WASHINGTON — Lawmakers in Washington and Florida failed Thursday to agree on legislation to block the court-ordered removal today of the feeding tube that has kept a severely brain-damaged woman alive for 15 years.
Lobbied hard by social conservatives, both chambers of Congress passed bills that would have shifted the case of Terri Schiavo, 41, to the federal courts for review. But despite a day of intense negotiations, neither was willing to accept the other's legislation.
The House recessed Thursday evening to begin a two-week spring break, although Republican lawmakers said the House Government Reform Committee planned to issue subpoenas today to try to block the removal of Schiavo's feeding tube, and that the Senate would investigate as well.
In Tallahassee, the two houses of Florida's Republican-controlled Legislature also could not agree on joint action, with the state Senate voting down a somewhat different bill than one approved by the Florida House.
Under an order issued by state Circuit Judge George W. Greer, the gastric tube that has been the sole source of food and water for Schiavo since 1990 is scheduled to be withdrawn at 1 p.m. today.
On Thursday, Greer denied a motion from the state Department of Children & Families to delay the action.
Schiavo is being cared for in a hospice in Pinellas Park, Fla., north of St. Petersburg. Fifteen years ago, she stopped breathing temporarily because of a chemical imbalance brought on by an eating disorder. Starved of oxygen, her brain suffered massive damage. She can breathe on her own but cannot speak or eat.
"She has a destroyed cerebral cortex, the part of the brain with which one is a person and with which one feels," Dr. Walter Bradley, chairman of the neurology department at the University of Miami's school of medicine, said in an interview Thursday.
Deprived of nutrition and hydration, Bradley said, Schiavo likely would die of heart failure in five to 10 days.
Her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, have been battling for years to keep her alive. Terri Schiavo did not leave a will, and her husband, Michael, says that she told him she never wanted to be kept alive by artificial means.
Although doctors have said that Schiavo is in a persistent vegetative state, with no hope of recovery, the Schindlers maintain their daughter has been misdiagnosed and could improve with therapy.
