Anti-euthanasia demonstrators in the Florida have begun an around-the-clock vigil to protest a court decision that a severely brain-damaged woman should be allowed to die, say agencies.
Family and friends of Terri Schiavo, who has been incapacitated since suffering a heart attack in 1990, are staging the protest outside the hospice in Pinellas Park where she is being kept alive artificially, said the BBC.
They began the vigil after Florida courts reaffirmed that Mrs Schiavo's husband, Michael, had the right to remove her feeding tube.
After years of legal battles, the tube is due to be removed at 1400 local time (1800 GMT) on Wednesday. Doctors say Mrs Schiavo will then die within two weeks, the BBC said.
Mrs Schiavo's husband says the decision is in accordance with the wishes of his wife, who told him she would never want to be kept alive by tubes.
But her parents, Robert and Mary Schindler, say she could be rehabilitated with therapy, despite medical testimony that her brain is damaged beyond repair.
"I think it's an atrocity what's happening," Robert Schindler said, as some 20 protesters carrying signs with slogans such as "Save Terri" and "Is this hospice or Auschwitz?" moved around behind him. The vigil has been organised by Randall Terry, who founded the anti-abortion group 'Operation Rescue' in the 1980s. "Our intention is to be here 24 hours a day. Our intention is to be peaceful, to be prayerful," he said.
The Schindlers have made numerous attempts to have the decision reversed, but their legal options are now practically exhausted, say legal experts. The Florida Supreme Court has declined to take on the case twice saying it was outside their jurisdiction, and the US Supreme Court too has refused to get involved.
Agencies
