BY STAFF REPORTER
AN AMERICAN federal judge heard a request by the parents of a severely brain-damaged woman to keep her alive, as The Catholic Herald went to press.
But Judge James Whittemore made no ruling and gave no indication of when he would decide whether to reinsert Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube.
The hearing came after President George W Bush signed emergency legislation allowing another review of the case.
The legislation was passed by both houses of Congress after an impassioned debate and was approved by the president in the early hours of Monday morning.
The White House said the law was narrowly framed and not intended as a precedent for Congress to step into battles over the fate of seriously ill patients.
Mrs Schiavo, 41, who has been in a vegetative state since 1990, has had no food or water since last Friday.
“I will not tell you where, how or when it will be,” Judge Whittemore said of his ruling at the end of a two-hour hearing on Monday.
A lawyer for Mrs Schiavo's parents asked the judge to act quickly.