- PINELLAS PARK, Fla. (AP)
- The parents of a severely brain-damaged woman and others seeking to keep
her alive pressed Gov. Jeb Bush on Thursday to intervene in the case.
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- Terri Schiavo's feeding tube was removed Wednesday after
a decade-long legal fight between her parents and her husband, who says
she would rather die than be kept alive artificially. Doctors say she will
die within two weeks without the tube.
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- Meanwhile, Schiavo's husband, Michael, has gotten death
threats in recent days and temporarily moved from his Clearwater home,
his attorney said Thursday.
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- Advocates for parents Bob and Mary Schindler sent the
governor legal opinions co-signed by Richard Thompson, chief counsel at
the conservative Thomas More Law Center, who prosecuted suicide doctor
Jack Kevorkian in Michigan.
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- The letter maintains that Bush could legally intervene
to order a criminal investigation into whether Terri Schiavo was ever abused
by her husband, who has always denied such charges. If a probe were launched,
she would have to be kept alive to preserve evidence.
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- George Felos, the attorney for Michael Schiavo, dismissed
the opinions as ''ideological and inflammatory rhetoric.''
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- ''I, as well as other attorneys who have looked at those,
give no credibility to those opinions, and I would certainly expect that
the governor's legal staff would come to the same conclusion,'' Felos said.
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- Both the State Attorney's Office and the Florida Department
of Law Enforcement have declined to pursue investigations, saying there
is no physical evidence of abuse.
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- Felos said the death threats against Michael Schiavo
have come via phone, mail and e-mail and were reported to authorities.
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- He said Michael Schiavo still planned to spend as much
time as possible with his wife before she dies but would not be more specific
about the visits.
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- Felos said he also issued an invitation to Bush to meet
with Michael Schiavo at the hospice and visit with Terri. The governor's
office has yet to respond, he said.
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- Bush has promised the Schindlers that his staff would
continue to search for legal avenues that could save her life but has said
he doesn't have the authority to overrule the courts. State courts have
consistently affirmed Michael Schiavo's legal right to decide his wife's
fate.
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- ``The legal office has been talking to people trying
to find some strategy where my office can intervene in a different fashion
that will yield a different result,'' Bush said Thursday. ''So far we have
not found that option.''
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- Terri Schiavo has been in a vegetative state since 1990,
when her heart stopped because of what doctors said may have been a chemical
imbalance.
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- Her husband says he is carrying out his wife's wishes
that she not be kept alive artificially.
- Her parents believe she responds to them and could benefit
from therapy.
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- http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-3273434,00.html
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