A WRENCHING dispute over the fate of Terri Schiavo neared its end yesterday as the brain-damaged Florida woman moved closer to death and her parents gave up their long and bitter legal battle to prolong her life.

As Terri Schiavo drew closer to death Saturday, a Florida state judge rejected another attempt by the brain-damaged woman’s parents to reconnect her feeding tube, leaving the couple with little hope they could keep her alive.

A US government appeals court panel refused to order the reinsertion of brain-damaged Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube, hours after her father said she was weakening and down “to her last hours”.

A lawyer for the husband of Terri Schiavo, the brain-damaged woman at the centre of a life-or-death legal battle, says he expects a court ruling today.

A US federal judge yesterday refused to order the reinsertion of Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube, denying an emergency request from the brain-damaged woman’s parents.

A US judge has reserved his decision on the fate of a brain-damaged woman at the centre of an extraordinary political battle.

A US federal judge weighed the fate of a brain-damaged Florida woman yesterday, acting hours after the US Congress and President George W Bush intervened to push the highly charged right-to-die case back into court.

The parents of Terri Schiavo asked a judge to reinsert their brain-damaged daughter’s feeding tube today, following an extraordinary political fight that consumed both chambers of Congress and prompted the US president to rush back to the White House.