Bush signs Schiavo legislation

updated 7:45 a.m. ET March 21, 2005

PINELLAS PARK, Fla. - The fate of Terri Schiavo once again was in the hands of a judge early Monday following an extraordinary, day-long political fight over the brain-damaged woman that consumed both chambers of Congress and prompted the president to rush back to the White House.

Taking the Senate’s lead, the House early Monday passed a bill to let the woman’s parents ask a federal judge to prolong Schiavo’s life by reinserting her feeding tube. President Bush signed the measure less than an hour later.

An attorney for her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, later arrived at federal district court in Tampa and filed a request for an emergency injunction to keep their daughter fed.

When the attorney, David Gibbs II, was asked if he had any indication when the judge would rule on the request, he said: “I have no way to know, just that it’s in the hands of the court.”

Family reaction
“I’m numb, I’m just totally numb. This whole thing, it’s hard to believe it,” Bob Schindler told reporters outside the hospice where his daughter entered her fourth day without food or water.

Chris O'meara / AP David Hall, of Fort Worth, Texas, right, protests Sunday outside the Woodside Hospice in Pinellas Park, Fla., , where Terri Schiavo is a patient.

Schiavo’s husband, Michael Schiavo, said he was outraged that congressional leaders were intervening in the contentious right-to-die battle. He has battled for years with his wife’s parents over whether she should be permitted to die or kept alive through the feeding tube.

“I think that the Congress has more important things to discuss,” he told CNN, calling the move political and criticizing House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, who helped broker the congressional compromise.

Outside the hospice, a shout of joy when news of the House bill’s passage came. Among those cheering was David Bayly, 45, of Toledo, Ohio: “I’m overjoyed to see the vote and see Terri’s life extended by whatever amount God gives her.”

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