Gov. Bush loses US appeal in Florida right-to-die case

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The U.S. Supreme Court dealt a setback on Monday to Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s efforts to intervene to keep a severely brain-damaged woman on life support despite the wishes of her husband.

Without comment, the justices rejected Bush’s appeal of a Florida Supreme Court ruling that struck down a state law that had allowed him to intervene in the case of Terri Schiavo, who has been kept alive via a feeding tube since suffering a heart attack in 1990.

After a number of court hearings and appeals, Schiavo’s feeding tube was removed in October 2003. At Bush’s request, Florida’s lawmakers quickly adopted a law allowing him to intervene, and the tube was reinserted six days later.

Schiavo has been kept on the feeding tube during the subsequent legal wrangling.

Michael Schiavo, her husband and legal guardian, had petitioned a Florida court to have the feeding tube removed in 1998. He testified that his wife told him she would not want to be kept alive under such conditions.

Terri Schiavo’s parents, Mary and Robert Schindler, have argued that hope remains for their daughter and oppose removing the feeding tube.

The Florida Supreme Court ruled in September that the law violated the constitutional separation of powers between the legislative, executive and judicial branches. It said that if the legislature and governor were allowed to retroactively overturn court rulings, no judgment would ever be final.

Bush’s attorneys appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

They described as “ominous” the implications of the Florida Supreme Court ruling for persons with disabilities. They argued that the state of Florida has the power to protect the rights of “incompetent persons whose nutrition and hydration have been withdrawn by court order.”

Attorneys for the parents supported the appeal and urged the justices to review the case.

But the high court denied the appeal, marking the second time the justices have refused to get involved in the dispute. The Supreme Court in 2001 declined to consider Schiavo’s case.

Schiavo’s parents have said they will keep fighting to keep their daughter alive, whatever the Supreme Court does.

They have asked the trial judge in Florida to remove Michael Schiavo as his wife’s guardian. They said he has a conflict of interest because he has lived with another woman for several years and is the father of her two children. 

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