News

PINELLAS PARK, March 23, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In a 2-1 ruling, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals denied the bid by the parents of Terri Schiavo to have her feeding tube re-inserted, refusing to hear an appeal of the case.

Meanwhile, a Florida woman, has been arrested for trying to take a bottle of water into the Woodside Hospice for Terri Schiavo. Lana Jacobs, a woman who works for St. Francis House – a Catholic homeless shelter in Columbia, Missouri, was arrested, handcuffed and loaded into a paddy wagon after she was charged with trespassing after a warning.

“It wasn’t a big deal, what happened to me,” Jacobs said in a telephone interview. “It’s a big deal what’s happening to Terri. I couldn’t not do what I did.”

Jacobs and her husband often protest at prison executions. “We are in a country where it’s legal to kill people,” Lana Jacobs said. “We have to break those unjust laws in order to save lives.”

Terri has now gone without food or water five days and is said to be failing. “Terri is fading quickly, and her parents reasonably fear that her death is imminent,” said David Gibbs. The Schindlers are appealing to the Supreme Court after a second federal judge refused to order the tube’s reinsertion.

Mary Schindler, meanwhile, made an emotional plea outside the Pinellas Park, Florida, hospice where Terri Schiavo lives. “For the love of God, I am begging you please, don’t let my daughter die of thirst,” she said.

Florida Governor Jeb Bush, the brother of the US president, said he still held out hope. “We have a duty to act here,” Jeb Bush told legislators. But the Florida Senate representative said there is little hope for successful legislative intervention this time.

“You can tell she’s definitely weaker than she was last night,” said her uncle Mike Tammaro. “I can see a difference. I can see a waning.” After visiting his daughter last night, Bob Schindler said, “She’s not improving, that’s for sure.”