Appeals Court Extends Schindler-Schiavo's Death Deadline.(Brief Article)

Terri Schindler-Schiavo, the disabled Florida woman at the center of a long court battle, will continue to receive food and fluids indefinitely as an appeals court considers her parents' plea to save their daughter's life.

The 2nd District Court of Appeal delayed a lower court judge's order that Schindler-Schiavo's feeding tube be removed October 9, the St. Petersburg Times reported.

"Thank God," her father Bob Schindler told the Times. "It's such a serious matter. The important thing is that they give it their full attention."

"Clearly they are very troubled with the issues we have raised," Schindler attorney Patricia Anderson told the Tampa Tribune. "There is no current assessment of her physical condition. Before we kill her, we ought to find out if she is a candidate for death."

The Schindlers have been fighting for their daughter's life since May 1998, when her husband Michael Schiavo first asked to stop her nutrition and hydration, according to the Times. While Terri Schindler-Schiavo has been severely cognitatively disabled since a 1990 heart attack, her parents, brother, and sister insist she is not in a "persistent vegetative state" and that she recognizes them when they enter her room, the Times reported.

Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Court Judge George Greer first authorized her death in February 2001. She was without food and fluids for 60 hours beginning April 24, according to the Times. Her parents obtained a temporary injunction of the order and she was fed, but Judge Greer again ordered her feeding tube to be removed on August 28. Greer later extended that deadline until October 9.

Terri Schindler-Schiavo's current condition and potential for improvement are major issues that the appeals court is now considering. In a September 26 hearing, Schindler attorney Anderson told the judges that Schindler-Schiavo "responds to people with smiles and laughs, and deserves a chance at rehabilitation," the Times reported.