Thursday, July 1, 2004 Posted: 12:47 PM EDT (1647 GMT)
Terri Schiavo
http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/07/01/sc....ap/index.html
DUNEDIN, Florida (AP) -- An appeals court said Wednesday the parents of a woman at the center of a bitter right-to-die case may not intervene in the legal battle over a state law keeping her alive.
"Terri's Law," passed in October, allowed Gov. Jeb Bush to order the reinsertion of a feeding tube keeping Terri Schiavo alive. She has been in a persistent vegetative state for 14 years after collapsing from a chemical imbalance.
The 2nd District Court of Appeal upheld Circuit Judge W. Douglas Baird's ruling denying an attempt by Bob and Mary Schindler to join the fight over the law's constitutionality.
The appeals court didn't issue an opinion with the ruling.
Terri Schiavo's husband, Michael Schiavo, is suing the governor to have the law overturned. Bush is defending the law and the Schindlers wanted to join him as a party to the lawsuit.
The state Supreme Court will hear oral arguments August 31.
"There's no question that the governor is actively defending the lawsuit and there was no purpose to be served by adding additional parties," said Michael Schiavo's lawyer, George Felos.
The ruling doesn't prevent the Schindlers from filing documents with the Supreme Court related to the case. The parents' lawyer, Pat Anderson, said the Schindlers' voices will be heard. "It would be a shame to shut them out of the process," she said.
For years, the Schindlers have battled Michael Schiavo as he has tried to have his wife's feeding tube removed. He argues she would not have wanted to be kept alive artificially. The Schindlers say they doubt their now 40-year-old daughter had any such end-of-life wishes and believe her condition could improve with therapy.