PINELLAS PARK (USA), March 26: Terri Schiavo’s parents lost another round in court on Saturday and were nearly out of legal options as the brain-damaged Florida woman passed her eighth day without nutrition and edged toward death. Circuit Judge George Greer, the state judge who has presided over the seven-year legal dispute between Michael Schiavo, who is Terri’s husband and guardian, and her parents Bob and Mary Schindler, rejected a petition that alleged Terri had tried to communicate that she wanted to live. The Schindlers appeared to have few avenues left in their frantic search for a way to restart their 41-year-old daughter’s feeding after the long family feud that prompted intervention by Florida’s legislature, the US Congress and President George Bush.

After a visit with his daughter on Saturday, Bob Schindler, who a day earlier said she was “down to her last hours,” said Terri was “putting up a tremendous battle to live.”

“She is fighting like hell to stay alive,” he said. “I want the powers that be to know that. It’s not too late to save her.”

The Schindlers’ fight has drawn passionate support from conservative Christians, right-to-life and anti-abortion activists in their struggle to prolong their daughter’s life. Lobbying from the Christian right prompted the US Congress to pass a special law to push the case into federal courts.

Terri Schiavo suffered a cardiac arrest that deprived her brain of oxygen in 1990. The courts have agreed with doctors who say she is in a persistent vegetative state.

Michael Schiavo has said his wife would not want to live in her condition, a position upheld by the courts. —Reuters