judge Greer formally rejected Governor Bush’s custody request yesterday. Last night he refused to hold a new hearing to assess Dr Cheshire’s claims. He also ordered the local sheriff’s department not to allow state officials into Mrs Schiavo’s hospice but, under Florida law, the governor has the power, without court clearance, of taking a citizen into custody for a 24-hour appraisal if it is suspected they are in jeopardy.

David Cardwell, an expert on Florida law, told The Times: “If the governor takes this step, the sheriff must decide whether to step aside, or follow the order of the courts. I wouldn’t want to be the sheriff of Pinellas County right now.”

For the past seven years Florida state judges have consistently sided with Mrs Schiavo’s husband and legal guardian, Michael, who now has two children with a new partner of ten years. He says that his wife left no will and would not have wanted to be kept alive by means of a feeding tube to the stomach. Despite her parents’ emotional appeals, a series of federal courts in recent days, culminating with the Supreme Court yesterday, have refused to intervene.

Governor Bush has intervened in the Schiavo case before. After her tube was removed in April 2003 he persuaded the state legislature to pass an emergency “Terri’s law”, authorising him to order its reinsertion, six days after it had been disconnected.

On Wednesday night he failed, by three votes in the Florida state senate, to pass a law that would prevent the removal of feeding tubes from vegetative patients who did not leave wills.

George Felos, Mrs Schiavo’s lawyer, said: “She is dying. We believe, as we approach this Easter weekend, that Mrs Schiavo should be able to die in peace.”

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