Judge Orders Schindler-Schiavo's Feedings Stopped.(Brief Article)

Despite evidence from seven prominent physicians who say that a disabled woman is not in a "persistent vegetative state" and may be able to improve with intensive therapy, a Florida judge ruled August 7 that Terri Schindler-Schiavo may be starved and dehydrated to death beginning August 28, the St. Petersburg Times reported.

Her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, quickly filed for a stay of the decision and asked Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Court Judge George Greer to allow doctors to directly examine their daughter before her feedings are stopped, according to the Times. However, the judge has previously denied all such requests. The Schindlers also have the option of appealing the verdict within 30 days, the Associated Press reported.

Judge Greer, who originally approved the request of Schindler-Schiavo's husband to remove her feeding tube February 11, was ordered by the 2nd District Court of Appeal to decide whether new evidence presented by the Schindlers was sufficient to change his opinion, according to the Times.

Greer ruled August 7 that the new evidence was not enough. "Many of the allegations raised by Mr. and Mrs. Schindler...were thoroughly litigated at trial," he wrote. "The others generally deal with the facts which predate the trial and were available."

Greer's February decision was partly based on two doctors' opinions that Schindler-Schiavo "is unaware of what is happening around her and that her motions and sounds are based on reflex only and will never improve," the Times reported. Although the seven neurologists consulted by the Schindlers disagreed, Greer dismissed their opinions as merely a difference of medical opinion, not conclusive enough to overturn his original ruling to remove Schindler-Schiavo's feeding tube.

"Medicine is not a precise science, and doctors will, therefore, not always agree," Judge Greer wrote in his August 7 decision, according to the Tampa Tribune. "None of the affidavits claim a dramatic and unexpected improvement of Terri Schiavo post trial."

Her parents disagree strongly. "You have a tremendous disparity in medical opinion, and I would think the thing to do is get to the bottom of it," Bob Schindler told the Tribune. "I don't know how he can just turn his back on all this. It defies common sense and logic."