Schiavo dies as family wrangles on

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PINELLAS PARK, Florida, March 31 AFP - Terri Schiavo, the
severely brain damaged woman at the centre of an acrimonious
right-to-die controversy that even drew in the US president, died
today almost two weeks after her feeding tube was cut off.
Schiavo, 41, died in a Florida hospice where she has spent
several years as her parents and husband argued over who should be
at her bedside for the final moments.
"It is with great sadness that it has been reported to us that
Terri Schiavo has passed away," said Paul O'Donnell, a Franciscan
monk who acts as spokesman for the parents.
The parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, and husband, Michael
Schiavo, fought in court for more than seven years over whether the
stricken woman, who suffered crippling brain damage following heart
failure 15 years ago, should be allowed to die.
Doctors said Schiavo was in a "persistent vegetative state" and
Michael Schiavo said his wife had asked not to be left in such a
condition. The parents said she could improve with proper
treatment.
But Schiavo's feeding tube was removed on March 18, following a
court order, and the Schindlers' sixth and final appeal to the US

Supreme Court had been rejected only a few hours before the death.
In the days after the tube was removed, the US Congress passed a
special law in a bid to save Schiavo which US President George W
Bush hurriedly signed in a show of support for the campaign.
Upon news of Schiavo's death, weeping protesters who had kept
vigil at the hospice, sang hymns and prayed.
The parents' representatives bitterly condemned Michael Schiavo
for keeping the Schindlers away from the woman's bedside at the
time of her death.
O'Donnell said the parents and other close family members had
only been allowed into the room after the woman's death.
"They've been requesting, as you know, for the last hour to try
to be in there. And they were denied access by Michael Schiavo."
Frank Pavone, national director of the Priests for Life
organisation, another spokesman for the parents, repeated
allegations that Terri Schiavo had been the victim of a deliberate
killing.
He said that Schiavo's brother and sister had been with the
woman up until about 10 minutes before her death and had then been
asked to leave.
"Bobby Schindler, her brother, said: 'We want to be in the room
when she dies'. Michael Schiavo said 'No, you cannot'. And so, his
heartless cruelty continues until this very last moment."
Pavone added: "This is not only a death with all the sadness
that brings, this is a killing. And for that we not only grieve
that Terri has passed but we grieve that our nation has allowed
such an atrocity as this and we pray that it will never happen
again."
The Vatican also entered the dispute saying those who failed to
stop Terri Schiavo's death were accomplices to her "murder".
"In doubt, be for life and avoid what in practice and without
euphemisms would represent a murder, to which it is impossible to
be a passive observer without becoming an accomplice," Vatican
cardinal Renato Martino said shortly before Schiavo's death was
announced.
"The prolonged lack of food is transforming itself in an unjust
death sentence of an innocent person in one of its most inhuman and
cruel forms, that of hunger and thirst."
The Schiavo case fuelled a major political and legal controversy
over right-to-die ethics. Conservative Christian and so-called
"pro-life" groups sided with the parents.
Some judges criticised politicians for interfering in the
prolonged legal process that led to the ending of Schiavo's
artificial lifeline. Most opinion polls indicated a majority of
Americans opposed the political attempts to save the woman.
The feeding tube had been removed twice before -- in 2001 and
2003 -- but reinserted following court orders after applications by
the parents.
AFP
-0- Mar/31/2005 20:33 GMT
 

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