Schiavo Taken Off Food Supply

PINELLAS PARK, Fla. — With the simple act of removing a plastic feeding tube, doctors Friday began the slow process of ending Terri Schiavo's life, a court-ordered move that trumped a day of legal maneuvers by congressional Republicans to prevent the death of the severely brain-damaged woman.

The procedure took place Friday afternoon inside a quiet hospice room north of St. Petersburg, while the world outside roiled. As a Roman Catholic priest administered last rites to Schiavo, 41, and demonstrators prayed nearby, national political leaders sparred over Congress' unprecedented intervention into the battle over a woman whose story has roused the GOP's social conservative base.

Over the course of a nerve-racking day, the leaders of two congressional committees summoned Schiavo, who doctors say is in a persistent vegetative state, to appear before lawmakers, an extraordinary attempt to stall the cutting-off of her food supply. A House lawyer flew to Florida to intervene in her case, only to be dismissed by a county judge who refused to retreat from his order to end Schiavo's life. Invective mounted, with Democrats denouncing the legal moves and religious leaders fuming at the judge.

And after years of their own legal sparring over how to contend with Schiavo's 15-year ordeal, her husband and parents spent time Friday inside the brick hospice where she lay. Without nutrition, Schiavo is expected to die in five to 10 days.

"This is what Terri wanted. This is her wish," her husband, Michael Schiavo, said late Friday on CNN's "Larry King Live." He said he was angry that the government had "just trampled all over my personal life."

David Gibbs, the lawyer for Bob and Mary Schindler, said Terri Schiavo's parents were devastated. "They would change places with her in a heartbeat, if there was any way that they could be the one that's sick and hurting, and give their health to Terri," Gibbs said. "It's a tough day for them."

Over the last few days, Republican leaders in both houses of Congress -- responding to an outcry from the religious right -- passed legislation in an attempt to delay the removal of Schiavo's feeding tube. Democrats questioned the propriety of the moves, while legal and medical experts struggled to keep pace with a raft of ethical questions raised by Congress' intervention.