A seven-year legal battle was drawing to a tragic end for the parents of Terri Schiavo tonight, as last ditch efforts to have her feeding tube re-inserted were blocked yet again by the courts.

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.

US doctors last night removed Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube despite an extraordinary, last-minute push by Republicans on Capitol Hill to keep the brain-damaged woman alive.

A Florida judge has extended an order keeping brain-damaged Terri Schiavo’s alive, saying he needed time to decide whether her parents should be allowed to pursue further efforts to keep her husband from removing her life support.