Appeals Court Extends Schindler-Schiavo's Death Deadline.

Terri Schindler-Schiavo, the disabled Florida woman at the center of a long court battle, will continue to receive food and fluids indefinitely as an appeals court considers her parents' plea to save their daughter's life.

The 2nd District Court of Appeal delayed a lower court judge's order that Schindler-Schiavo's feeding tube be removed October 9, the St. Petersburg Times reported.

"Thank God," her father Bob Schindler told the Times. "It's such a serious matter. The important thing is that they give it their full attention."

"Clearly they are very troubled with the issues we have raised," Schindler attorney Patricia Anderson told the Tampa Tribune. "There is no current assessment of her physical condition. Before we kill her, we ought to find out if she is a candidate for death."

The Schindlers have been fighting for their daughter's life since May 1998, when her husband Michael Schiavo first asked to stop her nutrition and hydration, according to the Times. While Terri Schindler-Schiavo has been severely cognitatively disabled since a 1990 heart attack, her parents, brother, and sister insist she is not in a "persistent vegetative state" and that she recognizes them when they enter her room, the Times reported.

Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Court Judge George Greer first authorized her death in February 2001. She was without food and fluids for 60 hours beginning April 24, according to the Times. Her parents obtained a temporary injunction of the order and she was fed, but Judge Greer again ordered her feeding tube to be removed on August 28. Greer later extended that deadline until October 9.

Terri Schindler-Schiavo's current condition and potential for improvement are major issues that the appeals court is now considering. In a September 26 hearing, Schindler attorney Anderson told the judges that Schindler-Schiavo "responds to people with smiles and laughs, and deserves a chance at rehabilitation," the Times reported.

"I'm terribly afraid you are giving [her] parents some false hope," Judge Chris Altenbernd responded, according to the Times. "But if it's true, it's dramatic."

The Schindlers also presented affidavits from doctors who suggest various treatments that might help their daughter, such as oxygen therapy or certain drugs. Anderson said that Schindler-Schiavo has received no therapy since 1993, the Tribune reported.

The judges also questioned why Michael Schiavo would not allow any outside doctors to personally examine his wife.

Schiavo's attorney dismissed the doctors' opinions that, with treatment, Schindler-Schiavo's condition might improve.

"My client does not want to subject his wife to unfounded experimental quackery," George Felos told the court, according to the Times. "No one says she can be cured."

However, Chief Judge John Blue expressed doubts that strict legal rules should be used in this case, which involves a woman whose condition is in dispute and who left no written instructions on what should be done if she was incapacitated.

"I'm not sure we can apply the same standards where the issue is removing life support," Blue said at the hearing, the Tribune reported. The court's decision to delay the death deadline indefinitely while it takes time to consider the case reflects this concern.

Another issue in the case is the money left from a million-dollar malpractice settlement. The money was intended to be used for Schindler-Schiavo's care, but if she dies the remaining funds would go to her husband, according to the Tribune.

"The husband got money to support her forever, and he has now changed his mind, and that's difficult for us," Chief Judge Blue said, the Tribune reported. The delay granted by the appeals court gives the Schindlers hope that the courts will give their daughter a chance to live.>EN