The ruling deals a sharp blow to Schiavo patents’  seven-year legal fight.

Additional Reporting By El-Sayed M. Amin, IOL Staff

WASHINGTON, March 24, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The US Supreme Court on Thursday, March 24, rejected a plea from the parents of brain-damaged Florida woman Terri Schiavo to reinstall her feeding tube, dealing a sharp blow to their seven-year legal fight.

The highest US court denied without comment a request made on Wednesday, March 24, by Bob and Mary Schindler for an emergency order to restart nutrition for their daughter, whose feeding tube was removed six days ago, reported Reuters.

In their appeal to the court, the parents said without an order from the Supreme Court Schiavo “will die a horrible death in a matter of days”.

They went to the Supreme Court after their earlier requests were rebuffed by a Florida federal judge.

“If the tube is not reinserted by order of this court, Terri will die before this court is able to consider the merits” of the case, said the 40-page filing to the Supreme Court.

The court twice last week refused to get involved in the Schiavo case and the chances of the parents succeeding with their new appeal were seen as slim, according to Reuters.

Schiavo, a 41-year-old woman who suffered brain damage from a heart attack when she was 26, had her feeding tube removed last Friday under a state court order.

The battle over whether she should live or die, long played out as a wrenching legal dispute between her parents and husband, has snowballed into an emotional and highly politicized drama.

US doctors are still divided on her state of health, with some say she is in persistent vegetative state and others argue she is simply incapacitated.

Preserving Human Life

Siddiqi said “only the Creator of life has the ultimate decision about life and death.”

Dr. Muzammil H. Siddiqi, President of the Fiqh Council of North American, told IslamOnline.net that all religion, particularly Islam, “are deeply concerned about the preservation of the dignity and honor of human life.”

He stressed that “only the Creator of life has the ultimate decision about life and death.”

However, the scholar said if a number of medical experts determine that a patient is in a terminal condition, then it could be permissible for them, through a collective decision, to stop the medication.

He added that if the patient is on life support, it may be permissible, with due consultation and care, to decide to switch off the life support machine and let the nature take its own time.

Dr. Salah Soltan, President of the American Center for Islamic Research, Columbus, Ohio, agreed.

He said if doctors agree beyond any shred of doubt that a patient is clinically dead and that the brain is declared dead, then it is allowed in this case to take off the life support.

This is the view of the European Council for Fatwa and Research, other Fiqh councils and the majority of contemporary scholars, Soltan told IOL.

He stressed that there is no provision in Islam for killing oneself or another person to reduce his/her physical or emotional pain or suffering from sickness or disease.

Mercy killing is forbidden in Islam as it encompasses a positive role on the part of the physician to end the life of the patient and hasten his/her death via lethal injection, electric shock, a sharp weapon or any other way.