Terry Schaivo Stay Extended for 2 Days.

Article: http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050223/BREAKINGNEWS/50223002

CLEARWATER, Fla. — A judge extended Wednesday the stay keeping Terri Schiavo's (search) feeding tube in place until Friday while he considers new arguments from her parents that she should undergo new medical tests and that her husband should be dismissed as her guardian.
Pinellas Circuit Court Judge George Greer had issued the emergency stay Tuesday, after an appeals court removed the last legal obstacle keeping Michael Schiavo (search) from removing the feeding tube over the objections of his in-laws, Robert and Mary Schindler. The stay for another 48 hours pushed the deadline to 5 p.m. EST Friday.
Meanwhile, the Florida Department of Children & Families moved to intervene in the legal battle over the life of the severely brain-damaged woman. Details of the agency's involvement in the case were not immediately available. Greer denied a DCF attorney an opportunity to speak at the afternoon hearing.
The DCF involvement came hours after Gov. Jeb Bush (search) told reporters he was seeking a means to intervene in the case.
George Felos, who represents Terri Schiavo's husband Michael, criticized the DCF move, saying it "reeks of the intervention of politics into the case and is an affront to the court."
David Gibbs, the attorney for the Schindlers, countered there were serious allegations of abuse in the case. The Schindlers have accused their son-in-law of mistreating his wife; he has emphatically denied the accusations.
Greer said he was extending the stay to give him time to consider arguments and material presented to him on whether he should issue an even longer stay while Terri Schiavo undergoes medical tests to determine if she has greater mental capabilities than previously thought.
Speaking at an afternoon news conference in Tallahassee, Bush said he is exploring options to block the removal of the tube but called the effort a "work in progress."
Bush's actions are being closely watched because in October 2003, he pushed through a law allowing him to intervene six days after Terri Schiavo's feeding tube had been removed. That law was struck down as unconstitutional.
"I can assure you, I will do whatever I can within the means, within the laws, of our state to protect this woman's life," Bush said Wednesday. "I won't go beyond that."
Bush said he has received thousands of e-mails and telephone calls from the Schindlers' supporters encouraging him to keep Terri Schiavo alive. The governor said his legal staff is working with legislative attorneys to see what can be done.
"People with deep faith and big hearts are concerned, as I am about the circumstance that Ms. Schiavo is in," the governor continued. "I want them to know I will do what I can, but there are limits to what any particular person — irrespective of the title they currently hold — can do."
Terri Schiavo has been at the center of a long legal battle between her husband and her parents. She suffered severe brain damage 15 years ago when a chemical imbalance stopped her heart and oxygen was cut off to her brain.
Doctors have ruled she is in a persistent vegetative state with no hope for recovery, but her parents have countered with dissenting medical opinions which say she could regain some mental functions with therapy.
Michael Schiavo said his wife never wanted to be kept alive artifically, but she left no written directive. The Schindlers dispute their daughter had such wishes and their son-in-law stood to gain from his wife's death, both financially and personally.