CLEARWATER - The family of a severely brain-damaged woman is urging a judge to reappoint an independent guardian to protect the woman from her husband.
The family says Michael Schiavo wants his wife, Terri Schiavo, to be allowed to die because he is engaged to another woman.
In a court filing Monday, Terri Schiavo's family also asked Pinellas-Pasco Chief Circuit Judge David A. Demers to let guardian ad litem Jay Wolfson determine whether Michael and Terri Schiavo's marriage can be dissolved and to let him oversee swallowing tests to determine whether she can eat on her own.
Michael Schiavo, who is Terri's legal guardian, opposes the reappointment. He denies a conflict of interest and says he is just carrying out his 40-year-old wife's wishes not to be kept alive artificially.
Michael Schiavo has battled his in-laws, Bob and Mary Schindler, for years to get court permission to withdraw his wife's feeding tube. He convinced a judge that his wife had made statements that she would not want to be kept alive artificially.
The Schindlers dispute that their daughter had any such end-of-life wishes and believe her condition could improve with therapy.
Terri Schiavo collapsed in 1990 at age 26 when her heart stopped.
