iWon News: "By MIKE SCHNEIDER

PINELLAS PARK, Fla. (AP) - Terri Schiavo, the severely brain-damaged woman who spent 15 years connected to a feeding tube in an epic legal and medical battle that went all the way to the White House and Congress, died Thursday, 13 days after the tube was removed. She was 41."

Rest in peace Terri, it's over.

Happy Easter everyone (if anyone actually reads this). Here is a link to the Wall Street Journal site that has downloadable living wills, Free. Now I'm off for eggs and baccy :)

By RICHARD SISKDAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU
Christa Carpenter of Clearwater, Fla., holds crucifix as she stands among fellow pro-life protesters outside Terri Chiavo’s hospice in Pinellas Park, Fla.
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Protesters gather yesterday before Terri Schiavo's hospice. Schiavo was on sixth day without food or water.
-->WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court dealt a lethal blow to the efforts to keep Terri Schiavo alive yesterday and a Florida judge, noting the tempers surrounding the case, warned Gov. Jeb Bush against taking the law into his own hands.
The severely brain-damaged woman was on her sixth day without food and water as her husband, Michael, appeared to have finally won the right to allow his wife to die.
Terri Schiavo has been diagnosed as being in a persistent vegetative state for 15 years, and her husband has battled for 12 years with her parents, who believe she can be helped.
Michael Schiavo and Terri's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, held separate bedside vigils yesterday at the hospice near Tampa. Mary Schindler became distraught at the sight of her deteriorating daughter and had to leave the room, family friends said.
The Schindlers lost their last legal hopes yesterday when the full Supreme Court refused to hear the case.
About the same time, Florida state Circuit Court Judge George Greer dismissed Bush's effort to enter new medical evidence alleging that Schiavo's brain damage was "misdiagnosed."
Greer also took the remarkable step of alerting county sheriffs to block any attempt by state troopers to remove Schiavo from the hospice.
Earlier in the week, Bush had threatened to seize custody of Terri.
"I don't want this thing to turn into a donnybrook" that would turn a tragic family feud into a fiasco as troopers faced off with sheriffs, Greer said.
Bush's lawyers quickly entered the same motion with Federal District Judge James Whittemore, who has previously refused to restore Terri's feeding tube. Whittemore said he would rule quickly, but warned lawyers to eliminate the "emotional rhetoric" because it "does not influence this court."
Most of the lawyers and politicians involved in the emotional case indicated that there was nothing left to be done legally.
"We believe that effectively ends the litigation in this case," said George Felos, the lawyer for Michael Schiavo.
The White House issued a statement saying: "The President is saddened by the latest ruling. When there is a complex case such as this, where serious questions have been raised, the President believes we ought to err on the side of life."
Bush and his brother Gov. Bush came under pressure from Christian conservative supporters of the Schindlers to ignore court orders and use their police powers to stop Schiavo from dying.
The supporters announced a protest today at the governor's mansion and ripped the Bushes for knuckling under to "activist judges."
"It's now up to Gov. Bush," said the Rev. Patrick Mahoney outside the Pinellas Park, Fla., hospice where he led a handful of demonstrators.
"Regardless of a court order, we reject the fact that he [Bush] is powerless," said Mahoney, a veteran of right-to-life demonstrations and an "adviser" to the Schindlers.
"We have been bitterly disappointed and are hoping still that Gov. Bush will intervene," said Randall Terry, another self-described "adviser."
The governor acknowledged that his hands are tied.
"It is frustrating for people to think that I have power that I don't, and not be able to act," he said. "I don't have embedded special powers. I wish I did in this particular case."
With News Wire Services
DAY 7
Friends of Terri Schiavo's parents gave these descriptions of her:
Eyes sinking
Skin turning gray
Signs of dehydration
Condition weakening Originally published on March 25, 2005

Terri your suffering is almost over, rest in peace. My heart goes out to Terri's family, both sides. To lose a wife or daughter is tragic, but just as tragic is the political showboating and exploitation that has went on.

The Daily News, Jacksonville NC: "Terri remains in her vegetative condition, but her feeding tube was removed Friday afternoon, according to her husband who sought to have the tube removed and so allow his wife to die. Bob and Mary Schindler, Terri's parents, are working against Michael, doing everything possible to keep their daughter alive. Florida's judicial system has by and large agreed with Michael.
The state's political system has sided with the Schindlers. National attention - both for euthanasia as well as against it - has created such pressure that the whole situation has landed in the Congress, which is in the process of moving the case into the federal court system, which has already said it doesn't want it.
Is this any way for life and death decisions to be made?
Terri Schiavo has become little more than a political football. The real concerns regarding the value of human life that her condition brings to light, have been lost in the power plays between legal, political and judicial authorities. Whether she lives or dies is less important now than who wins or loses. And that's a tragedy."

My god people, awaken and smell the coffee, this poor woman is dead. She would have died a long time ago except for our great technology! I speak from personal experance. My mother lived 14yrs after having a stroke that left her with the mentality of a twelve yr. old. Yes she was alive, but she could not remember what she did five minutes ago. She would create lies for her own gain, this was not the mother I grew up with... this was a diffrent woman who looked like my mother. No matter what I loved her, but it did shape/twist who I became and not only in good ways! Did she have enjoyment and pleasure? No, not really she was bitter because she had to be watched all the time, first by me and for the last six years by nurses in a home. In moment of breif clarity she always said she was sorry we had to go through all of this, and beg for it to end.

Well, the last few weeks have been good for the wife and I. The wife has a lead on a new job and has started treatment for her lymphedema . Now her treatment has her binding her leg up on a daily basis in compression bandages, this of course turns her into a bear to deal with. I, on the otherhand wish I could get a new job. I'm so tired of working graveyards and never getting sleep or enough quality time with the wife. Not to mention the politics & drama in the hotel, soap operas only wish they could be so intresting (but not exciting, for the most part). I had something lines up in Denver but three thousand dollars in moving expenses if it didn't work out was a little to much. Especially when the wife and I are looking at two thousand dollars that we have to pay out for a special compression pump for her leg!

On Saturday Carrie and I (Carrie being the before mentioned wife) on the spur of the moment went and saw Passion of Christ recut. They say Gibson removed seven minutes of the most gory parts of the movie, but the flaying seen still had me cringing. After the movie we headed to Lyles, a bar that is walking distance from our house and crawling distance too our house, not that we ever get that drunk anymore but just in case :) We then made it home to watch a movie but I'm not sure we even made it past the opening credits before going to bed. Sunday Carrie worked I wrote/read and then we watched Extreme Home Makeover, I swear this show brings a tear to my eye almost every time, well nuff said.