Judge James D. Whittemore of Federal District Court in Tampa Florida refused to order Mrs. Schiavo's feeding tube. He thinks that the parents did not, perhaps could not, prove a significant likelihood of wining further court battles, a likelihood they apparently have to prove to get a temporary order from the Judge. I am mostly seeing this AP News article linked to, perhaps because it does not require registration. This NY Times article has the most details on the federal court's decision though, and this Washington Post article has more background on why she is said to be in a "persistent vegetative state." I cannot help but note that the details in the Post article are rather more restricted than the details in the lawyer's writeup that I linked to yesterday. The Post describes her interaction as being restricted to facial expression, but the lawyer has her responding audibly if not really intelligibly as well. I also rather question the use of the person's ability to track visually and respond to commands as the sole criteria of consciousness, especially after having read Mr. Chuck Colson's article, posted here. Michelle Malkin continues to track this, and her sources do not rate the odds of success very highly. ☹
