Terri's Fate Remains Unclear.

As NRL News goes to press, there remains much uncertainty whether Terri Schindler-Schiavo will continue to be fed. Yet the fact that this brave 39-year-old brain-injured woman is still alive is nothing short of a miracle.

As NRL News went to press last month, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush had just filed a brief with the U.S. District Court asking the court "to give careful consideration" to the distinction between removing life support "and the deliberate killing of a human being by starvation and dehydration."

However, on October 20, the tube through which Terri was fed was removed, at the request of her husband. For six days Terri went without nourishment. Just when it seemed all hope was gone, on October 21 the Florida legislature passed a bill empowering the governor to restore her feeding.

"Terri's Law" was immediately challenged by attorneys for the husband and another phase in the more than five-year-old court battle began. Meanwhile, Florida legislators are discussing the possibility of a more complete law reforming Florida's statutes to protect Terri and others like her.

In the last several weeks, there have been a number of important developments. Here are some of the most significant. {Please go to NRLC's web site at www.nrlc.org and to "Today's News & Views" for more up-to-date news.}

* On November 10, Gov. Bush continued to press his contention that the suit filed by Terri's husband against Terri's Law ought to be thrown out of court. The husband had "filed his lawsuit against Bush and Attorney General Charlie Crist on Oct. 21, the same day the Legislature enacted a measure dubbed `Terri's Law' which gave Bush the power to reinsert Terri's feeding tube, the Tampa Tribune reported. Mr. Bush argued that "the suit should have been filed in Tallahassee and that the governor had not been properly served with the court papers," according to the Miami Herald. Gov. Bush lost that appeal with Pinellas County Circuit Judge W. Douglas Baird on November 8. Two days later, Bush took his argument to the Second District Court of Appeal in Lakeland.

* The Tribune reported that Bush's special counsel told the court that Bush will not file a response to the husband's "constitutional challenge to Terri's Law until the case is put on a proper footing with proper notice in the proper venue."