Schiavo to undergo autopsy to end debate: lawyer

The husband of brain-damaged Florida woman Terri Schiavo has ordered an autopsy after she dies to silence allegations his plan to cremate her body is aimed at hiding something, his lawyer said on Monday.

As supporters of Schiavo's parents took their fight to prolong her life to Washington 10 days after her feeding was stopped, Michael Schiavo's lawyer, George Felos, said her pulse had become "thready" and she had not passed urine for a while - a possible sign of approaching death.

He said Michael Schiavo, who has been pitted against the parents in a seven-year legal conflict over whether to allow Schiavo to die, requested an official autopsy to show the "massive" extent of the brain damage she suffered in 1990.

"We didn't think it was appropriate to talk about an autopsy prior to Mrs. Schiavo's death," Felos told reporters outside his law office in Dunedin, Florida.

"But because claims have been made by, I guess, opponents of carrying out her wishes that there was some motive behind the cremation of Mrs. Schiavo we felt it was necessary to make that announcement today."

Disagreement over the planned cremation rather than the full burial demanded by Schiavo's Roman Catholic parents has been a subplot to the long legal battle.

The fate of the woman, who has been in a persistent vegetative state since suffering cardiac arrest, has become a cause for Christian conservatives and drawn in Congress, President Bush and his brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.

State courts have accepted testimony from Michael Schiavo and others that she did not want to be kept alive artificially, but her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, disagree, and maintain she tries to communicate with them.

Pressured by the Christian right, Congress passed a special law that allowed the Schindlers to take their case to federal court, and President Bush cut short a vacation to sign it.

The effort proved in vain as court after court - all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court - rejected a flurry of petitions since the feeding tube was disconnected on March 18.

Nevertheless, supporters of Bob and Mary Schindler again appealed for federal or state intervention.

"This is about the soul of our nation, the soul of our church," said Michael McMonagle, spokesman for the Pro-Life Union of Southeastern Pennsylvania, as around two dozen protesters gathered in a park across from the White House.

Outside the hospice in Pinellas Park, Florida, where Schiavo is being cared for, the protesters were dismissive of Michael Schiavo's plans for an autopsy.

"It's a way to cover his behind," said Randall Terry, an anti-abortion activist speaking for the Schindlers.

Bob Schindler, who has at times asserted his daughter was in her final hours and at others maintained that it was not too late to intervene, said earlier she was "fighting like hell."