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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees

Two-Hour Special on Terri Schiavo

Aired March 21, 2005 - 19:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


ANDERSON COOPER, HOST: Good evening from New York. I'm Anderson Cooper.
An accused killer in court, and new details on what really happened to 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford.

A special two-hour edition of 360 starts now.

Child predator John Couey in court, formally charged with the murder of little Jessica Lunsford. Tonight, is someone in your neighborhood preying on kids? What you need to know to keep your children safe.

The battle over Terri Schiavo: the latest on the court case, her family's struggle, and what Congress is doing now to save her life.

What would you do if a loved one asked you to help them die? Tonight, her mother said, I've had enough. Hear how this daughter faced a life-and-death decision.

She was a prisoner inside her own body, unable to speak, unable to tell doctors what she wanted.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KATE ADAMSON, AUTHIR, "KATE'S JOURNEY": I'm screaming inside my body, feed me. Please just feed me something.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Tonight, one woman's terrifying story of life on the brink of death.

Forget names, dates? 360 M.D. Sanjay Gupta tells you how to improve your memory and eliminate those senior moments.

ANNOUNCER: Live from the CNN Broadcast Center in New York, this is a special two-hour edition of ANDERSON COOPER 360.

COOPER: Good evening. Welcome to this special two-hour edition.

We begin in Florida tonight, where a convicted child molester stands accused of murdering Jessica Lunsford. We don't know if she was strangled or smothered, but we now know she died by asphyxiation.

John Evander Couey appeared in court today. He may not appear a monster. He's five-foot-four, a worn-down 46 years old. But what he did, what he's accused of doing, is truly monstrous.

Police say on the night of February 23, Couey, who was staying across the street, entered Lunsford's bedroom, covered her mouth, and then, after telling her to be quiet, took Jessica away.

Her body was found this last Saturday.

Couey is a career criminal with a long rap sheet and a conviction for molesting. He was a registered sex offender, but he was not registered at the address that he was staying at. In other words, this guy slipped through the cracks.

CNN's Heidi Collins looks at how he did it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): From the time he was 18 years old, the jail cells John Evander Couey visited all had revolving doors.

MARK LUNSFORD, JESSICA LUNSFORD'S FATHER: He's been arrested, what did you say, 28 times?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Twenty-three.

LUNSFORD: Twenty-three times? What in the hell is this man doing out here? It doesn't matter what crime he's committed 23 times. Why is he still available to be out here and hurt people?

COLLINS: At least 24 arrests in Florida alone, and 14 of those arrests made by the Citrus County Sheriff's Office, the county where Jessica Lunsford lived.

Couey's record is laced with burglaries, DUIs, drug charges, writing bad checks -- none of which carry long sentences. Then in 1987, a different type of crime, a conviction for indecent exposure -- three days in jail and a fine.

Four years later, John Couey was arrested and charged with fondling a child. He pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of attempted fondling, and was sentenced to the maximum, five years. He served a little less than half that, which was fairly typical for felons in Florida.

Florida law now requires those convicted of serious crimes to serve 75 percent of their sentence.

When he became a free man again, Couey had his name and photo put on a law enforcement Web site, as required, to give the public a chance to log on and see if released sex offenders were living in their neighborhood.

Couey eventually moved to this house, within sight of Jessica Lunsford's home. But that's not the address he had listed on the sex offender Web site.

JOSEPH DAWSON, PETITION CREATOR (on phone): I appreciate every signature you can get for us.

COLLINS: Now, in the town where Jessica lived, there is an appetite to toughen the law. A local jeweler is circulating a petition.

DAWSON: Under the system that I would present, number one, the man would have got 50 years, and Jessica would still be alive today.

COLLINS: But tough laws do not guarantee thorough enforcement. As Citrus County Police acknowledged in this case, they did not know John Couey's real address.

KENDALL COFFEY, LEGAL ANALYST: We are relying on the honor system, counting on the registered sexual offenders themselves to tell us when they move. And to count on people who have already violated society's laws in a horrible way to, in effect, provide the enforcement is obviously a formula that's doomed to failure.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: And listen to this. There are more than 30,000 people classified as sex offenders or predators in Florida. And law enforcement officials agree keeping track of them all would require many more police officers.

But as you heard, Anderson, our legal expert, Kendall Coffey, say, now they're just really relying on the honor system.

COOPER: Which is a horrible phrase to be using with these guys. Thanks very much.

COLLINS: That's true.

COOPER: Well, while we were researching this story, we came across another figure that we found pretty shocking. Did you know that in Homosassa, where John Couey lives, there are 44 registered sex offenders? This out of a population of just 2,300 people.

The question we wanted to know is, how can you find out if a sex offender is living next door to you, or in your neighborhood?

CNN's Adaora Udoji goes in depth beyond the headlines tonight with the information you and your family need to know.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ADAORA UDOJI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The faces of children murdered in the most heinous of ways -- some molested, brutally raped -- have fueled the rapid spread of Megan's Laws, all sparked by the brutal rape and killing of 7-year-old Megan Kanka, killed by a neighborhood sex offender in 1994. Her parents' grief and outrage led to a law in New Jersey tracking pedophiles. That law spread quickly across the country.

ERNIE ALLEN, CENTER FOR MISSING AND EXPLOITED CHILDREN: In most of the states, there are now Web sites, databases, with names and information on registered sex offenders in those states. That's a major step forward.

UDOJI: Today, all states require sexual predators deemed most dangerous -- so-called level three offenders -- to register with local police wherever they live. What's more, laws also require citizens have access to that information. Many states like New York offer Web sites.

Professor Karen Terry says some authorities, though, actively notify neighborhoods. She says it's not a perfect system.

KAREN TERRY, JOHN JAY COLLEGE OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE: Even when you go onto the Internet you're not going to see all the sex offenders who are living in your neighborhood. You're only going to see those that are the highest risk. This is usually individuals who are strangers to their victims, have used some level of violence to their victims. And you're not going to see even level two and level one sex offenders who have already been convicted.

UDOJI: Still, parents have more information about sexual predators than ever before.

ALLEN: Knowledge of an individual's previous history is a terrific tool for parents and families to have. Stay away from that house. Stay away from this man. Don't get in a car with somebody or go with someone without talking to me first. Knowledge is power.

UDOJI: In the end, responsible adults can only protect children from pedophiles if they know where those sexual predators are. Today, parents have more tools with which to look.

Adaora Udoji, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Well, the best way to find out if a sex offender is living near you is to go to your local police station and ask for a list.

It's hard to know what goes through the mind of a molester, but it's important to try to understand them, if for no other reason than to know how to protect your own kids. Rarely are convicted sex offenders willing to speak out, willing to appear on camera.

My next guest, however, is willing. His name Jake Goldenflame. He is a convicted sex offender who served time in prison for repeatedly raping his 3-year-old daughter. He's the author of the book "Overcoming Sexual Terrorism."

Jake Goldenflame joins me now from San Francisco.

Jake, thanks very much for being with us.

JAKE GOLDENFLAME, AUTHOR, "OVERCOMING SEXUAL TERRORISM": Thank you. But I didn't rape my daughter. The charge was fondling.

COOPER: OK, you fondled your daughter. GOLDENFLAME: Yes.

COOPER: OK, repeatedly, from the age of 3 to the age of 5, is that correct, until she told her mother?

GOLDENFLAME: Yes, there were four instances, that's correct.

COOPER: OK. But you had molested teenagers before that.

GOLDENFLAME: Yes. I had a long history before that of going after teenage boys and sexually interacting with them.

COOPER: OK. So you've only done time for the incidents with your daughter, not for the other people you molested.

GOLDENFLAME: That's correct.

COOPER: OK. Since leaving prison in 1991, you say you haven't committed any sexual offenses. You don't consider yourself cured, though. Why?

GOLDENFLAME: There is no such thing as a cure, that's one of the things we learn in treatment. It's like any other kind of addiction- like phenomenon. There is no cure, but with proper training, you can learn to manage it, and you can avoid situations where you're going to attempt it.

COOPER: Are you still in therapy now?

GOLDENFLAME: Not in therapy, but I remain in an ongoing counseling program. And there are people to whom I'm accountable every week in my community. And my neighbors and the people in my building and my landlord all know of my background, because I've told them of it.

COOPER: Why were you -- is it common for molesters to -- I mean, you were molesting young men or young boys, basically, at first.

GOLDENFLAME: Right.

COOPER: And then you switched to molesting your own daughter. Is that common, to switch genders like that?

GOLDENFLAME: No, it's not. And as a result of that, it terrified me. It made me ask myself in horror, What's next? There's something obviously loose in me, and unless I get it under control, this craziness, whatever it is, I hate to think where it will take me next.

I welcomed the opportunity of getting help, and I welcomed going to prison to do so. And I'm grateful to my prison system that it gave me counseling throughout the five years I was there.

COOPER: And is it, I mean, is the impulse, I mean, is it as deeply felt as, you know, someone being attracted to someone their own age? I mean, is it just part -- I mean, is this something you've always felt, always had?

GOLDENFLAME: It's something that I virtually always had. I was molested in my teens myself. That's how my deviant career began. An adult child molester who was on probation in another county molested me.

For the next few years, I was left in a lot of sexual confusion, and at age 21, as a complete surprise to me, I found myself -- and I use that term on purpose, it happened so spontaneously -- I found myself seducing a teenage boy for sex. And I found the experience so overpoweringly intoxicating, I began seeking it again and again and again over the years.

COOPER: You don't trust yourself around children. I mean, you don't (UNINTELLIGIBLE), you, you, on purpose, don't live in a building that has any kids. But how, I mean, how can you avoid being around kids? I mean, you must see them on the street. You know, do you instantly have those thoughts, I'd like to molest that child?

GOLDENFLAME: Let me give you an example. The other day, I got off a municipal bus while I was on one of my errands. And as I stepped off the bus, three feet in front of me at the bus stop was a teenaged boy of exactly the kind I immediately feel an attraction for.

But the training that I've been through, which is called relapse prevention training, kicks in right away and says, Go on to your business, you're here to take care of whatever you're here to take care of.

And I immediately just turned away and start walking and go on my way, and the urge disappears.

COOPER: You know, it no -- without a doubt takes a lot of courage for you to just come on television, talk about this in a very honest way. What do you want parents to know, though, about people like you? I mean, what, I, you know, just hearing you say that, I got to tell you, it frightens me, you know, that you're out there walking around. What should parents know? What should they tell their kids?

GOLDENFLAME: Well, in the first place, I say, tell your children this. Teach them to have a sense of boundaries and a sense of limits. Teach them to have a sense of self-respect. And by all means, teach them this by being an example to them.

There are a number of suggestions that I could offer. With the help of state parole, I came up with 40 of them. And I put them in the book for parents.

COOPER: But this guy, I mean, who is now accused of killing Jessica Lunsford, I mean, he's a registered sex offender, but he wasn't registered where he was living. How common is that?

GOLDENFLAME: OK, this is another thing that I'm moving on right away. In most of the states, or at least in a lot of the states, we're required not only to register where we live, but any other place where we stay. However, the penalty for not doing so is trivial. In Florida, it can be nothing. In California, it can be nothing, which is my state.

So I contacted my state legislature already over the weekend. I talked with the state senate today, and I said, Let's fix this problem right now. Let's have life imprisonment as the penalty for anybody that who doesn't stay registered wherever they are. And I urge your viewers to ask their governors to do the same in their state.

COOPER: Jake Goldenflame, appreciate you joining us. Thanks very much, Jake.

GOLDENFLAME: Thank you.

COOPER: On "NEWSNIGHT" with Aaron Brown tonight, Aaron's going to devote his entire show to protecting kids. That's 10:00 Eastern time on "NEWSNIGHT."

We also have some breaking news to report out of Minnesota, where six people have been killed, 12 people injured, in a shooting incident at Red Lake High School on a Native American reservation, north of the town of Bemidji. I may be pronouncing that incorrectly.

According to local fire officials, the suspect, who is believed to be a student, used a police-issued gun taken from his grandfather's residence. Reports are also that the suspect killed his grandparents before heading to the school.

This is a story that is just coming into CNN. We are going to bring you more details as they come in. We will update you momentarily.

Coming up next on 360, life-and-death decisions. Congress, the president, and the courts weighing in on Terri Schiavo. We're going to look at the morality, the ethics, and, yes, the politics, because there's plenty of politics going around in this heart-wrenching case.

Also ahead tonight, he was sobbing in court. Michael Jackson showing up late to court, seemingly kind of dazed and confused, in an altered state. You see him there. What is going on with him? Take you inside the courtroom ahead.

Also a little later, are you constantly losing your keys, forgetting names? I am. 360 M.D. Sanjay Gupta is going to put your memory and mine, I guess, to the test.

All that ahead. First, let's take a look at your picks, the most popular stories right now on CNN.com.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)

REP. JOHN LEWIS (D), GEORGIA: This is not about values. This is not about religion. It is pandering for political gain with the next election in mind.

REP. TOM DELAY (R-TX), MAJORITY LEADER: It has nothing to do with politics, and it's disgusting to even suggest it.

(END VIDEO CLIPS)

COOPER: Nothing to do with politics? Impassioned arguments on Capitol Hill, but in the end the vote wasn't even close, 203 to 58, allowing Terri Schiavo's parents go to the federal courts in the fight to keep their daughter alive.

Now, as demonstrators keeping vigil outside her hospice -- there they are -- a judge heard the case this afternoon. No ruling yet, nor is there an order about her feeding tube, which, you'll of course know, was disconnected on Friday.

We're going to look at the politics of this in a moment. And as John Zarrella reports, though, from Pinellas Park, Florida, right now, everyone is waiting and arguing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There simply are two very different ways of looking at Terri Schiavo's situation. From one point of view, her fate was decided in 1990 when she collapsed from heart failure, leading to severe brain damage, and leaving her body in a persistent vegetative state.

DEBORAH BUSHNELL, MICHAEL SCHIAVO'S ATTORNEY: The thinking part of her brain is simply gone and is replaced with liquid. Terri has not responded in the 15 years that she's been in this condition.

ZARRELLA: But there's another point of view. Terri Schiavo's parents, along with many in Washington and across the country, who believe that, since her body is still functioning, her life is still worth living and worth fighting for.

BOB SCHINDLER, TERRI SCHIAVO'S FATHER: I told her that we were going to take her for a little trip, and take her outside, and get her some breakfast. And I got a big smile out of her face, so help me God.

DELAY: The legal and political issues may be complicated, but the moral ones are not. A young woman in Florida is being dehydrated and starved to death.

ZARRELLA: This afternoon's legal fireworks wouldn't have been possible without quick action over the weekend by Congress. Lawmakers rushed through a compromise bill allowing Terri Schiavo's parents to literally make a federal case out of their daughter's fate. Up till now, state courts have consistently ruled against her parents and in favor of her husband, who says his wife once told him that in a situation like this, she would have wanted to die.

MICHAEL SCHIAVO, TERRI SCHIAVO'S HUSBAND: This is what Terri wanted. This is Terri's wish, OK? It's not President Bush's wish. This is about Terri Schiavo, not the government, not President Bush and Governor Bush. They should be ashamed of themselves. ZARRELLA: President Bush, who was awakened to sign the new law shortly after 1:00 in the morning, made his first public comments this afternoon in Arizona.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This is a complex case with serious issues. But in extraordinary circumstances like this, it is wise to always err on the side of life.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZARRELLA: While there was no decision from Federal Judge James Whittemore this afternoon, most observers and experts expect it will be a quick decision. In fact, David Gibbs, the attorney representing the Schindlers -- that's Terri Schiavo's parents -- said he would expect it, for obvious reasons, a quick decision. Terri Schiavo has now been disconnected from that feeding tube for three days. The longest she's ever been off the feeding tube was in 2003, when she was disconnected for six days, Anderson.

COOPER: All right, John Zarrella, thanks very much for that.

Tom DeLay just said there's no politics in this case at all, but in these partisan days, it's hard to imagine any case that doesn't have some political implications. In fact, a new CNN poll shows that 56 percent of those responded were in favor of removing the feeding tube from Terri Schiavo, 31 percent were opposed to removing the tube.

This, of course, has become a matter of life and death and, yes, raw politics.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER (voice-over): It was literally an 11th-hour reprieve. The House, called back from Easter recess, held a heated debate, with some Republicans fighting what they called the moral fight.

DELAY: If, as it seems to be the case, this innocent, disabled, but fully alive woman is marked for death by starvation and dehydration, how can we live with ourselves if we don't give her one more chance to live?

COOPER: Some Democrats accused Republicans of playing politics.

LEWIS: This is a step in where we have no business. This is walking where the angels fear to tread. We're playing with a young woman life for the sake of politics. This is not about values. This is not about religion. It is pandering for political gain.

COOPER: At 12:42 a.m., the bill passed, 203 to 58. Forty-seven Democrats voted for it.

WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Republicans showed up to vote in overwhelming numbers, because a lot of them are fearful about having a conservative primary opponent. Democrats are also nervous, and many of them did show up, and they split their votes. They didn't want to vote for this bill, but they're concerned that they could have an opponent in next year's election who runs against them with the message, You voted to kill Terri Schiavo.

COOPER: Republican leaders even passed around a memo to their membership, stressing the importance of the vote to the party's so- called pro-life base, which, it said, "will be excited that the Senate is debating this important issue."

The president signed the bill, sparking complaints from some Democrats, who pointed out that as governor of Texas, Bush had signed a law creating a process for hospitals to remove patients from life support -- sometimes over a family's objections.

And so Terri Schiavo's fate has become a national debate over the rights to preserve a life or to die with dignity, over states' rights versus federal intervention, one family's heartbreaking decision played out on the public stage of raw politics.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Well, my colleague, Paula Zahn, is off this week, so at 8:00 Eastern time tonight we're going to present a 360 special focusing the entire hour on the Terri Schiavo case and life-and-death decisions. What would you do in this case?

You're going to hear from a number of people who have had to face impossible life-and-death decisions.

President Bush is on the road, pushing hard on Social Security. That's just one of the stories making news cross-country this hour.

Erica Hill joins us from Headline News with the latest. Hey, Erica.

ERICA HILL, HEADLINE NEWS: Hi, Anderson, good to see you. Welcome back.

That's right, President Bush on a two-day road trip, stumping for Social Security reform. In Tucson, Arizona, the president said many Americans believe their Social Security contributions are like money in the bank, but then warned the program will start running deficits in 2018 unless something is done before then. The president was joined on stage by Arizona Senator John McCain.

Spilled molten steel caused a fire and an explosion at a steel plant in Dearborn, Michigan, today, injuring six people. The vehicle transporting the hot liquid hit a building, which caused the steel to slosh out, hitting two of the vehicle's tires. It then set the tires on fire, ultimately causing them to explode.

The man charged with a plan to kidnap David Letterman's son is being set up. That's according to Kelly Frank's fiancee. She says one of Frank's friends has been trying to incriminate him since the two had a falling out, adding the friend twisted an offhand remark Frank made about security at Letterman's Montana ranch into a threat against the child.

All right, so much for the shopping spree. Dozens of people thought they'd won $100,000 in the "New York Daily News" Scratch-and- Match sweepstakes game. But it turns out the newspaper printed one of the numbers wrong, so no one won the $100,000 prize, and hundreds of people are understandably upset, Anderson.

Hope you weren't one of the ones that thought you won.

COOPER: There are a lot of angry people, though, understandably. Erica, thanks. We'll see you back in about 30 minutes.

Coming up next on 360, Michael Jackson was sobbing in court today. He showed up late, seemingly dazed and confused. Kind of shuffling there. Kind of, well, is he coming unraveled? That's what some court watchers wanted to know. We'll take you inside the courtroom today.

Also ahead tonight, it was a drama that captivated the country. A child falls into a gorilla cage. Terrified onlookers watched helplessly. The animal played hero, though. The astonishing rescue was all caught on tape. All right, whatever happened to this great ape? Going to take a look, part of our week-long series, Caught on Tape.

And a little later, remembering not to forget. 360 M.D. Sanjay Gupta is going to put your memory to the test. How sharp is your brain? We'll find out ahead. Covering all the angles.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Well, most days Michael Jackson usually strolls into court, kind of waves. Today he struggled, looking weak and wobbly. The singer barely managed to make it to the defense table. And instead of the testimony taking center stage today, the focus all day was, what is wrong with Mike?

CNN's Miguel Marquez is following the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The fans chanted for Michael Jackson, but the self-described King of Pop only mustered a weak wave and a peace sign. Did he even know the fans were there?

STEVE CORBETT, "SANTA MARIA TIMES": He seemed dazed. His eyes seemed not focused on where he was.

MARQUEZ: Jackson, supported by a bodyguard and his brother, Jackie, was five minutes late. Once there, his face was blank, and he appeared confused. He sat down gingerly, grabbed a handful of tissues, and began to sob. Moments later, he got up and made his way toward the exit. His hands shook uncontrollably as he held tissues to his mouth. It appeared the pop star was about to vomit.

CORBETT: People seemed very, very concerned for his well-being physically and mentally, I believe. MARQUEZ: A local doctor wearing scrubs beneath a Letterman jacket joined Jackson's team for a short time, just in case. In the end, testimony in the child molestation case was 45 minutes delayed. The judge said nothing about Jackson's tardiness.

CORBETT: For the most part, Michael Jackson was sitting quietly, relatively still, listening.

MARQUEZ: And the trial went on. A flight attendant testified she'd previously served Jackson white wine in a Diet Coke can and hid minibottles of hard liquor for the pop star in the plane's bathroom. She also testified she never saw Jackson give any child a drink.

By day's end, Jackson seemed to have recovered somewhat.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you OK? You look (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...

MICHAEL JACKSON, ENTERTAINER: Well, very much hurting, I'm in pain.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MARQUEZ: Well, in pain, he says. But Mr. Jackson also on the way out of court admitted to taking doctor-prescribed medication. He didn't say what it was or how much he was taking. You should also know that all of this drama today happened outside the presence of the jury. All they knew is that the court day got off to a late start, Anderson.

COOPER: You think this case can't get any more bizarre, and it does, every time. Miguel Marquez, thanks very much.

An update now on breaking news to report out of Minnesota where eight people have been killed, 12 people injured in a related incident at a home and at Red Lake High School, on an Indian reservation north of the town of Ojibwa. Among the dead there in Minnesota are a female teacher, a male security officer and four students, two of them girls, two of them boys -- one of whom is thought to have been the shooter.

According to local fire officials, the suspect, who is believed to be a student, used a police-issued gun taken from his grandfather's residence. Reports are also that the suspect shot his grandparents before heading to school. This story is just breaking. We are just getting details. It's in an as isolated part in Minnesota. We're trying to get eyewitness accounts as soon as we can. We will bring those to you as soon as we get them.

Forget names, dates? 360 M.D. Sanjay Gupta tells you how to improve your memory and eliminate those senior moments.

And it was a rescue caught on tape that captivated the country. A baby who fell into a zoo's primate pit is rescued by a gorilla. Tonight, whatever happened to the gentle giant that saved a baby's life?

360 continues. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Who could forget those images? Those images we just saw, a little boy and a gorilla in the Chicago Zoo Primate Building, something we wouldn't have seen if there weren't the prevalence of home video cameras. They have changed the way we remember and cover news events. All this week we're going to be looking at stories that were caught on tape and what's happened to the people involved in those unforgettable images.

CNN's Keith Oppenheim takes us back to that remarkable day at the Chicago Zoo.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): She sits in her favorite spot quietly scratching her head, seemingly unaware she was once a star. But 9 years ago, Binta Jua, commonly referred to as Binti, got about as famous as gorillas get.

CRAIG DEMITROS, LEAD KEEPER FOR PRIMATES: We did receive a lot of inquiries about what happened the day it happened on that Friday. But the Saturday that that tape went out, it just exploded. It became a huge story.

OPPENHEIM: Craig Demitros, keeper for primates at the Brookfield Zoo in suburban Chicago took us back to a day he won't ever forget, a day documented on this home video. On August 16th, 1996, a healthy crowd was walking through Brookfield's Primate Building. The unphotographed prelude, a 3-year-old boy, restless toddler that he was, gets into trouble.

DEMITROS: We heard that he climbed over the railing, teetered on the edge of the planter here, and as he fell in he did a somersault and fortunately landed on his rear end.

OPPENHEIM (on camera): Went down how far?

DEMITROS: It's roughly 24 feet or so to the bottom of the exhibit.

BILL LAMBERT, ZOO VISITOR: Right there was the scream. You heard a scream.

OPPENHEIM (voice-over): Bill Lambert was the man with the camera, nearby with his wife and children, videotaping, when he heard screams and a thud. Lambert actually forgot he was still recording.

LAMBERT: So I went to see what was going on. Then I met up with one of the zoo keepers here, started running.

OPPENHEIM: In seconds, Lambert got to the gorillas and zoomed in just to get a closer look. In the mist of the exhibit's waterfall, Binti picked up the boy and carried him. Lambert was surprised that a gorilla, who was carrying her own baby on her back, would appear to take such care of a human child. Still not aware he was recording Bill Lambert got what became a lasting image.

LAMBERT: Then after the gorilla went around to the corner to end up in this position here, it looked like that she was rocking him, you know. And it just didn't -- didn't think that she was going to hurt him.

OPPENHEIM: The zoo staff sprayed water, a signal for all apes to leave the main exhibit and go down to their nighttime quarters.

DEMITROS: The exhibit space is the animals' space. And having a person in there or an object that's not part of the normal routine, you're not quite sure what that response is going to be.

OPPENHEIM: Binti's response was to set the boy down gently. As the gorillas were herded out, paramedics came in and took the unconscious child to a hospital.

(on camera): We're told by zoo officials though the boy suffered head injuries, he made a full recovery. And perhaps if he and his family had spoken up, this tale might have taken a different turn. But they never did. The identity of the boy was never publicized. Instead, at the urging of Bill Lambert's boss, the tape turned up on local TV, then of course on national TV and next, with the Democratic Convention coming to town in 1996, loads of international news crews looking for something to do came to the Brookfield Zoo all wanting a picture of Binti.

MELINDA PRUETT-JONES, CURATOR FOR PRIMATES: You know, this story just took on a life of its own from the moment it became a story.

OPPENHEIM (voice-over): Melinda Pruett-Jones is a curator at the zoo. She says the staff realized on video Binti had broken a myth that gorillas are like King Kong, aggressors who attack.

PRUETT-JONES: From our perspective, the story that could be told was how she really behaved in a way indicative of her species. How -- what an incredible ambassador she can be for gorillas.

OPPENHEIM (voice-over): Today, nine years later Binti is still that ambassador. Visitors to the zoo still ask, which one saved the little boy? Staff point out Binti and explain she's pregnant now, about to give birth any day. And remember the baby on Binti's back? Her name's Koola, she just gave birth to her own daughter, making Binti a pregnant grandma. As for everyone else, Bill Lambert realizes he stumbled into history.

LAMBERT: If I would have pushed the record button to tape, I was already taping, it would have stopped and I never would have got this. So it's dumb luck.

OPPENHEIM: And the Brookfield Zoo staff realized they got an unforgettable lesson in public relations, that a crisis caught on tape could teach the world more about these gentle giants than words alone might have ever accomplished.

PRUETT-JONES: You could talk about it, you could describe it, somebody -- an eyewitness could have said, you know, well this is what I saw. But to actually be able to see it and draw your own conclusions it's amazing.

OPPENHEIM: Keith Oppenheim, CNN, Chicago.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Well, from unforgettable moments caught on videotape to the everyday forgettable, what happens when you just can't remember basic things? It happens to me actually, sadly all the time. A boot camp for your brain coming up on 360. 360 M.D. Sanjay Gupta puts your brain to the test, and shows us how we can stave off some memory lose.

Also ahead tonight, the world and 360, a look at protest in Lebanon and the push for Syria to get out.

And life and death decisions, a one hour special coming up at 8:00 p.m. The Terri Schiavo case has all of us asking what would you do -- what would we do if faced with a life and death decision. We're going to focus on people who've had to make impossible choices about their loved ones.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hi, I'm Tom.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Henry.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Marlon.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Doug.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hi.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Those are cool flip-flops. Where did you get them?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Like those -- interesting story, I was on the North Shore the other day...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hi, I'm Todd.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Henry.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hi.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Marlon.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tom lost part of his brain in a hunting accident. His memory only lasts 10 seconds.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was in an accident? That's terrible. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't worry. You'll totally get over it in about three seconds.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: That was the movie, 50 First Dates, it's taking memory loss to the extreme. Funny in the movies, not so funny in those senior moments when you can't remember dates or names or where you put the darn car keys. If that is you, you are not alone. It happens to me all the time. Up to 70 percent of adults say they have problems memorizing, recalling or learning new information. Now, pay attention because we're going to test your memory later on.

As we start our week long series "Refresh Your Memory," Dr. Gupta shows us a doctor in Los Angeles who says he can help by putting brain and body through some basic training.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LINDA JENKINS: Thanks. I'll talk to you later. Hi, this is Linda.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: In her line of work, 53-year-old Linda Jenkins spends practically all day talking.

JENKINS: You know what, I don't even know who I was talking to. What? I'm lost.

GUPTA: And lately she's been hitting some blank spots.

JENKINS: A big...

GUPTA: Causing her a lot of anxiety.

JENKINS: I'll be talking along and all of a sudden -- when that happens so often, it causes tension. It is frustrating, absolutely, to me it is.

GUPTA: So Jenkins is trying an unusual program to fix her memory flame outs. The first boot camp for the brain run by the Memory Fitness Institute in Fountain Valley, California.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I hope I remember to come.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I hope so too.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can go home today and start protecting your brain.

GUPTA: The brains of the operation is Dr. Gary Small. The program based on his book "The Memory Prescription." He has spent his life trying to unravel the memory mystery. While admitting there are other factors, he says simple lifestyle changes can improve your memory in just 14 days.

DR. GARY SMALL, DIRECTOR, UCLA CENTER ON AGING: What can we do today to keep our brains healthy and fit? And here it is, the big four, mental activity, physical conditioning, healthy diet and stress reduction, the key to memory fitness.

GUPTA: Back at boot camp, Jenkins is already busy. First, stocking up on healthy brain foods rich in antioxidants and with plenty of omega three fatty acids which Small says may keep brain cells from degenerating. Some of his suggestions are blueberries, prunes, salmon and nuts. Another prescription, cut down on stress. That's a memory-buster.

JENKINS: That's enough.

GUPTA: Two other key elements of the program, exercise your body and your brain. Like zany storytelling methods to remember lists of words.

JENKINS: The more fantastic or exaggerated you can make the picture, the easier it is to remember.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I had a lawyer wearing a vest eating an artichoke and a banana.

GUPTA: Mind benders or simply writing with your left hand if your right-handed. All are ways boot campers sharpen their brains during weekly minutes.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GUPTA: All right, Anderson mentioned that memory quiz, so here it is. We're going to let Anderson sit this one out, because he does so well on quizzes in the past.

First question, at the beginning of the segment there was a particular movie that we profiled. What was the name of that movie?

All right. Second question, Anderson showed a graphic before specifically talking about the percentage of adults that have troubles with their memory, what was the number?

And finally, in the same graphic, there was picture of a flower -- OK, this is sort of cheating because you see the flower right there. What kind of flower is that? A sun flower. I wonder if you got that.

Most of you, statistically probably got at least one of those questions wrong. And the question a lot of people are asking is why and what can I do about it?

It's sort of interesting -- big reason, really, is that as we pay -- don't pay attention to things. We don't encode things as well, and therefore, they don't get stored into our brain. Sounds pretty simple, but it's harder and harder every day. In fact there was a recent study -- Richard Wurman, who's an information guru, said, every day "The New York Times" has more information in it than we took in in our entire lives in the 17th century. More information, we've got to pay attention. A really quick simple tip. If you're trying to remember something -- trying to remember a person's name, a person's face -- look, snap, connect. Look at that person, snap something together with them, take a snapshot and then connect it with something that you already know. Look, snap, connect, Anderson.

COOPER: OK, look, snap, connect.

GUPTA: Sanjay Gupta.

COOPER: Yes. No, I remember who you are. Right. Sanjay, right. It's a good example, though, of how bad short-term memory is for many of us. I mean, what are some quick tips for actually improving it?

GUPTA: You know, a big thing -- and this again is going to sound pretty simple. As we worked on this documentary, we found paying attention is a much more important tip than people realize. Actually, paying attention to someone's name when they say it. Also the things that Gary Small talks about in this book, physical conditioning, mental conditioning, as well, crossword puzzles, all sorts of different puzzles to try and keep your brain sharp. Those things seem to help. If you're someone who loses your keys every day, put your key in the same spot. You won't lose it the next day.

COOPER: You know, it's true. When someone says their name I just don't listen. And a second later I'm like, what was your name again?

GUPTA: Pay attention.

COOPER: I know, I should. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thanks very much.

GUPTA: Thank you.

COOPER: "Refresh Your Memory," his series continues all this week. Tomorrow we're going to look at the role stress can play in messing with our memory.

And we do have some breaking news from Minnesota right now, where a gunman bursts into a school this afternoon killing several people. Erica Hill from Headline News joins us with the latest -- Erica.

ERICA HILL, CNN HEADLINE NEWS ANCHOR: Yes. Hi, Anderson. We're learning a little more. We know now six people have been killed in that shooting rampage at a high school on the Red Lake Indian Reservation. Local officials say a total of 18 people were shot, not all of them students. The FBI says a teacher, a security guard and four students were killed. One of those students is thought to have been the shooter.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SPECIAL AGENT PAUL MCCABE, FBI: Well, we're still -- it's still a very fluid investigation, and we're not going to go into too much detail, but I wanted you to get the facts. We'll keep you apprised as the investigation continues and as we have more facts. But right now there's still a lot of work to do. They're still clearing the school as a safety precaution, even though we do believe that the shooter is among the dead, the deceased.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Local authorities say the gunman shot and killed his grandparents before going to the school. And we'll continue to follow this and bring more details as they become available.

In other news, gas prices are at a record high and still climbing. The government says the average price for regular unleaded now $2.10 a gallon. That's up 37 cents from a year ago. President Bush said today he knows Americans are feeling the squeeze and urged Congress to take action on his energy bill.

Queen Camilla -- got a ring to it, right. Better get used to it. British officials say Camilla Parker-Bowles would become queen after all if Prince Charles assumes the throne. They say to deny her the title of queen would require changing laws in Britain and more than a dozen other countries where the British sovereign is head of state. Though, when he announced his engagement, of course, Prince Charles said his future wife would be known by the title princess consorts. A little bit of change there.

That's the latest on Headline News. Anderson, back to you.

COOPER: All right, Erica, thanks very much. See you back in 30 minutes.

Coming up next on 360, the world in 360. What it was like to be in Beirut during the mass protests calling for freedom.

Also tonight, coming up, our one-hour special "LIFE AND DEATH DECISIONS," a look at the life Terri Schiavo and her husband once led. Also people who've had to make terrible choices, ultimate choices. How one woman helped her mother end her life.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK

COOPER: We spent last week in the Middle East, in Lebanon and in Syria, amazed at the push for democracy taking place in Lebanon.

Tonight our "Reporter's Notebook," with a number of photos taken by Graham Robertson from Getty Images. We don't think we cover international news nearly enough, so from now, on each night we'll be devoting part of our broadcast to take you around the world. Tonight's "Reporter's Notebook" is "The World in 360."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: To say what's happening right now in Lebanon is historic, it's true of course, but, I don't know -- "historic," it makes it sound so dry, so dull. What's happening here is alive. It's pulsing. It's powerful. People, many for the first time in their lives, are standing up, speaking out, are demanding freedom. The final straw was the assassination of the former prime minister. CNN's Beirut Bureau Chief Brent Sadler got us access to the crime scene. From the wreckage, you can see the direction of the blast. It looked to me like an underground explosion, but there's no official word yet. No suspects, no arrests. It's been more than a month. You try to get across the violence of the blast, but it's hard to show the scope of the damage. You really need to step back, see it with a wide-angle lens.

We've been broadcasting every night from the tent encampment that protesters have set up in Martyr's Square. They're really glad we're here and are excited that people around the world are aware of what they're doing. It's rare in the Middle East to hear people say, thank you, America. We've heard it over and over. They've been deeply influenced by elections in Iraq and seem thankful the U.S. and Europe are pressuring Syria to pull out of Lebanon.

Monday's demonstration was probably the most important day so far; well over half a million people were there. And, remember, this country has only four million people, so the turnout was just incredible. We were in the crowd and at times you could barely move. People were so happy, surprised almost that they were able to do this.

After years of living silently with Syrian occupation, it seemed like they weren't afraid anymore. Some people held signs that said zoom out; they wanted the TV cameras to zoom out and show how big the turnout really was. From inside the crowd you couldn't tell. I went on top of a building and I couldn't believe it, it was just a sea of white and red flags. I'd never seen anything like it.

When you think of all this country has been through, all the pain and all the death, it was an extraordinary moment. I feel privileged to have been here.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: "The World in 360."

Up next in our one-hour special on life and death decisions in the Terri Schiavo case: protesters in front of the Florida courthouse where Terri Schiavo's fate may be decided -- going to have a complete update on the latest developments.

Also, what's it like to have a feeding tube removed? We hear from a woman who lived to tell the story. She was trapped in her own body.

And a late wish, or a last wish. We take a look at a different kind of life-and-death event. The daughter who helped her mother die.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: This is a complex case with serious issues. But in extraordinary circumstances like this, it is wise to always err on the side of life. [ cheers and applause ]

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: And life and death decisions are something that each of us will face sometime. But it's pretty rare that Congress gets involved, as it has in the Terri Schiavo case.

For the next hour, in this special edition of 360, we're going to look not only at the Schiavo case, but others with similar circumstances but different outcomes. We'll also tell you what steps you can take to avoid a fight over your fate or the fate of a loved one.

Let's begin in court today where the Terri Schiavo battle has been so often fought for the last decade. The difference this time was that it was a federal court, the result of a weekend of high- stakes maneuvering that went all the way to the White House.

CNN's Elizabeth Cohen brings us up to date.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For 15 years, the Terri Schiavo that everyone remembers as loving stuffed animals and Danielle Steele novels has been a mere shell of her former self. Her family members all agree she's terribly brain damaged, the result of years of bulimia which caused a potassium deficiency and her heart to stop for about five minutes. The painful, public and protracted family battle is over whether she would want to live the way she is knew or whether there's a glimmer of hope for her to improve.

MICHAEL SCHIAVO, TERRI SCHIAVO'S HUSBAND: I fought this long for Terri and I love her dearly, and I made that promise to her and I'm going to hold it out.

BOBBY SCHINDLER, TERRI SCHIAVO'S BROTHER: We don't believe these are Terri's wishes; we believe these are Michael's wishes. Terri has been fighting 15 years. She has an iron will to live. She hasn't given up on us and we're certainly not going to give up on her.

COHEN: So now the 42-year-old woman remains caught between two groups, both of whom say they love her, and both of whom who think they know what's best for Terri. And with her feeding tube pulled Friday under the direction of her husband, the other family members were refused entry to her hospice for several hours on Sunday.

ROBERT SCHINDLER, TERRI SCHIAVO'S FATHER: All I know is that we were told that Schiavo has blocked our visitation.

QUESTION: How were you notified?

SCHINDLER: Police. Right up here. You go through and they won't let you through. They won't let us go in. They stopped us. We can't go see our daughter.

QUESTION: The police stopped you? And what did they say to you? SCHINDLER: We're not permitted to see Terri for Michael Schiavo.

COHEN: But Terri Schiavo's also become a poster case for two sides of a larger debate, one that happened in the halls of the U.S. Congress late Sunday night.

REP. JAMES SENSENBRENNER (R), WISCONSIN: Terri Schiavo, a person whose humanity is as undeniable as her emotional responses to her family's tender care-giving, has committed no crime and has done nothing wrong. Yet, the Florida courts have brought Terri and the nation to an ugly crossroads by commanding medical professionals sworn to protect life to end Terri's life.

REP. BARNEY FRANK (D), MASSACHUSETTS: This is a terribly difficult decision which we are institutionally, totally incompetent to make, and to allow ideology to triumph in that context is a shame.

COHEN: That Terri Schiavo loved life is not part of the debate. What remains to be answered is whether she loved it enough to hate the condition she's in now or loved it enough to live on despite the condition she's in now. A question she can't answer.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COHEN (on camera): While she can't answer that question now, a lawyer for Michael Schiavo told a federal judge today that, during her life, before her heart attack, Terri Schiavo said that she would not want to live in a vegetative state. Her parents, however, told the judge that, as a devout Catholic, Terri Schiavo would want to follow papal teachings and accept food and water despite her condition.

Anderson?

COOPER: Elizabeth Cohen, thanks very much for that from Tampa.

No parent wants to face this dilemma, of course. However, when our pollsters asked, if your child were in the same condition as Terri Schiavo, would you remove the feeding tube? Fifty-six percent said yes; 34 percent said no.

Well, for that 34 percent, as for Terri Schiavo's parents, the reason to hope comes from a few near miraculous comebacks.

Paula Zahn is off this week, but she left us this incredible story of one such comeback that gives others hope.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN (voice-over): For the past 15 years, Terri Schiavo has been in what some doctors call a persistent vegetative state, breathing on her own, but relying on a feeding tube to stay alive. These are the last images of her to be made public.

At the age of 26, she suffered permanent brain damage, the result of sudden heart failure. Court-appointed physicians reported her chances of meaningful neurologic recovery to be virtually nonexistent. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Terri, can you look at me?

ZAHN: But that diagnosis has ignited a legal firestorm.

DR. WILLIAM MAXFIELD, RADIOLOGIST: There's a significant probability that she would improve.

DR. MELVIN GREER, NEUROLOGIST: There is no treatment that is available that can help this unfortunate young woman.

ZAHN: Part of the debate is concern about misdiagnosis. Studies have shown the condition known as persistent vegetative state is wrongly diagnosed up to 40 percent of the time. Terri's once close family is now bitterly divided over her chances of recovery.

(on camera): What do you think she understands?

MARY SCHINDLER, MOTHER OF TERRI SCHIAVO: Every time she hears my voice, I know she knows who I am, because, when I say it's mommy, she starts laughing and she starts trying to make vocal sounds.

Hi. You look so pretty.

DEBORAH BUSHNELL, ATTORNEY FOR MICHAEL SCHIAVO: Terri does not respond. She has very little cerebral cortex left. The thinking part of her brain is simply gone and replaced with liquid. Terri has not responded in the 15 years that she's been in this condition.

ZAHN (voice-over): As Terri's legal guardian, her husband, Michael, has the right to end her life since she never put her wishes in writing.

MICHAEL SCHIAVO, HUSBAND OF TERRI SCHIAVO: This is what Terri wanted. This is Terri's wish. OK. It's not President Bush's wish. This is about Terri Schiavo, not the government, not President Bush and Governor Bush. They should be ashamed of themselves.

ZAHN (on camera): It seems to me that you're greatly concerned about how she will suffer in that process.

BOB SCHINDLER, FATHER OF TERRI SCHIAVO: Just, it's unconscionable, what is going on. It's beyond belief. If you do that to a dog, they'd put you away. My God, what would happen if you tried it with an animal. And yet they want to do that to my daughter.

ZAHN: Kate Adamson knows firsthand what Terri might endure.

KATE ADAMSON, AUTHOR, "KATE'S JOURNEY": The stomach pains, the hunger pains overrode any other thought that I had.

ZAHN: After suffering a massive stroke at the age of 33, Kate was thought to be in a persistent vegetative state. She remembers what it felt like to be a prisoner of her own body.

ADAMSON: Terrifying, totally devastating. I was isolated, lonely. I wanted to scream out, I'm in here. I'm alive. Can't you hear me?

ZAHN: As part of her treatment, she was disconnected from a feeding tube for nine days. First, there was dehydration.

ADAMSOM: I craved green Gatorade, of all things, and I don't even like Gatorade.

ZAHN: And then the hunger pains.

ADAMSOM: I'm screaming inside my body, feed me. Will you please just feed me something? But don't starve me.

ZAHN: Kate believes that, if Terri is aware and her feeding tube is pulled, her parents have reason to worry.

ADAMSOM: This isn't something that's peaceful and comfortable to be in that position. It's painful. You know, I can't think of any other worse way to die, being starved to death.

ZAHN: But, still, Terri's parents are encouraged by the miraculous recovery of Sarah Scantlin, who woke up out of a coma after 20 years.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What do you tell me when I leave?

SARAH SCANTLIN, FORMER COMA VICTIM: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And...

SCANTLIN: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

ZAHN (on camera): When you heard that story, what went through your mind?

M. SCHINDLER: I was really excited, because with Sarah talking and a new test for the brain waves, maybe she could, you know, talk like Sarah's talking.

ZAHN: The new tests come from a groundbreaking study, which shows more brain activity in minimally conscious patients than previously believed.

DR. ZACHARY LEVINE, NEUROSURGEON: These minimally conscious patients actually do respond to their environment. It's clearly a sign of, it's not just a brain stem that's functioning. The higher parts, the thinking parts, the personality parts of the brain are actually functioning even in a comatose state.

ZAHN: And that, the Schindlers say, is why they're fighting so desperately to keep Terri alive.

BOB SCHINDLER: We want her to have that test. She deserves it. She's entitled to it, and that will measure her brain waves and prove once and for all that she's not in a persistent vegetative state, she's not in a coma and that she just needs therapy.

ZAHN: Terri's husband, however, insists that his in-laws are clinging to false hope.

M. SCHIAVO: They all testified in court that, even if Terri wanted this, they wouldn't remove it. It's because this is what they want.

ZAHN (on camera): Do you really think you know Terri's wishes better than her husband's?

M. SCHINDLER: Michael lived with my daughter for five years. I've known my daughter all her life, and Terri is not the type of person that would say anything like that. I know her.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER (voice-over): What would you do if a loved one asked you to help them die? Tonight, her mother said, I've had enough. Hear how this daughter faced a life-and-death decision.

She was a prisoner inside her own body, unable to speak, unable to tell doctors what she wanted.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ADAMSAON: I'm screaming inside my body, feed me. Please, just feed me something.

COOPER: Tonight, one woman's terrifying story of life on the brink of death.

A 360 special edition, "Life and Death Decisions," continues in a moment.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JAMES SENSENBRENNER (R), WISCONSIN: I find myself wondering, why is there so much focus on this life, when we ignore the countless lives throughout the world who die minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day from hunger and disease that this Congress could address and this Congress could prevent? Why only Terri, why only Terri, when there are others like her in our country?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: In this special edition of 360, we are looking in-depth at the Terri Schiavo case, but also life-and-death situations that many other families have had to make. There's been conflicting medical testimony about Schiavo's condition, what she knows, what she feels. We're going to take a look at that in a moment.

But another woman's story caught our attention tonight. It's another of those stories used as an example by those who want to keep Terri Schiavo alive. Twenty years after an accident left 18-year-old Sarah Scantlin with a head injury, unable to speak, she has broken her silence and left doctors at a loss for words.

CNN's Paula Zahn has her story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BETSY SCANTLIN, MOTHER OF SARAH: Sarah, OK, we'll see you.

ZAHN (voice-over): Betsy and Jim Scantlin having a conversation with their daughter, something that was unthinkable for two decades.

B. SCANTLIN: Yes, I love you, too.

JIM SCANTLIN, FATHER OF SARAH: Bye-bye.

ZAHN: Now it's what they cherish most. The last time Sarah spoke was in 1984. She was 18 years old, a freshman in college. She had a new part-time job and a spot on the school's drill team. She was out celebrating with friends.

J. SCANTLIN: It was closing time and they were going across to their vehicle.

ZAHN: A drunken driver hit Sarah head on.

B. SCANTLIN: The car was going so fast that it pitched her over the top of the car like a piece of meat. She fell on the back of the car.

J. SCANTLIN: It ended Sarah as she was.

ZAHN: Her doctors said she wouldn't walk, probably would never move on her own and would never talk.

J. SCANTLIN: Here's a child that you dearly love and alive physically and obviously alert. She knew what was going on. And, yet, that door was closed. And I'll tell you what. After year after year after year, that's -- that's a lot to handle.

ZAHN: Since the accident, Sarah has received 24-hour care.

B. SCANTLIN: She didn't say anything or didn't even make a sound for 18 years.

ZAHN: Then something happened. A phone call and two simple words changed everything.

B. SCANTLIN: Hi, mom. That was it. Hi, mom.

J. SCANTLIN: And I said, Betsy, am I going nuts? It sounds like you're talking to Sarah.

B. SCANTLIN: I went, Sarah, is that you? And she said, yes. I said, what are you doing? (LAUGHTER)

J. SCANTLIN: A look in her eye that I haven't seen for many, many years. I grabbed the phone, and I say, sis, this is dad. And she says, hi, dad. And I will tell you what, it was the most touching, thrilling moment.

(APPLAUSE)

ZAHN: There was a party to celebrate and more precious words.

SARAH SCANTLIN, DAUGHTER: I love you.

ZAHN: Since then, Betsy and Jim have heard their daughter say many words, even short sentences, but there hasn't been a complete conversation.

B. SCANTLIN: We're still waiting for her to do the initiating of a question.

J. SCANTLIN: Yes.

B. SCANTLIN: We haven't heard that yet.

ZAHN: Now it's Sarah's doctor who is at a loss of words, at least when it comes to explaining how she regained her speech.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is very unusual, and I think it's a miraculous change of events. And we're just all really thrilled how she starting to communicate.

ZAHN: The brain is not very good at repairing physical damage. But doctors believe, over time, it can rewire itself. So, how far will Sarah go? Doctors can't say. But her parents say she's not finished yet.

B. SCANTLIN: Oh, no.

J. SCANTLIN: Oh, no.

B. SCANTLIN: Heavens no.

J. SCANTLIN: Life is -- there's just so much there. I'm not finished, and Sarah has got things to do. And I'm glad I'm going to be part of it.

B. SCANTLIN: I don't know what's in store for Sarah in the future. I don't know what's in store for myself, but today is going to be a good day, because I'm going to talk to her after a while. I'm going to say hi, Sarah. And she's going to say hi back.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Of course, every case is different. The Terri Schiavo case has politicians and special interests squabbling right now over medicine and ethics and of course over politics. But what's interesting about the case is that even doctors cannot agree just what her condition is.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta talked with two doctors who examined Terri Schiavo and found two very divided opinions. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In a medical case as high profile as Terri Schiavo, you would think the medical experts would have all the answers. But just by listening to them and reviewing statements they gave to the court, it's easy to see why a final answer is so complicated.

DR. WILLIAM HAMMESFAHR, NEUROLOGIST: I spent about 10 hours across about three months. And the woman is very aware of her surroundings. She's very aware. She's alert. She's not in a coma. She's not in PVS.

GUPTA: PVS, persistent vegetative state. Dr. Hammesfahr was chosen by Terri Schiavo's parents to testify in court, his opinion very different from Dr. Ronald Cranford, chosen by Michael Schiavo, Terri's husband.

DR. RONALD CRANFORD, NEUROLOGIST: A vegetative state is a scary diagnosis. Unless you know what you're looking for, it looks like the patient is interacting. But Terri is not interacting.

GUPTA: Both of them are neurologists and their conclusions are based on diagnostic tests that are supposed to be objective. Yet, they tell different tales.

HAMMESFAHR: Her C.T. scan has maybe 75 percent of the brain tissue still left.

CRANFORD: I've seen her. There's no doubt in my mind whatsoever, she's in a permanent vegetative state. Her CAT scan shows extremely severe atrophy to the brain. And her EEG is flat. It doesn't show any electrical activity at all.

GUPTA: And, most importantly, their opinions about a possible recovery?

HAMMESFAHR: With proper therapy, she will have a tremendous improvement. I think, personally, she'll be able to walk eventually and she will be able to use at least one of her arms.

CRANFORD: There's no way. That's totally bogus.

GUPTA: Five doctors gave their medical opinions in an evidentiary hearing ordered by a Florida appellate court, two doctors chosen by each side and one court-appointed neurologist who was chosen by the judge. He declined a CNN interview, but told the court: "The preponderance of the data and my clinical examination reveal no evidence of awareness of self, environment or ability to interact with others. Mrs. Schiavo exhibits no evidence of language comprehension or expression. I would state that her chances of a meaningful neurological recovery to be virtually nonexistent." His language leaves little room for doubt, unless you ask yet another neurologist. And so a medical choice, normally decided between doctors and a patient's loved ones, is fought out in the courts.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Sanjay, that is so frustrating, to have all these different opinions. One of the doctors in your story said the EEG was flat, indicating no brain activity. What do you make of that?

GUPTA: Yes. I was little surprised by that, actually. I think it's pretty clear that she's not brain dead, which is typically what a flat EEG would mean.

But I think a lot of people -- obviously, you're seeing the confusion here, even among not just doctors, but brain doctors. There is no single blood test, there is no single scan that's going to answer this question for sure as to whether or not she's in a persistent vegetative state or something else. So, I think that's part of the confusion here, Anderson.

COOPER: You know, also I think part of the confusion, we've seen these videos so many times, seems to show her smiling as her mother talks to her. There's a tape that seems to -- it just adds to the confusion what she can and cannot do. What do you think we're seeing in these tapes?

GUPTA: Well, you know, it's really interesting. I think this is a really hard thing for people to get their arms around.

We talk about wakeful unawareness. Just think about that term for a state, wakeful unawareness, someone who can be awake and go to sleep, but still remains unaware of their surroundings. They open their yes. They may close their eyes. They may smile. They may grimace. They may react. They may do all these things. To look at them, you would think that this person is aware of what's going on.

But, in fact -- and I have not examined Terri Schiavo, of course, or seen any of her scans -- but I can tell you, in people who do have a persistent vegetative state, they can act like they might actually be aware, but, in fact, they're not if you probe a little bit deeper.

COOPER: Such a horrible case.

What is her status right now? Someone who's had a feeding tube that has been out for three days, what's happening to her body at this point?

GUPTA: Well, it's concerning, for sure.

You remember, Anderson, back in October 2003, she had her feeding tube out, was without nutrition and hydration for about six and a half days. Most doctors would agree that's a period of time where you start to get very concerned about her dehydration possibly leading to kidney failure. Sort of ironically, Anderson, when she was originally admitted to the hospital, it was because she had a severe bulimic episode, which led to dehydration, lack of nutrition, and subsequently suffered from heart failure.

Now fast-forward 15 years. Without the feeding tube, she could have some of those same things happen again. She's three days out now. I think that, if they're going to plan on rehydrating her or giving her nourishment, they need to do that soon if that is going to be the plan, Anderson.

COOPER: All right, 360 M.D., Dr. Sanjay Gupta -- thanks, Sanjay.

GUPTA: Thank you.

COOPER: We're going to be looking at these life and death situations that so many families have to make across the country. A little bit later on, you're going to be hearing from one woman who helped her mother die.

Right now, a school shooting in Minnesota has rocked a small town, one of the stories that is making news cross-country this hour.

Erica Hill joins us now from Headline News with the latest -- hey, Erica.

ERICA HILL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Anderson.

Yes, six people are dead now after a shooting rampage at a high school on the Red Lake Indian Reservation. Local officials say a total of 18 people were shot. The FBI says a teacher, security guard and four students were killed. One of those students is thought to have been the shooter. Local authorities say the gunman also fatally shot his grandparents before going to the school. We're staying on top of this story. We'll bring you more details as they become available.

The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected an appeal from the only person to be changed in the United States in connection with the September 11 terrorist attacks. Zacarias Moussaoui had asked the court to decide if his right to a fair trial hinged on his being able to question some al Qaeda detainees. Moussaoui says their testimony would exonerate him. Today's ruling clears the way for his trial.

Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist was back on the bench today for the first time since being diagnosed with thyroid cancer last October. Rehnquist presided over two hours of arguments and asked several questions in a hoarse voice.

Michael Jackson arrived late and seemingly in pain again today for his trial on child molestation charges. A Jackson spokesman says the pop singer is experiencing excruciating back pain at time. The judge threatened to revoke Jackson's bail on March 10, when he arrived late. But today, the judge pushed ahead with testimony after a 45- minute delay.

And that is the latest from Headline News.

Anderson, I'll hand it back to you.

COOPER: All right, Erica, thanks very much. See you back in about 30 minutes for another news update.

Coming up next, though, on this special two-hour edition of 360, the talk of the nation, how a turn of the dial reveals a lot about what people think of the battle over Terri Schiavo. What do you think? See if your opinions are echoed in some of the sentiments we're hearing on the radio.

Also tonight, before the battle, there was the couple. We're going to have the love story of Michael and Terri Schiavo, how they met, how they fell in love, their life together.

Also, a little later, the ultimate choice, how one daughter helped her mother end her life, an impossible choice. You'll hear from her.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. TOM DELAY (R-TX), MAJORITY LEADER: I say again, the legal and political issues may be complicated, but the moral ones are not. A young woman in Florida is being dehydrated and starved to death.

REP. BARNEY FRANK (D), MASSACHUSETTS: This is a terribly difficult decision which we are institutionally totally incompetent to make and to allow ideology to triumph in that context is a shame.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Well, we are getting a lot of e-mails from viewers on the Terri Schiavo case. As you just heard, Congress has taken sides on the subject, and not just Congress, indeed, what must be the most intensely private decision any family ever could be called upon to make. Well, it's become something just about everyone in this country and around the world with a microphone seems to feel free to weigh on.

Now, we don't take sides on 360. We like to look at all the angles. And, on this case, on this story, on the radio and TV today, there have been a whole lot of angles expressed.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER (voice-over): She is the talk of talk, Terri Schiavo, the Florida woman who hovers somewhere between death and life.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, did you ever feed her?

COOPER: All over the country, people are ringing in with their very public opinions about this family's once private ordeal.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, Ken, you're on 710 KIRO.

COOPER: They didn't stop calling at "The Dori Munson Show" in Seattle.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And that they're just looking for a way to abuse her further.

COOPER: Phone lines lit up in L.A.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And she'll get better as soon as she's allowed to have standard approaches to therapy.

COOPER: Words were exchanged in Chicago.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're giving her the normal humanitarian aid of food and water. She's just getting what any human being would get or a dog or an animal would get.

COOPER: On New York's Public Radio, WNYC, Brian Lehrer hosted a quiet discussion that quickly got loud.

BRIAN LEHRER, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: This is kind of the perfect talk radio storm. You have the personal and the political all coming together.

COOPER: Even on TV, Terri Schiavo's story played agonizingly close to home.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Have you ever seen anyone in her condition come out of it?

COOPER: Who hasn't or will not some day witness an ailing loved one struggling? How many of us will one day be forced to decide when and how their life will end?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nicki (ph) in Atlanta.

COOPER: All over radio, people want to know.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They have no problem executing the retarded or juveniles, for that matter. They don't love children. It's the fetus they love.

COOPER: Is this really the government's business? Should the courts have the right to decide?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The politicians shouldn't be getting involved. They're not doing a good job anyway dealing with politics. Now they're going to try get into the medical field.

COOPER: What happened to this family, to Terri Schiavo's tearful parents, with the haunting video of her blinking eyes? What of her husband, who swears Schiavo believed this half-life was no life at all?

M. SCHIAVO: This is about Terri Schiavo, not the government, not President Bush and Governor Bush. They should be ashamed of themselves. COOPER: America is talking about it all now that this family's life and death dispute has taken on a life of its own in the courts and Congress, enough life to summon the president back from his ranch, enough to put medicine and religion the defensive.

What happens to Terri Schiavo means so much to so many. It could someday be their own Terri Schiavo caught in the lurch, their wife, their daughter or even them. And then who gets to decide? For now, it seems, everyone is having their say.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Now, of course, the question, who gets to decide?

360 next, Terri's lost future, a glimpse of what her life was once like, not the pictures from a hospital bed, the pictures from her life with her husband, her life before the hospital.

Also tonight, letting her mother go, how a daughter helped one woman, her own mother, end her life, her remarkable story ahead. You won't want to miss that.

And, a little later, sounding off, what you have to tell us about the Schiavo battle, a lot of e-mails pouring in right now. Log on to CNN.com/360. Send us your opinion. You just click on the instant feedback link. We'll read some of them later on in the program.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOBBY SCHINDLER, BROTHER OF TERRI SCHIAVO: If you would see Terri, you would see how alive she is, how alert she is, how much she responds, how she's trying to speak with us. There's a reason Michael and his attorney are doing everything they can to keep Terri hidden from the public.

Terri could be sitting here right now. She could be on the House floor during this debate in a wheelchair.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: In this special edition of 360, we are looking at not only the Terri Schiavo case, but at those life and death decisions that all of us will have to make at some point in our life.

Before her name came to stand for a heartbreaking struggle, before she became a cause and a subject for judges and legislators to debate, Terri Schiavo was simply a young women with plans for the future, modest plans for a modest life with her husband, Michael.

From John Zarrella now, the poignant story of what should have been.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN MIAMI BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): You would probably never recognize the photographs, just a young couple in love. But, today, the world knows their story of star-crossed tragedy, the stuff of Shakespearian drama.

SCHIAVO: We loved each other tremendously. She was shy. She was warm. She was sweet.

ZARRELLA: Now the lives of Terri and Michael Schiavo are forever changed.

SCHIAVO: Look at those ducks.

ZARRELLA: Before Terri became disabled in 1990, she and Michael had the dreams and plans of any young couple in love.

SCHIAVO: We had wanted kids, and that's what we were trying to have when all this occurred. She loved kids. We wanted to have a house full. Just to have a happy little normal life. We didn't want anything big. We weren't into the glimmer and the shine. We just wanted to have a nice little comfortable life together.

ZARRELLA: The two met by chance in school in the early 1980s. It was, Michael says, love at first sight.

SCHIAVO: I met Terri in community college. We just happened to start a new semester, and she was in, I believe it was, my psychology class -- don't quote me on that, but I believe it was. She just happened to be sitting there. I was over on one side of the room, and she was over on the other, and I heard this little laugh, and I looked over and there she was. I fell in love with her the instant I saw her.

ZARRELLA: And it wasn't long before they were dating.

How did you ask her out? What did you -- what was it...

SCHIAVO: I just -- we got to talking and I just asked her, I said, we're having a family get-together; would you like to go with me? And she said yes. She was just -- like I said, she had this persona, this aura about her that just attracted you. She was just a -- beautiful smile, just shy and outgoing at the same time.

ZARRELLA: They dated, Michael says, about a year, and were married in 1984.

Wedding day was special?

SCHIAVO: Oh, yes. Yes, when I saw her walking down the aisle, I said, oh, my God, look at that. It was just a vision of beauty, I'm telling you. She was gorgeous, and all I saw was her big smile, just laughing at everybody, but that shy little laugh, but just outgoing.

ZARRELLA: For six years, Terri and Michael lived their storybook life until February 25, 1990 when Terri suffered heart failure believed to be caused by a potassium imbalance. Michael has moved on and is in a new relationship, but he never divorced Terri in order to carry out what he says were her wishes, never to become a burden to people. And he says he will never forget the time they had together.

Do you still hold those memories of those days very dear?

SCHIAVO: Oh, they're in my heart forever, my heart and my mind forever. Terri will always be in my heart. She will never leave it. She was a piece of my life, and she'll always be a piece of my life.

ZARRELLA: John Zarrella, CNN, Clearwater, Florida.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Well, Michael Schiavo, the man you just met in that piece, the man who meant to share Terri Schiavo's bright future with her, and now finds himself fighting to end her life, spoke this morning with Soledad O'Brien on CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING."

Here's some of that conversation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SCHIAVO: I think it's an invasion to the American people when you make a private decision in a family matter -- that they're thumbing their nose up to the American people and the Constitution. This is a sad day for Terri, and it's a sad day for every American in this country, and people should be outraged.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: The issue now goes to a federal judge. If the federal judge rules that, in fact, the feeding tube has to be reinserted into Terri, what happens then? Do you continue your fight?

SCHIAVO: Oh, yes, of course.

O'BRIEN: In what way? With that recourse?

SCHIAVO: I'll let the -- my attorney handle that one.

DEBORAH BUSHNELL, MICHAEL SCHIAVO'S ATTORNEY: We feel confident that the federal courts are not going to find this act constitutional. This is simply an abuse of power by the legislative branch and the executive branch.

We thank, so much, the Congressmen and women who stood up for us when this act was being debated. We are sorely disappointed in the result. However, the courts have supported us consistently, and we believe that they will continue to support Terri's constitutional rights and the rights of every U.S. citizen to make medical decisions for themselves.

O'BRIEN: In a last-minute maneuver, as you both know, the president got involved. I want to read what the president had to say.

"In cases like this one, where there are serious questions and substantial doubts, our society, our laws, and our courts should have a presumption in favor of life. This presumption is especially critical for those like Terri Schiavo who live at the mercy of others. I will continue to stand on the side of those defending life for all Americans, including those with disabilities."

Why, Michael, do you think the president's wrong?

SCHIAVO: Number one, this is what Terri wanted, this is Terri's wish. OK? It's not President Bush's wish. This is about Terri Schiavo, not the government, not President Bush, and Governor Bush. They should be ashamed of themselves.

BUSHNELL: Soledad, this has gone -- this case has gone up and down through the Florida courts for years. Every conceivable issue has been resolved -- litigated and relitigated. This case has had more due process than any situation in memory.

Terri has a right at this point to have her medical wishes honored, and we're very disappointed that the Congress has chosen to interject itself into this process, and the president as well. We feel it's an abuse of power, and every U.S. citizen should be outraged.

O'BRIEN: Terri's family members, though, say her that medical wishes are, in fact not what you claim they are, and I want to play you a little bit of what Terri Schiavo's brother Bobby Schindler had to say.

B. SCHINDLER: If you would see Terri, you would see absolutely how alive she is, how alert she is, how much she responds, how she's trying to speak with us. There's a reason Michael and his attorney are doing everything they can to keep Terri hidden from the public. Terri could be sitting on the House floor during this debate in a wheelchair.

O'BRIEN: Is that right, Michael? She could be sitting on the House floor, doing this debate, in a wheelchair?

SCHIAVO: She can sit in a wheelchair, yes, but she's not able to fly. That's -- you know, let me say something. Terri can't communicate. She cannot swallow. This is Bobby Schindler's soap box, OK? This is his way to pander votes from the Republican people up in Congress. He's not presenting the accurate facts. This case has been in front of the state courts for seven years; 20 judges have heard this case, including the Supreme Court justices, and Bobby Schindler is up there stating inaccurate facts and the Republicans up there are feeding into it.

BUSHNELL: Soledad, that statement is simply incredible. Terri does not respond. She has very little cerebral cortex left. The thinking part of her brain is simply gone and is replaced with liquid. Terri has not responded in the 15 years that she's been in this condition. Doctors, reputable doctors agree, there's simply no hope in Terri's situation, and for Bobby Schindler or anyone to say otherwise is simply deluded.

O'BRIEN: Deborah Bushnell and Michael -- go ahead Michael. SCHIAVO: And they all testified in court that even if Terri wanted this, they wouldn't remove it. It's because this is what they want.

O'BRIEN: The family members, you're saying.

SCHIAVO: This has nothing to do with Terri.

O'BRIEN: Michael Schiavo and Deborah...

SCHIAVO: I am her family.

O'BRIEN: I meant your in-laws.

Terri Schiavo's husband, Michael Schiavo and his attorney, Deborah Bushnell, joining us this morning from Deneden (ph), in Florida.

Thanks to both of you for joining us.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Well, 360 next, what would you do? Would you help a parent or a child die? Coming up, on daughter's decision to help her mom die, an interview you won't want to miss.

Also, tonight, a conversation you must have with your family, tonight. Don't delay it. What would you want done, if you were in Terri Schiavo's condition? If you don't have a living will already, we're going to tell you how to get one, and why you got to have one. That's ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: The agonizing life and death situation facing Terri Schiavo's family is, sad to say, increasingly common. I spoke earlier with a woman whose mother was terminally ill. She wasn't on a feeding tube, as Terri Schiavo was. But this woman did want to die, and she begged her daughter to help her do just that.

"Last Wish" is the harrowing book by Betty Rollin about coming to grips with her mother's cancer and her wish not to fight it any longer. As you listen to her story, ask yourself, what would you do?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: When your mom first raised the idea about ending her life, did it come as a complete surprise to you?

BETTY ROLLIN, AUTHOR, "LAST WISH" Yes. A surprise and an unwelcome surprise. I mean, I didn't know how to deal with it.

COOPER: Did you want to hear about it? Or did you...

ROLLIN: No, I didn't want to hear about it. I did not want to hear that she wanted to die. First of all, I didn't know how to do that. And secondly, although I knew she was near death and suffering greatly and that it was perfectly reasonable for her to want to die, I couldn't deal with it at first.

And then I dealt with it, because she was so clear that that's what she wanted.

COOPER: It wasn't really -- I mean, she wasn't depressed. It wasn't depression speaking?

ROLLIN: Not at all depressed. My mother never was depressed, and she would be very angry at that accusation, which I've heard many times. She was being rational. And I couldn't deal with it, and then she kept insisting.

I got a doctor on the phone, a friend of a friend of a friend who counseled us and told us what we would need.

COOPER: Because you had thought about renting a car.

ROLLIN: I thought about carbon monoxide, renting a car. We don't have a car. We live in New York. So what, were we going to rent a car and then turn on, you know, whatever you turn on so that people die? No.

We didn't live in Texas or one of those places, so we had -- I had never seen a gun. And anyway, the idea of my mother shooting herself was horrible.

And finally, the doctor told us what to do. My mother asked her doctor for pills, for barbiturates, saying she couldn't sleep. She saved them. And on a particular day, when she felt well enough to swallow. I mean, she was -- she said, "I get it. I have to feel well enough to kill myself, because otherwise I won't be able to swallow."

But here's the thing that really moved me and made me to this day a part of the right to die movement. When my mother knew that we had a way out for her, when she knew she was going to get out of life, which is how she put it, the first thing she said to me was, "There's this stupid hat that I got in Bloomingdale's that's in the closet. Don't forget to return it."

I mean, she became herself again. She became -- she was in charge. She was calm. Her terror, which I had mentioned, that she was terrified of this horrible death she was facing. And who could blame her? And so this knowledge that she was going to get out of life really made her last day of life peaceful, calm.

However, I do not think that I should have -- we should have been in that situation. I do not recommend this. I mean, what -- it's very tricky for a loved one to help a person die.

First of all, we could have messed it up. This is something that should be done by physicians. In Oregon, the only state in America -- this is what I'm fighting for. This is what I'm in the movement for, a group called Death with Dignity. Oregon is the one state in America where my mother could have called a doctor herself and said, "Please help me out of this."

COOPER: Toward the end, your mom said, "Next to happiness of my children, I want nothing more than to die."

ROLLIN: Well, I questioned her at the end. I mean, I kept saying, "Are you sure you want to do this?"

And she was sort of, "Yes, I want to do this. Next to the happiness of my children, I want to die more than anything in the world." And, you know...

COOPER: Betty Rollin, thank you very much.

ROLLIN: Thank you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Betty Rollin's book is "Last Wish."

A deadly school shooting in Minnesota. Erica Hill joins us now from Headline News with the latest on that.

Hey, Erica.

ERICA HILL, HEADLINE NEWS: Hi, Anderson.

Yes, that shooting has reportedly left five people dead. We're learning more about it. Authorities say it happened at a high school on the Red Lake Indian Reservation. A student reportedly opened fire there, wounded 12 people now. The FBI says the gunman killed three students, a teacher and a security guard before turning the gun on himself. Local authorities say the gunman shot and killed his grandparents before heading over to the school.

A convicted sex offender is now charged with capital murder in the death of a 9-year-old Florida girl. John Couey allegedly confessed to kidnapping and killing Jessica Lunsford. Her body was found buried in the yard of the house where Couey was staying, very close to where the Lunsfords lived. Authorities say they will urge prosecutors to seek the death penalty. Couey will be arraigned tomorrow.

President Bush is on a two-day road trip pushing for Social Security reform. In Tucson, Arizona, the president said many Americans believe their Social Security contributions are like money in the bank. But then he said the program will start running deficits in 2018 unless something is done before then.

Chess legend Bobby Fischer may have found a new home in a place very special to him. Iceland's Parliament has voted to grant citizenship to the fugitive American chess champion, and Iceland is where he won the world championship in 1972. Now, Fischer has, of course, been in Japanese custody since last year. He's been fighting deportation to the U.S., where he could face charges of violating sanctions against the former Yugoslavia for playing in a chess match there in 1992. And that is the latest from Headline News. Anderson, back to you.

COOPER: Erica. Thanks very much, Erica.

360 next, the Terri Schiavo case puts the spotlight on living wills. If you don't have one, we're going to tell you how to get one, and you've got to get one very soon. We'll give you the facts on that life and death decision.

Also ahead tonight, emotions running high. We're going to read some of our viewer e-mail. We're getting a lot of them involving the fight over Terri. You can send us your thoughts. You can log on to CNN.com/360 right now. Still have some time.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: The Terri Schiavo case has a lot of people thinking about a living will, something that officially specifies how far doctors can go in keeping you alive when you can't speak for yourself.

At least 75 percent of American adults do not have living wills, which is extraordinary, 75 percent. So how can you be sure what has happened to the Schiavo family does not happen to you? Let's ask Dr. Joseph Barmakian, founder of the U.S. Living Will Registry.

Thanks very much. Why do so many Americans not have living wills?

JOSEPH BARMAKIAN, FOUNDER, U.S. LIVING WILL REGISTRY: I think having the discussion about end-of-life care is a very uncomfortable thing to have. People don't want to think about being in that situation, so they don't talk about it.

COOPER: But everyone has an opinion about what they would want in their case.

BARMAKIAN: Exactly. If you ask anyone, what would you want in that situation, they don't hesitate. They have a very strong opinion about what they would want.

COOPER: So how do you go about translating what you want into an actual piece of paper that's going to make a difference? I mean, is it a big problem -- big process, making a living will? I mean, I did it; I had my attorney do it. How hard is it?

BARMAKIAN: There's a very big misperception that it's a very difficult process. And in fact, it's very simple.

COOPER: Wait a minute, so I paid an attorney a lot for this? It's simple?

BARMAKIAN: Really, you don't need an attorney. What you need is what's called an advanced directive. And advanced directive is a legal document that you prepare in advance of your illness so that you can direct your own care. And there's basically two kinds of advance directives. The most commonly known one is called a living will. And in a living will, you actually write down the kind of care you want or don't want. You want to be on a ventilator. You don't want dialysis. Very specific types of choices about the care you want.

COOPER: And where do you get these documents?

BARMAKIAN: Well, there's many places you can get them. You can get them from your local hospital. The hospitals are required to have -- have the documents around.

But let me just finish about the different kinds. Because the problem with a living will is that the medical science now puts you in situations which might not be exactly determined in your living will. In other words, you don't know as a layperson what situations you could be in.

COOPER: Right.

BARMAKIAN: So what's more important, really, to have is a second kind of document, which is called a durable medical health care -- durable power of attorney for healthcare. Also called a healthcare proxy.

COOPER: So that's someone else to make a decision.

BARMAKIAN: Exactly. You direct, you name someone that knows your feelings and knows your philosophy to make the decisions for you if you can't speak for yourself.

And I think people should have both, a living will that lists all the different kinds of treatment you want or don't want and a health care proxy, or a person that you're naming who knows you and knows -- knows what you think to make the actual decisions.

COOPER: Is a living will and even this proxy thing, is that enough? I mean, do you need the person to be, really, an advocate? Or, because a lot of the people just assume -- it's like with the do not resuscitate thing -- they just assume, OK, well, the doctors are going to pay attention. But I mean, in the heat of the moment, oftentimes will doctors -- do they know that there's thing out there? I mean, how do you -- where do you store this thing?

BARMAKIAN: It's an important point. These are not documents that are used as an emergency document. It's not -- when you come to the emergency room, you always get treatment.

And some people are afraid to make an advanced directive, because they think that care will be withheld from them. That's not true at all. These documents only come into effect when there's no hope for recovery.

So this is, you know, after all the treatments have been done and all the dust has settled and you say, "OK, there's no hope," then we look for the advanced directive. Now, by definition, you make an advanced directive well in advance of when you need it. So you might make one now because it's in the news, put it in your drawer and forget about it; 10 years from now when you need it, where is it?

COOPER: You should also have your health care proxy probably have it -- have a copy of it, as well. So you need the living will and you need the proxy statement.

BARKAMIAN: Exactly. But the problem is that, when you need it, it's not there because it's in the drawer or it's in your safe deposit box or it's in the lawyer's office.

So that's what we do is register the documents.

COOPER: OK.

BARMAKIAN: So they're available to healthcare providers across the country 24 hours a day by Internet or by telephone facsimile so that the doctors can always get your wishes wherever you are.

COOPER: All right, Dr. Joseph Barmakian, thanks very much.

Well, time now to check in with Larry King and see what's ahead on the top of the hour.

Hey, Larry.

LARRY KING, HOST, "LARRY KING LIVE": Hey, Anderson. How are you?

Quite a show tonight. Michael Schiavo is with us with his lawyer as we await that judge's ruling. And then we'll have Mark Lunsford and his ex-wife, Angela Bryant, discussing the death of their daughter.

I guess dying and wanting to live are the topics tonight in this incredible turn of events. That's right at the top of the hour, Anderson.

COOPER: All right. That's about six minutes from now, Larry. We'll see you then.

Telling us what you think. Going to read some 360 viewer mail. That's next.

Also remembering a legend, Bobby Short. We'll take the cabaret singer's life of music to "The Nth Degree."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Time to check on some viewer e-mail. And we were inundated by people writing in about the Terri Schiavo case. Many of you pointed out the same incongruity that Paul did.

He writes, "George W. Bush signed a law in Texas that expressly gave hospitals the right to remove life support if the patient could not pay and there was no hope of revival, regardless of the patient's family's wishes. It is called the Texas Futile Care Law. Under this law, a baby was removed from life support against his mother's wishes in Texas just this week."

Jacqueline from Loafer's Glory, North Carolina writes, "Let me start by saying that, 1) I'm a Democrat; 2) I support stem cell research; 3) I support a woman's right to choose. Let me also say that I applaud Congress's intervention in this very sad case, giving Terri yet one more final check, one more final chance of finding out the truth, to the extent that it can be found out. In other words, I applaud, quote, "erring on the side of life," end quote, in this particular case."

And Winifred writes, "This case has triggered two reactions in me. An overwhelming disgust with Congress for using this family's tragedy so cynically as a political ploy, rather than letting this woman finally die with some dignity, and an incredible fear of what might happen to me, were I in the same situation, which is why I've now decided to make a living will."

And as we just pointed out in that segment, living will is a good idea.

Got something on your mind? Send us an e-mail at CNN.com/360. Click on the "instant feedback" link. We always love to hear from you.

And finally tonight, a final bow to "The Nth Degree." Well, that is it. You wouldn't think that the loss of just one individual could actually affect the world's fund of elegance and sophistication and dapper tunefulness, but trust me, it has, drastically. Bobby Short died today at the age of 80.

There was a reason everyone, everyone called him the greatest cabaret entertainer of our time, is because that's what he was, hands down. Hands down on that piano of his, that is, and voice raised.

He was a bridge between this age and the age of Gershwin and Cole Porter and Harold Arlen. The age of nightclubs, of men in black ties and women in silver lame, of an entire world that sparkled, the music and the talk, at least, as much as the champagne.

(MUSIC)

COOPER: Bobby Short sang and played the way Fred Astaire danced, effortlessly, completely hiding all the hard work that went into making it seem so very, very easy.

He modestly called himself a saloon singer. He was a family friend. I first saw him play in his saloon when I was a kid. For almost 40 years, he was a regular in New York's Hotel Carlisle. Some saloon and some singer.

In case the world seems a little drabber today than it did just yesterday, now you know why. We're suddenly short to the tune of the only Bobby Short we ever had. More is the pity.

Thanks very -- thanks very much for watching this special two- edition of 360. I'm Anderson Cooper. Join me again tomorrow for another two-hour special edition of ANDERSON COOPER 360.

Prime time coverage continues now with "LARRY KING LIVE." Good night.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com


Aired March 21, 2005 - 19:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, HOST: Good evening from New York. I'm Anderson Cooper.
An accused killer in court, and new details on what really happened to 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford.

A special two-hour edition of 360 starts now.

Child predator John Couey in court, formally charged with the murder of little Jessica Lunsford. Tonight, is someone in your neighborhood preying on kids? What you need to know to keep your children safe.

The battle over Terri Schiavo: the latest on the court case, her family's struggle, and what Congress is doing now to save her life.

What would you do if a loved one asked you to help them die? Tonight, her mother said, I've had enough. Hear how this daughter faced a life-and-death decision.

She was a prisoner inside her own body, unable to speak, unable to tell doctors what she wanted.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KATE ADAMSON, AUTHIR, "KATE'S JOURNEY": I'm screaming inside my body, feed me. Please just feed me something.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Tonight, one woman's terrifying story of life on the brink of death.

Forget names, dates? 360 M.D. Sanjay Gupta tells you how to improve your memory and eliminate those senior moments.

ANNOUNCER: Live from the CNN Broadcast Center in New York, this is a special two-hour edition of ANDERSON COOPER 360.

COOPER: Good evening. Welcome to this special two-hour edition.

We begin in Florida tonight, where a convicted child molester stands accused of murdering Jessica Lunsford. We don't know if she was strangled or smothered, but we now know she died by asphyxiation.

John Evander Couey appeared in court today. He may not appear a monster. He's five-foot-four, a worn-down 46 years old. But what he did, what he's accused of doing, is truly monstrous.

Police say on the night of February 23, Couey, who was staying across the street, entered Lunsford's bedroom, covered her mouth, and then, after telling her to be quiet, took Jessica away.

Her body was found this last Saturday.

Couey is a career criminal with a long rap sheet and a conviction for molesting. He was a registered sex offender, but he was not registered at the address that he was staying at. In other words, this guy slipped through the cracks.

CNN's Heidi Collins looks at how he did it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): From the time he was 18 years old, the jail cells John Evander Couey visited all had revolving doors.

MARK LUNSFORD, JESSICA LUNSFORD'S FATHER: He's been arrested, what did you say, 28 times?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Twenty-three.

LUNSFORD: Twenty-three times? What in the hell is this man doing out here? It doesn't matter what crime he's committed 23 times. Why is he still available to be out here and hurt people?

COLLINS: At least 24 arrests in Florida alone, and 14 of those arrests made by the Citrus County Sheriff's Office, the county where Jessica Lunsford lived.

Couey's record is laced with burglaries, DUIs, drug charges, writing bad checks -- none of which carry long sentences. Then in 1987, a different type of crime, a conviction for indecent exposure -- three days in jail and a fine.

Four years later, John Couey was arrested and charged with fondling a child. He pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of attempted fondling, and was sentenced to the maximum, five years. He served a little less than half that, which was fairly typical for felons in Florida.

Florida law now requires those convicted of serious crimes to serve 75 percent of their sentence.

When he became a free man again, Couey had his name and photo put on a law enforcement Web site, as required, to give the public a chance to log on and see if released sex offenders were living in their neighborhood.

Couey eventually moved to this house, within sight of Jessica Lunsford's home. But that's not the address he had listed on the sex offender Web site.

JOSEPH DAWSON, PETITION CREATOR (on phone): I appreciate every signature you can get for us.

COLLINS: Now, in the town where Jessica lived, there is an appetite to toughen the law. A local jeweler is circulating a petition.

DAWSON: Under the system that I would present, number one, the man would have got 50 years, and Jessica would still be alive today.

COLLINS: But tough laws do not guarantee thorough enforcement. As Citrus County Police acknowledged in this case, they did not know John Couey's real address.

KENDALL COFFEY, LEGAL ANALYST: We are relying on the honor system, counting on the registered sexual offenders themselves to tell us when they move. And to count on people who have already violated society's laws in a horrible way to, in effect, provide the enforcement is obviously a formula that's doomed to failure.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: And listen to this. There are more than 30,000 people classified as sex offenders or predators in Florida. And law enforcement officials agree keeping track of them all would require many more police officers.

But as you heard, Anderson, our legal expert, Kendall Coffey, say, now they're just really relying on the honor system.

COOPER: Which is a horrible phrase to be using with these guys. Thanks very much.

COLLINS: That's true.

COOPER: Well, while we were researching this story, we came across another figure that we found pretty shocking. Did you know that in Homosassa, where John Couey lives, there are 44 registered sex offenders? This out of a population of just 2,300 people.

The question we wanted to know is, how can you find out if a sex offender is living next door to you, or in your neighborhood?

CNN's Adaora Udoji goes in depth beyond the headlines tonight with the information you and your family need to know.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ADAORA UDOJI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The faces of children murdered in the most heinous of ways -- some molested, brutally raped -- have fueled the rapid spread of Megan's Laws, all sparked by the brutal rape and killing of 7-year-old Megan Kanka, killed by a neighborhood sex offender in 1994. Her parents' grief and outrage led to a law in New Jersey tracking pedophiles. That law spread quickly across the country.

ERNIE ALLEN, CENTER FOR MISSING AND EXPLOITED CHILDREN: In most of the states, there are now Web sites, databases, with names and information on registered sex offenders in those states. That's a major step forward.

UDOJI: Today, all states require sexual predators deemed most dangerous -- so-called level three offenders -- to register with local police wherever they live. What's more, laws also require citizens have access to that information. Many states like New York offer Web sites.

Professor Karen Terry says some authorities, though, actively notify neighborhoods. She says it's not a perfect system.

KAREN TERRY, JOHN JAY COLLEGE OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE: Even when you go onto the Internet you're not going to see all the sex offenders who are living in your neighborhood. You're only going to see those that are the highest risk. This is usually individuals who are strangers to their victims, have used some level of violence to their victims. And you're not going to see even level two and level one sex offenders who have already been convicted.

UDOJI: Still, parents have more information about sexual predators than ever before.

ALLEN: Knowledge of an individual's previous history is a terrific tool for parents and families to have. Stay away from that house. Stay away from this man. Don't get in a car with somebody or go with someone without talking to me first. Knowledge is power.

UDOJI: In the end, responsible adults can only protect children from pedophiles if they know where those sexual predators are. Today, parents have more tools with which to look.

Adaora Udoji, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Well, the best way to find out if a sex offender is living near you is to go to your local police station and ask for a list.

It's hard to know what goes through the mind of a molester, but it's important to try to understand them, if for no other reason than to know how to protect your own kids. Rarely are convicted sex offenders willing to speak out, willing to appear on camera.

My next guest, however, is willing. His name Jake Goldenflame. He is a convicted sex offender who served time in prison for repeatedly raping his 3-year-old daughter. He's the author of the book "Overcoming Sexual Terrorism."

Jake Goldenflame joins me now from San Francisco.

Jake, thanks very much for being with us.

JAKE GOLDENFLAME, AUTHOR, "OVERCOMING SEXUAL TERRORISM": Thank you. But I didn't rape my daughter. The charge was fondling.

COOPER: OK, you fondled your daughter. GOLDENFLAME: Yes.

COOPER: OK, repeatedly, from the age of 3 to the age of 5, is that correct, until she told her mother?

GOLDENFLAME: Yes, there were four instances, that's correct.

COOPER: OK. But you had molested teenagers before that.

GOLDENFLAME: Yes. I had a long history before that of going after teenage boys and sexually interacting with them.

COOPER: OK. So you've only done time for the incidents with your daughter, not for the other people you molested.

GOLDENFLAME: That's correct.

COOPER: OK. Since leaving prison in 1991, you say you haven't committed any sexual offenses. You don't consider yourself cured, though. Why?

GOLDENFLAME: There is no such thing as a cure, that's one of the things we learn in treatment. It's like any other kind of addiction- like phenomenon. There is no cure, but with proper training, you can learn to manage it, and you can avoid situations where you're going to attempt it.

COOPER: Are you still in therapy now?

GOLDENFLAME: Not in therapy, but I remain in an ongoing counseling program. And there are people to whom I'm accountable every week in my community. And my neighbors and the people in my building and my landlord all know of my background, because I've told them of it.

COOPER: Why were you -- is it common for molesters to -- I mean, you were molesting young men or young boys, basically, at first.

GOLDENFLAME: Right.

COOPER: And then you switched to molesting your own daughter. Is that common, to switch genders like that?

GOLDENFLAME: No, it's not. And as a result of that, it terrified me. It made me ask myself in horror, What's next? There's something obviously loose in me, and unless I get it under control, this craziness, whatever it is, I hate to think where it will take me next.

I welcomed the opportunity of getting help, and I welcomed going to prison to do so. And I'm grateful to my prison system that it gave me counseling throughout the five years I was there.

COOPER: And is it, I mean, is the impulse, I mean, is it as deeply felt as, you know, someone being attracted to someone their own age? I mean, is it just part -- I mean, is this something you've always felt, always had?

GOLDENFLAME: It's something that I virtually always had. I was molested in my teens myself. That's how my deviant career began. An adult child molester who was on probation in another county molested me.

For the next few years, I was left in a lot of sexual confusion, and at age 21, as a complete surprise to me, I found myself -- and I use that term on purpose, it happened so spontaneously -- I found myself seducing a teenage boy for sex. And I found the experience so overpoweringly intoxicating, I began seeking it again and again and again over the years.

COOPER: You don't trust yourself around children. I mean, you don't (UNINTELLIGIBLE), you, you, on purpose, don't live in a building that has any kids. But how, I mean, how can you avoid being around kids? I mean, you must see them on the street. You know, do you instantly have those thoughts, I'd like to molest that child?

GOLDENFLAME: Let me give you an example. The other day, I got off a municipal bus while I was on one of my errands. And as I stepped off the bus, three feet in front of me at the bus stop was a teenaged boy of exactly the kind I immediately feel an attraction for.

But the training that I've been through, which is called relapse prevention training, kicks in right away and says, Go on to your business, you're here to take care of whatever you're here to take care of.

And I immediately just turned away and start walking and go on my way, and the urge disappears.

COOPER: You know, it no -- without a doubt takes a lot of courage for you to just come on television, talk about this in a very honest way. What do you want parents to know, though, about people like you? I mean, what, I, you know, just hearing you say that, I got to tell you, it frightens me, you know, that you're out there walking around. What should parents know? What should they tell their kids?

GOLDENFLAME: Well, in the first place, I say, tell your children this. Teach them to have a sense of boundaries and a sense of limits. Teach them to have a sense of self-respect. And by all means, teach them this by being an example to them.

There are a number of suggestions that I could offer. With the help of state parole, I came up with 40 of them. And I put them in the book for parents.

COOPER: But this guy, I mean, who is now accused of killing Jessica Lunsford, I mean, he's a registered sex offender, but he wasn't registered where he was living. How common is that?

GOLDENFLAME: OK, this is another thing that I'm moving on right away. In most of the states, or at least in a lot of the states, we're required not only to register where we live, but any other place where we stay. However, the penalty for not doing so is trivial. In Florida, it can be nothing. In California, it can be nothing, which is my state.

So I contacted my state legislature already over the weekend. I talked with the state senate today, and I said, Let's fix this problem right now. Let's have life imprisonment as the penalty for anybody that who doesn't stay registered wherever they are. And I urge your viewers to ask their governors to do the same in their state.

COOPER: Jake Goldenflame, appreciate you joining us. Thanks very much, Jake.

GOLDENFLAME: Thank you.

COOPER: On "NEWSNIGHT" with Aaron Brown tonight, Aaron's going to devote his entire show to protecting kids. That's 10:00 Eastern time on "NEWSNIGHT."

We also have some breaking news to report out of Minnesota, where six people have been killed, 12 people injured, in a shooting incident at Red Lake High School on a Native American reservation, north of the town of Bemidji. I may be pronouncing that incorrectly.

According to local fire officials, the suspect, who is believed to be a student, used a police-issued gun taken from his grandfather's residence. Reports are also that the suspect killed his grandparents before heading to the school.

This is a story that is just coming into CNN. We are going to bring you more details as they come in. We will update you momentarily.

Coming up next on 360, life-and-death decisions. Congress, the president, and the courts weighing in on Terri Schiavo. We're going to look at the morality, the ethics, and, yes, the politics, because there's plenty of politics going around in this heart-wrenching case.

Also ahead tonight, he was sobbing in court. Michael Jackson showing up late to court, seemingly kind of dazed and confused, in an altered state. You see him there. What is going on with him? Take you inside the courtroom ahead.

Also a little later, are you constantly losing your keys, forgetting names? I am. 360 M.D. Sanjay Gupta is going to put your memory and mine, I guess, to the test.

All that ahead. First, let's take a look at your picks, the most popular stories right now on CNN.com.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)

REP. JOHN LEWIS (D), GEORGIA: This is not about values. This is not about religion. It is pandering for political gain with the next election in mind.

REP. TOM DELAY (R-TX), MAJORITY LEADER: It has nothing to do with politics, and it's disgusting to even suggest it.

(END VIDEO CLIPS)

COOPER: Nothing to do with politics? Impassioned arguments on Capitol Hill, but in the end the vote wasn't even close, 203 to 58, allowing Terri Schiavo's parents go to the federal courts in the fight to keep their daughter alive.

Now, as demonstrators keeping vigil outside her hospice -- there they are -- a judge heard the case this afternoon. No ruling yet, nor is there an order about her feeding tube, which, you'll of course know, was disconnected on Friday.

We're going to look at the politics of this in a moment. And as John Zarrella reports, though, from Pinellas Park, Florida, right now, everyone is waiting and arguing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There simply are two very different ways of looking at Terri Schiavo's situation. From one point of view, her fate was decided in 1990 when she collapsed from heart failure, leading to severe brain damage, and leaving her body in a persistent vegetative state.

DEBORAH BUSHNELL, MICHAEL SCHIAVO'S ATTORNEY: The thinking part of her brain is simply gone and is replaced with liquid. Terri has not responded in the 15 years that she's been in this condition.

ZARRELLA: But there's another point of view. Terri Schiavo's parents, along with many in Washington and across the country, who believe that, since her body is still functioning, her life is still worth living and worth fighting for.

BOB SCHINDLER, TERRI SCHIAVO'S FATHER: I told her that we were going to take her for a little trip, and take her outside, and get her some breakfast. And I got a big smile out of her face, so help me God.

DELAY: The legal and political issues may be complicated, but the moral ones are not. A young woman in Florida is being dehydrated and starved to death.

ZARRELLA: This afternoon's legal fireworks wouldn't have been possible without quick action over the weekend by Congress. Lawmakers rushed through a compromise bill allowing Terri Schiavo's parents to literally make a federal case out of their daughter's fate. Up till now, state courts have consistently ruled against her parents and in favor of her husband, who says his wife once told him that in a situation like this, she would have wanted to die.

MICHAEL SCHIAVO, TERRI SCHIAVO'S HUSBAND: This is what Terri wanted. This is Terri's wish, OK? It's not President Bush's wish. This is about Terri Schiavo, not the government, not President Bush and Governor Bush. They should be ashamed of themselves. ZARRELLA: President Bush, who was awakened to sign the new law shortly after 1:00 in the morning, made his first public comments this afternoon in Arizona.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This is a complex case with serious issues. But in extraordinary circumstances like this, it is wise to always err on the side of life.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZARRELLA: While there was no decision from Federal Judge James Whittemore this afternoon, most observers and experts expect it will be a quick decision. In fact, David Gibbs, the attorney representing the Schindlers -- that's Terri Schiavo's parents -- said he would expect it, for obvious reasons, a quick decision. Terri Schiavo has now been disconnected from that feeding tube for three days. The longest she's ever been off the feeding tube was in 2003, when she was disconnected for six days, Anderson.

COOPER: All right, John Zarrella, thanks very much for that.

Tom DeLay just said there's no politics in this case at all, but in these partisan days, it's hard to imagine any case that doesn't have some political implications. In fact, a new CNN poll shows that 56 percent of those responded were in favor of removing the feeding tube from Terri Schiavo, 31 percent were opposed to removing the tube.

This, of course, has become a matter of life and death and, yes, raw politics.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER (voice-over): It was literally an 11th-hour reprieve. The House, called back from Easter recess, held a heated debate, with some Republicans fighting what they called the moral fight.

DELAY: If, as it seems to be the case, this innocent, disabled, but fully alive woman is marked for death by starvation and dehydration, how can we live with ourselves if we don't give her one more chance to live?

COOPER: Some Democrats accused Republicans of playing politics.

LEWIS: This is a step in where we have no business. This is walking where the angels fear to tread. We're playing with a young woman life for the sake of politics. This is not about values. This is not about religion. It is pandering for political gain.

COOPER: At 12:42 a.m., the bill passed, 203 to 58. Forty-seven Democrats voted for it.

WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Republicans showed up to vote in overwhelming numbers, because a lot of them are fearful about having a conservative primary opponent. Democrats are also nervous, and many of them did show up, and they split their votes. They didn't want to vote for this bill, but they're concerned that they could have an opponent in next year's election who runs against them with the message, You voted to kill Terri Schiavo.

COOPER: Republican leaders even passed around a memo to their membership, stressing the importance of the vote to the party's so- called pro-life base, which, it said, "will be excited that the Senate is debating this important issue."

The president signed the bill, sparking complaints from some Democrats, who pointed out that as governor of Texas, Bush had signed a law creating a process for hospitals to remove patients from life support -- sometimes over a family's objections.

And so Terri Schiavo's fate has become a national debate over the rights to preserve a life or to die with dignity, over states' rights versus federal intervention, one family's heartbreaking decision played out on the public stage of raw politics.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Well, my colleague, Paula Zahn, is off this week, so at 8:00 Eastern time tonight we're going to present a 360 special focusing the entire hour on the Terri Schiavo case and life-and-death decisions. What would you do in this case?

You're going to hear from a number of people who have had to face impossible life-and-death decisions.

President Bush is on the road, pushing hard on Social Security. That's just one of the stories making news cross-country this hour.

Erica Hill joins us from Headline News with the latest. Hey, Erica.

ERICA HILL, HEADLINE NEWS: Hi, Anderson, good to see you. Welcome back.

That's right, President Bush on a two-day road trip, stumping for Social Security reform. In Tucson, Arizona, the president said many Americans believe their Social Security contributions are like money in the bank, but then warned the program will start running deficits in 2018 unless something is done before then. The president was joined on stage by Arizona Senator John McCain.

Spilled molten steel caused a fire and an explosion at a steel plant in Dearborn, Michigan, today, injuring six people. The vehicle transporting the hot liquid hit a building, which caused the steel to slosh out, hitting two of the vehicle's tires. It then set the tires on fire, ultimately causing them to explode.

The man charged with a plan to kidnap David Letterman's son is being set up. That's according to Kelly Frank's fiancee. She says one of Frank's friends has been trying to incriminate him since the two had a falling out, adding the friend twisted an offhand remark Frank made about security at Letterman's Montana ranch into a threat against the child.

All right, so much for the shopping spree. Dozens of people thought they'd won $100,000 in the "New York Daily News" Scratch-and- Match sweepstakes game. But it turns out the newspaper printed one of the numbers wrong, so no one won the $100,000 prize, and hundreds of people are understandably upset, Anderson.

Hope you weren't one of the ones that thought you won.

COOPER: There are a lot of angry people, though, understandably. Erica, thanks. We'll see you back in about 30 minutes.

Coming up next on 360, Michael Jackson was sobbing in court today. He showed up late, seemingly dazed and confused. Kind of shuffling there. Kind of, well, is he coming unraveled? That's what some court watchers wanted to know. We'll take you inside the courtroom today.

Also ahead tonight, it was a drama that captivated the country. A child falls into a gorilla cage. Terrified onlookers watched helplessly. The animal played hero, though. The astonishing rescue was all caught on tape. All right, whatever happened to this great ape? Going to take a look, part of our week-long series, Caught on Tape.

And a little later, remembering not to forget. 360 M.D. Sanjay Gupta is going to put your memory to the test. How sharp is your brain? We'll find out ahead. Covering all the angles.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Well, most days Michael Jackson usually strolls into court, kind of waves. Today he struggled, looking weak and wobbly. The singer barely managed to make it to the defense table. And instead of the testimony taking center stage today, the focus all day was, what is wrong with Mike?

CNN's Miguel Marquez is following the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The fans chanted for Michael Jackson, but the self-described King of Pop only mustered a weak wave and a peace sign. Did he even know the fans were there?

STEVE CORBETT, "SANTA MARIA TIMES": He seemed dazed. His eyes seemed not focused on where he was.

MARQUEZ: Jackson, supported by a bodyguard and his brother, Jackie, was five minutes late. Once there, his face was blank, and he appeared confused. He sat down gingerly, grabbed a handful of tissues, and began to sob. Moments later, he got up and made his way toward the exit. His hands shook uncontrollably as he held tissues to his mouth. It appeared the pop star was about to vomit.

CORBETT: People seemed very, very concerned for his well-being physically and mentally, I believe. MARQUEZ: A local doctor wearing scrubs beneath a Letterman jacket joined Jackson's team for a short time, just in case. In the end, testimony in the child molestation case was 45 minutes delayed. The judge said nothing about Jackson's tardiness.

CORBETT: For the most part, Michael Jackson was sitting quietly, relatively still, listening.

MARQUEZ: And the trial went on. A flight attendant testified she'd previously served Jackson white wine in a Diet Coke can and hid minibottles of hard liquor for the pop star in the plane's bathroom. She also testified she never saw Jackson give any child a drink.

By day's end, Jackson seemed to have recovered somewhat.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you OK? You look (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...

MICHAEL JACKSON, ENTERTAINER: Well, very much hurting, I'm in pain.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MARQUEZ: Well, in pain, he says. But Mr. Jackson also on the way out of court admitted to taking doctor-prescribed medication. He didn't say what it was or how much he was taking. You should also know that all of this drama today happened outside the presence of the jury. All they knew is that the court day got off to a late start, Anderson.

COOPER: You think this case can't get any more bizarre, and it does, every time. Miguel Marquez, thanks very much.

An update now on breaking news to report out of Minnesota where eight people have been killed, 12 people injured in a related incident at a home and at Red Lake High School, on an Indian reservation north of the town of Ojibwa. Among the dead there in Minnesota are a female teacher, a male security officer and four students, two of them girls, two of them boys -- one of whom is thought to have been the shooter.

According to local fire officials, the suspect, who is believed to be a student, used a police-issued gun taken from his grandfather's residence. Reports are also that the suspect shot his grandparents before heading to school. This story is just breaking. We are just getting details. It's in an as isolated part in Minnesota. We're trying to get eyewitness accounts as soon as we can. We will bring those to you as soon as we get them.

Forget names, dates? 360 M.D. Sanjay Gupta tells you how to improve your memory and eliminate those senior moments.

And it was a rescue caught on tape that captivated the country. A baby who fell into a zoo's primate pit is rescued by a gorilla. Tonight, whatever happened to the gentle giant that saved a baby's life?

360 continues. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Who could forget those images? Those images we just saw, a little boy and a gorilla in the Chicago Zoo Primate Building, something we wouldn't have seen if there weren't the prevalence of home video cameras. They have changed the way we remember and cover news events. All this week we're going to be looking at stories that were caught on tape and what's happened to the people involved in those unforgettable images.

CNN's Keith Oppenheim takes us back to that remarkable day at the Chicago Zoo.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): She sits in her favorite spot quietly scratching her head, seemingly unaware she was once a star. But 9 years ago, Binta Jua, commonly referred to as Binti, got about as famous as gorillas get.

CRAIG DEMITROS, LEAD KEEPER FOR PRIMATES: We did receive a lot of inquiries about what happened the day it happened on that Friday. But the Saturday that that tape went out, it just exploded. It became a huge story.

OPPENHEIM: Craig Demitros, keeper for primates at the Brookfield Zoo in suburban Chicago took us back to a day he won't ever forget, a day documented on this home video. On August 16th, 1996, a healthy crowd was walking through Brookfield's Primate Building. The unphotographed prelude, a 3-year-old boy, restless toddler that he was, gets into trouble.

DEMITROS: We heard that he climbed over the railing, teetered on the edge of the planter here, and as he fell in he did a somersault and fortunately landed on his rear end.

OPPENHEIM (on camera): Went down how far?

DEMITROS: It's roughly 24 feet or so to the bottom of the exhibit.

BILL LAMBERT, ZOO VISITOR: Right there was the scream. You heard a scream.

OPPENHEIM (voice-over): Bill Lambert was the man with the camera, nearby with his wife and children, videotaping, when he heard screams and a thud. Lambert actually forgot he was still recording.

LAMBERT: So I went to see what was going on. Then I met up with one of the zoo keepers here, started running.

OPPENHEIM: In seconds, Lambert got to the gorillas and zoomed in just to get a closer look. In the mist of the exhibit's waterfall, Binti picked up the boy and carried him. Lambert was surprised that a gorilla, who was carrying her own baby on her back, would appear to take such care of a human child. Still not aware he was recording Bill Lambert got what became a lasting image.

LAMBERT: Then after the gorilla went around to the corner to end up in this position here, it looked like that she was rocking him, you know. And it just didn't -- didn't think that she was going to hurt him.

OPPENHEIM: The zoo staff sprayed water, a signal for all apes to leave the main exhibit and go down to their nighttime quarters.

DEMITROS: The exhibit space is the animals' space. And having a person in there or an object that's not part of the normal routine, you're not quite sure what that response is going to be.

OPPENHEIM: Binti's response was to set the boy down gently. As the gorillas were herded out, paramedics came in and took the unconscious child to a hospital.

(on camera): We're told by zoo officials though the boy suffered head injuries, he made a full recovery. And perhaps if he and his family had spoken up, this tale might have taken a different turn. But they never did. The identity of the boy was never publicized. Instead, at the urging of Bill Lambert's boss, the tape turned up on local TV, then of course on national TV and next, with the Democratic Convention coming to town in 1996, loads of international news crews looking for something to do came to the Brookfield Zoo all wanting a picture of Binti.

MELINDA PRUETT-JONES, CURATOR FOR PRIMATES: You know, this story just took on a life of its own from the moment it became a story.

OPPENHEIM (voice-over): Melinda Pruett-Jones is a curator at the zoo. She says the staff realized on video Binti had broken a myth that gorillas are like King Kong, aggressors who attack.

PRUETT-JONES: From our perspective, the story that could be told was how she really behaved in a way indicative of her species. How -- what an incredible ambassador she can be for gorillas.

OPPENHEIM (voice-over): Today, nine years later Binti is still that ambassador. Visitors to the zoo still ask, which one saved the little boy? Staff point out Binti and explain she's pregnant now, about to give birth any day. And remember the baby on Binti's back? Her name's Koola, she just gave birth to her own daughter, making Binti a pregnant grandma. As for everyone else, Bill Lambert realizes he stumbled into history.

LAMBERT: If I would have pushed the record button to tape, I was already taping, it would have stopped and I never would have got this. So it's dumb luck.

OPPENHEIM: And the Brookfield Zoo staff realized they got an unforgettable lesson in public relations, that a crisis caught on tape could teach the world more about these gentle giants than words alone might have ever accomplished.

PRUETT-JONES: You could talk about it, you could describe it, somebody -- an eyewitness could have said, you know, well this is what I saw. But to actually be able to see it and draw your own conclusions it's amazing.

OPPENHEIM: Keith Oppenheim, CNN, Chicago.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Well, from unforgettable moments caught on videotape to the everyday forgettable, what happens when you just can't remember basic things? It happens to me actually, sadly all the time. A boot camp for your brain coming up on 360. 360 M.D. Sanjay Gupta puts your brain to the test, and shows us how we can stave off some memory lose.

Also ahead tonight, the world and 360, a look at protest in Lebanon and the push for Syria to get out.

And life and death decisions, a one hour special coming up at 8:00 p.m. The Terri Schiavo case has all of us asking what would you do -- what would we do if faced with a life and death decision. We're going to focus on people who've had to make impossible choices about their loved ones.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hi, I'm Tom.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Henry.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Marlon.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Doug.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hi.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Those are cool flip-flops. Where did you get them?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Like those -- interesting story, I was on the North Shore the other day...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hi, I'm Todd.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Henry.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hi.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Marlon.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tom lost part of his brain in a hunting accident. His memory only lasts 10 seconds.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was in an accident? That's terrible. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't worry. You'll totally get over it in about three seconds.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: That was the movie, 50 First Dates, it's taking memory loss to the extreme. Funny in the movies, not so funny in those senior moments when you can't remember dates or names or where you put the darn car keys. If that is you, you are not alone. It happens to me all the time. Up to 70 percent of adults say they have problems memorizing, recalling or learning new information. Now, pay attention because we're going to test your memory later on.

As we start our week long series "Refresh Your Memory," Dr. Gupta shows us a doctor in Los Angeles who says he can help by putting brain and body through some basic training.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LINDA JENKINS: Thanks. I'll talk to you later. Hi, this is Linda.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: In her line of work, 53-year-old Linda Jenkins spends practically all day talking.

JENKINS: You know what, I don't even know who I was talking to. What? I'm lost.

GUPTA: And lately she's been hitting some blank spots.

JENKINS: A big...

GUPTA: Causing her a lot of anxiety.

JENKINS: I'll be talking along and all of a sudden -- when that happens so often, it causes tension. It is frustrating, absolutely, to me it is.

GUPTA: So Jenkins is trying an unusual program to fix her memory flame outs. The first boot camp for the brain run by the Memory Fitness Institute in Fountain Valley, California.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I hope I remember to come.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I hope so too.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can go home today and start protecting your brain.

GUPTA: The brains of the operation is Dr. Gary Small. The program based on his book "The Memory Prescription." He has spent his life trying to unravel the memory mystery. While admitting there are other factors, he says simple lifestyle changes can improve your memory in just 14 days.

DR. GARY SMALL, DIRECTOR, UCLA CENTER ON AGING: What can we do today to keep our brains healthy and fit? And here it is, the big four, mental activity, physical conditioning, healthy diet and stress reduction, the key to memory fitness.

GUPTA: Back at boot camp, Jenkins is already busy. First, stocking up on healthy brain foods rich in antioxidants and with plenty of omega three fatty acids which Small says may keep brain cells from degenerating. Some of his suggestions are blueberries, prunes, salmon and nuts. Another prescription, cut down on stress. That's a memory-buster.

JENKINS: That's enough.

GUPTA: Two other key elements of the program, exercise your body and your brain. Like zany storytelling methods to remember lists of words.

JENKINS: The more fantastic or exaggerated you can make the picture, the easier it is to remember.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I had a lawyer wearing a vest eating an artichoke and a banana.

GUPTA: Mind benders or simply writing with your left hand if your right-handed. All are ways boot campers sharpen their brains during weekly minutes.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GUPTA: All right, Anderson mentioned that memory quiz, so here it is. We're going to let Anderson sit this one out, because he does so well on quizzes in the past.

First question, at the beginning of the segment there was a particular movie that we profiled. What was the name of that movie?

All right. Second question, Anderson showed a graphic before specifically talking about the percentage of adults that have troubles with their memory, what was the number?

And finally, in the same graphic, there was picture of a flower -- OK, this is sort of cheating because you see the flower right there. What kind of flower is that? A sun flower. I wonder if you got that.

Most of you, statistically probably got at least one of those questions wrong. And the question a lot of people are asking is why and what can I do about it?

It's sort of interesting -- big reason, really, is that as we pay -- don't pay attention to things. We don't encode things as well, and therefore, they don't get stored into our brain. Sounds pretty simple, but it's harder and harder every day. In fact there was a recent study -- Richard Wurman, who's an information guru, said, every day "The New York Times" has more information in it than we took in in our entire lives in the 17th century. More information, we've got to pay attention. A really quick simple tip. If you're trying to remember something -- trying to remember a person's name, a person's face -- look, snap, connect. Look at that person, snap something together with them, take a snapshot and then connect it with something that you already know. Look, snap, connect, Anderson.

COOPER: OK, look, snap, connect.

GUPTA: Sanjay Gupta.

COOPER: Yes. No, I remember who you are. Right. Sanjay, right. It's a good example, though, of how bad short-term memory is for many of us. I mean, what are some quick tips for actually improving it?

GUPTA: You know, a big thing -- and this again is going to sound pretty simple. As we worked on this documentary, we found paying attention is a much more important tip than people realize. Actually, paying attention to someone's name when they say it. Also the things that Gary Small talks about in this book, physical conditioning, mental conditioning, as well, crossword puzzles, all sorts of different puzzles to try and keep your brain sharp. Those things seem to help. If you're someone who loses your keys every day, put your key in the same spot. You won't lose it the next day.

COOPER: You know, it's true. When someone says their name I just don't listen. And a second later I'm like, what was your name again?

GUPTA: Pay attention.

COOPER: I know, I should. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thanks very much.

GUPTA: Thank you.

COOPER: "Refresh Your Memory," his series continues all this week. Tomorrow we're going to look at the role stress can play in messing with our memory.

And we do have some breaking news from Minnesota right now, where a gunman bursts into a school this afternoon killing several people. Erica Hill from Headline News joins us with the latest -- Erica.

ERICA HILL, CNN HEADLINE NEWS ANCHOR: Yes. Hi, Anderson. We're learning a little more. We know now six people have been killed in that shooting rampage at a high school on the Red Lake Indian Reservation. Local officials say a total of 18 people were shot, not all of them students. The FBI says a teacher, a security guard and four students were killed. One of those students is thought to have been the shooter.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SPECIAL AGENT PAUL MCCABE, FBI: Well, we're still -- it's still a very fluid investigation, and we're not going to go into too much detail, but I wanted you to get the facts. We'll keep you apprised as the investigation continues and as we have more facts. But right now there's still a lot of work to do. They're still clearing the school as a safety precaution, even though we do believe that the shooter is among the dead, the deceased.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Local authorities say the gunman shot and killed his grandparents before going to the school. And we'll continue to follow this and bring more details as they become available.

In other news, gas prices are at a record high and still climbing. The government says the average price for regular unleaded now $2.10 a gallon. That's up 37 cents from a year ago. President Bush said today he knows Americans are feeling the squeeze and urged Congress to take action on his energy bill.

Queen Camilla -- got a ring to it, right. Better get used to it. British officials say Camilla Parker-Bowles would become queen after all if Prince Charles assumes the throne. They say to deny her the title of queen would require changing laws in Britain and more than a dozen other countries where the British sovereign is head of state. Though, when he announced his engagement, of course, Prince Charles said his future wife would be known by the title princess consorts. A little bit of change there.

That's the latest on Headline News. Anderson, back to you.

COOPER: All right, Erica, thanks very much. See you back in 30 minutes.

Coming up next on 360, the world in 360. What it was like to be in Beirut during the mass protests calling for freedom.

Also tonight, coming up, our one-hour special "LIFE AND DEATH DECISIONS," a look at the life Terri Schiavo and her husband once led. Also people who've had to make terrible choices, ultimate choices. How one woman helped her mother end her life.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK

COOPER: We spent last week in the Middle East, in Lebanon and in Syria, amazed at the push for democracy taking place in Lebanon.

Tonight our "Reporter's Notebook," with a number of photos taken by Graham Robertson from Getty Images. We don't think we cover international news nearly enough, so from now, on each night we'll be devoting part of our broadcast to take you around the world. Tonight's "Reporter's Notebook" is "The World in 360."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: To say what's happening right now in Lebanon is historic, it's true of course, but, I don't know -- "historic," it makes it sound so dry, so dull. What's happening here is alive. It's pulsing. It's powerful. People, many for the first time in their lives, are standing up, speaking out, are demanding freedom. The final straw was the assassination of the former prime minister. CNN's Beirut Bureau Chief Brent Sadler got us access to the crime scene. From the wreckage, you can see the direction of the blast. It looked to me like an underground explosion, but there's no official word yet. No suspects, no arrests. It's been more than a month. You try to get across the violence of the blast, but it's hard to show the scope of the damage. You really need to step back, see it with a wide-angle lens.

We've been broadcasting every night from the tent encampment that protesters have set up in Martyr's Square. They're really glad we're here and are excited that people around the world are aware of what they're doing. It's rare in the Middle East to hear people say, thank you, America. We've heard it over and over. They've been deeply influenced by elections in Iraq and seem thankful the U.S. and Europe are pressuring Syria to pull out of Lebanon.

Monday's demonstration was probably the most important day so far; well over half a million people were there. And, remember, this country has only four million people, so the turnout was just incredible. We were in the crowd and at times you could barely move. People were so happy, surprised almost that they were able to do this.

After years of living silently with Syrian occupation, it seemed like they weren't afraid anymore. Some people held signs that said zoom out; they wanted the TV cameras to zoom out and show how big the turnout really was. From inside the crowd you couldn't tell. I went on top of a building and I couldn't believe it, it was just a sea of white and red flags. I'd never seen anything like it.

When you think of all this country has been through, all the pain and all the death, it was an extraordinary moment. I feel privileged to have been here.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: "The World in 360."

Up next in our one-hour special on life and death decisions in the Terri Schiavo case: protesters in front of the Florida courthouse where Terri Schiavo's fate may be decided -- going to have a complete update on the latest developments.

Also, what's it like to have a feeding tube removed? We hear from a woman who lived to tell the story. She was trapped in her own body.

And a late wish, or a last wish. We take a look at a different kind of life-and-death event. The daughter who helped her mother die.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: This is a complex case with serious issues. But in extraordinary circumstances like this, it is wise to always err on the side of life. [ cheers and applause ]

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: And life and death decisions are something that each of us will face sometime. But it's pretty rare that Congress gets involved, as it has in the Terri Schiavo case.

For the next hour, in this special edition of 360, we're going to look not only at the Schiavo case, but others with similar circumstances but different outcomes. We'll also tell you what steps you can take to avoid a fight over your fate or the fate of a loved one.

Let's begin in court today where the Terri Schiavo battle has been so often fought for the last decade. The difference this time was that it was a federal court, the result of a weekend of high- stakes maneuvering that went all the way to the White House.

CNN's Elizabeth Cohen brings us up to date.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For 15 years, the Terri Schiavo that everyone remembers as loving stuffed animals and Danielle Steele novels has been a mere shell of her former self. Her family members all agree she's terribly brain damaged, the result of years of bulimia which caused a potassium deficiency and her heart to stop for about five minutes. The painful, public and protracted family battle is over whether she would want to live the way she is knew or whether there's a glimmer of hope for her to improve.

MICHAEL SCHIAVO, TERRI SCHIAVO'S HUSBAND: I fought this long for Terri and I love her dearly, and I made that promise to her and I'm going to hold it out.

BOBBY SCHINDLER, TERRI SCHIAVO'S BROTHER: We don't believe these are Terri's wishes; we believe these are Michael's wishes. Terri has been fighting 15 years. She has an iron will to live. She hasn't given up on us and we're certainly not going to give up on her.

COHEN: So now the 42-year-old woman remains caught between two groups, both of whom say they love her, and both of whom who think they know what's best for Terri. And with her feeding tube pulled Friday under the direction of her husband, the other family members were refused entry to her hospice for several hours on Sunday.

ROBERT SCHINDLER, TERRI SCHIAVO'S FATHER: All I know is that we were told that Schiavo has blocked our visitation.

QUESTION: How were you notified?

SCHINDLER: Police. Right up here. You go through and they won't let you through. They won't let us go in. They stopped us. We can't go see our daughter.

QUESTION: The police stopped you? And what did they say to you? SCHINDLER: We're not permitted to see Terri for Michael Schiavo.

COHEN: But Terri Schiavo's also become a poster case for two sides of a larger debate, one that happened in the halls of the U.S. Congress late Sunday night.

REP. JAMES SENSENBRENNER (R), WISCONSIN: Terri Schiavo, a person whose humanity is as undeniable as her emotional responses to her family's tender care-giving, has committed no crime and has done nothing wrong. Yet, the Florida courts have brought Terri and the nation to an ugly crossroads by commanding medical professionals sworn to protect life to end Terri's life.

REP. BARNEY FRANK (D), MASSACHUSETTS: This is a terribly difficult decision which we are institutionally, totally incompetent to make, and to allow ideology to triumph in that context is a shame.

COHEN: That Terri Schiavo loved life is not part of the debate. What remains to be answered is whether she loved it enough to hate the condition she's in now or loved it enough to live on despite the condition she's in now. A question she can't answer.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COHEN (on camera): While she can't answer that question now, a lawyer for Michael Schiavo told a federal judge today that, during her life, before her heart attack, Terri Schiavo said that she would not want to live in a vegetative state. Her parents, however, told the judge that, as a devout Catholic, Terri Schiavo would want to follow papal teachings and accept food and water despite her condition.

Anderson?

COOPER: Elizabeth Cohen, thanks very much for that from Tampa.

No parent wants to face this dilemma, of course. However, when our pollsters asked, if your child were in the same condition as Terri Schiavo, would you remove the feeding tube? Fifty-six percent said yes; 34 percent said no.

Well, for that 34 percent, as for Terri Schiavo's parents, the reason to hope comes from a few near miraculous comebacks.

Paula Zahn is off this week, but she left us this incredible story of one such comeback that gives others hope.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN (voice-over): For the past 15 years, Terri Schiavo has been in what some doctors call a persistent vegetative state, breathing on her own, but relying on a feeding tube to stay alive. These are the last images of her to be made public.

At the age of 26, she suffered permanent brain damage, the result of sudden heart failure. Court-appointed physicians reported her chances of meaningful neurologic recovery to be virtually nonexistent. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Terri, can you look at me?

ZAHN: But that diagnosis has ignited a legal firestorm.

DR. WILLIAM MAXFIELD, RADIOLOGIST: There's a significant probability that she would improve.

DR. MELVIN GREER, NEUROLOGIST: There is no treatment that is available that can help this unfortunate young woman.

ZAHN: Part of the debate is concern about misdiagnosis. Studies have shown the condition known as persistent vegetative state is wrongly diagnosed up to 40 percent of the time. Terri's once close family is now bitterly divided over her chances of recovery.

(on camera): What do you think she understands?

MARY SCHINDLER, MOTHER OF TERRI SCHIAVO: Every time she hears my voice, I know she knows who I am, because, when I say it's mommy, she starts laughing and she starts trying to make vocal sounds.

Hi. You look so pretty.

DEBORAH BUSHNELL, ATTORNEY FOR MICHAEL SCHIAVO: Terri does not respond. She has very little cerebral cortex left. The thinking part of her brain is simply gone and replaced with liquid. Terri has not responded in the 15 years that she's been in this condition.

ZAHN (voice-over): As Terri's legal guardian, her husband, Michael, has the right to end her life since she never put her wishes in writing.

MICHAEL SCHIAVO, HUSBAND OF TERRI SCHIAVO: This is what Terri wanted. This is Terri's wish. OK. It's not President Bush's wish. This is about Terri Schiavo, not the government, not President Bush and Governor Bush. They should be ashamed of themselves.

ZAHN (on camera): It seems to me that you're greatly concerned about how she will suffer in that process.

BOB SCHINDLER, FATHER OF TERRI SCHIAVO: Just, it's unconscionable, what is going on. It's beyond belief. If you do that to a dog, they'd put you away. My God, what would happen if you tried it with an animal. And yet they want to do that to my daughter.

ZAHN: Kate Adamson knows firsthand what Terri might endure.

KATE ADAMSON, AUTHOR, "KATE'S JOURNEY": The stomach pains, the hunger pains overrode any other thought that I had.

ZAHN: After suffering a massive stroke at the age of 33, Kate was thought to be in a persistent vegetative state. She remembers what it felt like to be a prisoner of her own body.

ADAMSON: Terrifying, totally devastating. I was isolated, lonely. I wanted to scream out, I'm in here. I'm alive. Can't you hear me?

ZAHN: As part of her treatment, she was disconnected from a feeding tube for nine days. First, there was dehydration.

ADAMSOM: I craved green Gatorade, of all things, and I don't even like Gatorade.

ZAHN: And then the hunger pains.

ADAMSOM: I'm screaming inside my body, feed me. Will you please just feed me something? But don't starve me.

ZAHN: Kate believes that, if Terri is aware and her feeding tube is pulled, her parents have reason to worry.

ADAMSOM: This isn't something that's peaceful and comfortable to be in that position. It's painful. You know, I can't think of any other worse way to die, being starved to death.

ZAHN: But, still, Terri's parents are encouraged by the miraculous recovery of Sarah Scantlin, who woke up out of a coma after 20 years.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What do you tell me when I leave?

SARAH SCANTLIN, FORMER COMA VICTIM: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And...

SCANTLIN: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

ZAHN (on camera): When you heard that story, what went through your mind?

M. SCHINDLER: I was really excited, because with Sarah talking and a new test for the brain waves, maybe she could, you know, talk like Sarah's talking.

ZAHN: The new tests come from a groundbreaking study, which shows more brain activity in minimally conscious patients than previously believed.

DR. ZACHARY LEVINE, NEUROSURGEON: These minimally conscious patients actually do respond to their environment. It's clearly a sign of, it's not just a brain stem that's functioning. The higher parts, the thinking parts, the personality parts of the brain are actually functioning even in a comatose state.

ZAHN: And that, the Schindlers say, is why they're fighting so desperately to keep Terri alive.

BOB SCHINDLER: We want her to have that test. She deserves it. She's entitled to it, and that will measure her brain waves and prove once and for all that she's not in a persistent vegetative state, she's not in a coma and that she just needs therapy.

ZAHN: Terri's husband, however, insists that his in-laws are clinging to false hope.

M. SCHIAVO: They all testified in court that, even if Terri wanted this, they wouldn't remove it. It's because this is what they want.

ZAHN (on camera): Do you really think you know Terri's wishes better than her husband's?

M. SCHINDLER: Michael lived with my daughter for five years. I've known my daughter all her life, and Terri is not the type of person that would say anything like that. I know her.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER (voice-over): What would you do if a loved one asked you to help them die? Tonight, her mother said, I've had enough. Hear how this daughter faced a life-and-death decision.

She was a prisoner inside her own body, unable to speak, unable to tell doctors what she wanted.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ADAMSAON: I'm screaming inside my body, feed me. Please, just feed me something.

COOPER: Tonight, one woman's terrifying story of life on the brink of death.

A 360 special edition, "Life and Death Decisions," continues in a moment.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JAMES SENSENBRENNER (R), WISCONSIN: I find myself wondering, why is there so much focus on this life, when we ignore the countless lives throughout the world who die minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day from hunger and disease that this Congress could address and this Congress could prevent? Why only Terri, why only Terri, when there are others like her in our country?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: In this special edition of 360, we are looking in-depth at the Terri Schiavo case, but also life-and-death situations that many other families have had to make. There's been conflicting medical testimony about Schiavo's condition, what she knows, what she feels. We're going to take a look at that in a moment.

But another woman's story caught our attention tonight. It's another of those stories used as an example by those who want to keep Terri Schiavo alive. Twenty years after an accident left 18-year-old Sarah Scantlin with a head injury, unable to speak, she has broken her silence and left doctors at a loss for words.

CNN's Paula Zahn has her story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BETSY SCANTLIN, MOTHER OF SARAH: Sarah, OK, we'll see you.

ZAHN (voice-over): Betsy and Jim Scantlin having a conversation with their daughter, something that was unthinkable for two decades.

B. SCANTLIN: Yes, I love you, too.

JIM SCANTLIN, FATHER OF SARAH: Bye-bye.

ZAHN: Now it's what they cherish most. The last time Sarah spoke was in 1984. She was 18 years old, a freshman in college. She had a new part-time job and a spot on the school's drill team. She was out celebrating with friends.

J. SCANTLIN: It was closing time and they were going across to their vehicle.

ZAHN: A drunken driver hit Sarah head on.

B. SCANTLIN: The car was going so fast that it pitched her over the top of the car like a piece of meat. She fell on the back of the car.

J. SCANTLIN: It ended Sarah as she was.

ZAHN: Her doctors said she wouldn't walk, probably would never move on her own and would never talk.

J. SCANTLIN: Here's a child that you dearly love and alive physically and obviously alert. She knew what was going on. And, yet, that door was closed. And I'll tell you what. After year after year after year, that's -- that's a lot to handle.

ZAHN: Since the accident, Sarah has received 24-hour care.

B. SCANTLIN: She didn't say anything or didn't even make a sound for 18 years.

ZAHN: Then something happened. A phone call and two simple words changed everything.

B. SCANTLIN: Hi, mom. That was it. Hi, mom.

J. SCANTLIN: And I said, Betsy, am I going nuts? It sounds like you're talking to Sarah.

B. SCANTLIN: I went, Sarah, is that you? And she said, yes. I said, what are you doing? (LAUGHTER)

J. SCANTLIN: A look in her eye that I haven't seen for many, many years. I grabbed the phone, and I say, sis, this is dad. And she says, hi, dad. And I will tell you what, it was the most touching, thrilling moment.

(APPLAUSE)

ZAHN: There was a party to celebrate and more precious words.

SARAH SCANTLIN, DAUGHTER: I love you.

ZAHN: Since then, Betsy and Jim have heard their daughter say many words, even short sentences, but there hasn't been a complete conversation.

B. SCANTLIN: We're still waiting for her to do the initiating of a question.

J. SCANTLIN: Yes.

B. SCANTLIN: We haven't heard that yet.

ZAHN: Now it's Sarah's doctor who is at a loss of words, at least when it comes to explaining how she regained her speech.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is very unusual, and I think it's a miraculous change of events. And we're just all really thrilled how she starting to communicate.

ZAHN: The brain is not very good at repairing physical damage. But doctors believe, over time, it can rewire itself. So, how far will Sarah go? Doctors can't say. But her parents say she's not finished yet.

B. SCANTLIN: Oh, no.

J. SCANTLIN: Oh, no.

B. SCANTLIN: Heavens no.

J. SCANTLIN: Life is -- there's just so much there. I'm not finished, and Sarah has got things to do. And I'm glad I'm going to be part of it.

B. SCANTLIN: I don't know what's in store for Sarah in the future. I don't know what's in store for myself, but today is going to be a good day, because I'm going to talk to her after a while. I'm going to say hi, Sarah. And she's going to say hi back.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Of course, every case is different. The Terri Schiavo case has politicians and special interests squabbling right now over medicine and ethics and of course over politics. But what's interesting about the case is that even doctors cannot agree just what her condition is.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta talked with two doctors who examined Terri Schiavo and found two very divided opinions. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In a medical case as high profile as Terri Schiavo, you would think the medical experts would have all the answers. But just by listening to them and reviewing statements they gave to the court, it's easy to see why a final answer is so complicated.

DR. WILLIAM HAMMESFAHR, NEUROLOGIST: I spent about 10 hours across about three months. And the woman is very aware of her surroundings. She's very aware. She's alert. She's not in a coma. She's not in PVS.

GUPTA: PVS, persistent vegetative state. Dr. Hammesfahr was chosen by Terri Schiavo's parents to testify in court, his opinion very different from Dr. Ronald Cranford, chosen by Michael Schiavo, Terri's husband.

DR. RONALD CRANFORD, NEUROLOGIST: A vegetative state is a scary diagnosis. Unless you know what you're looking for, it looks like the patient is interacting. But Terri is not interacting.

GUPTA: Both of them are neurologists and their conclusions are based on diagnostic tests that are supposed to be objective. Yet, they tell different tales.

HAMMESFAHR: Her C.T. scan has maybe 75 percent of the brain tissue still left.

CRANFORD: I've seen her. There's no doubt in my mind whatsoever, she's in a permanent vegetative state. Her CAT scan shows extremely severe atrophy to the brain. And her EEG is flat. It doesn't show any electrical activity at all.

GUPTA: And, most importantly, their opinions about a possible recovery?

HAMMESFAHR: With proper therapy, she will have a tremendous improvement. I think, personally, she'll be able to walk eventually and she will be able to use at least one of her arms.

CRANFORD: There's no way. That's totally bogus.

GUPTA: Five doctors gave their medical opinions in an evidentiary hearing ordered by a Florida appellate court, two doctors chosen by each side and one court-appointed neurologist who was chosen by the judge. He declined a CNN interview, but told the court: "The preponderance of the data and my clinical examination reveal no evidence of awareness of self, environment or ability to interact with others. Mrs. Schiavo exhibits no evidence of language comprehension or expression. I would state that her chances of a meaningful neurological recovery to be virtually nonexistent." His language leaves little room for doubt, unless you ask yet another neurologist. And so a medical choice, normally decided between doctors and a patient's loved ones, is fought out in the courts.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Sanjay, that is so frustrating, to have all these different opinions. One of the doctors in your story said the EEG was flat, indicating no brain activity. What do you make of that?

GUPTA: Yes. I was little surprised by that, actually. I think it's pretty clear that she's not brain dead, which is typically what a flat EEG would mean.

But I think a lot of people -- obviously, you're seeing the confusion here, even among not just doctors, but brain doctors. There is no single blood test, there is no single scan that's going to answer this question for sure as to whether or not she's in a persistent vegetative state or something else. So, I think that's part of the confusion here, Anderson.

COOPER: You know, also I think part of the confusion, we've seen these videos so many times, seems to show her smiling as her mother talks to her. There's a tape that seems to -- it just adds to the confusion what she can and cannot do. What do you think we're seeing in these tapes?

GUPTA: Well, you know, it's really interesting. I think this is a really hard thing for people to get their arms around.

We talk about wakeful unawareness. Just think about that term for a state, wakeful unawareness, someone who can be awake and go to sleep, but still remains unaware of their surroundings. They open their yes. They may close their eyes. They may smile. They may grimace. They may react. They may do all these things. To look at them, you would think that this person is aware of what's going on.

But, in fact -- and I have not examined Terri Schiavo, of course, or seen any of her scans -- but I can tell you, in people who do have a persistent vegetative state, they can act like they might actually be aware, but, in fact, they're not if you probe a little bit deeper.

COOPER: Such a horrible case.

What is her status right now? Someone who's had a feeding tube that has been out for three days, what's happening to her body at this point?

GUPTA: Well, it's concerning, for sure.

You remember, Anderson, back in October 2003, she had her feeding tube out, was without nutrition and hydration for about six and a half days. Most doctors would agree that's a period of time where you start to get very concerned about her dehydration possibly leading to kidney failure. Sort of ironically, Anderson, when she was originally admitted to the hospital, it was because she had a severe bulimic episode, which led to dehydration, lack of nutrition, and subsequently suffered from heart failure.

Now fast-forward 15 years. Without the feeding tube, she could have some of those same things happen again. She's three days out now. I think that, if they're going to plan on rehydrating her or giving her nourishment, they need to do that soon if that is going to be the plan, Anderson.

COOPER: All right, 360 M.D., Dr. Sanjay Gupta -- thanks, Sanjay.

GUPTA: Thank you.

COOPER: We're going to be looking at these life and death situations that so many families have to make across the country. A little bit later on, you're going to be hearing from one woman who helped her mother die.

Right now, a school shooting in Minnesota has rocked a small town, one of the stories that is making news cross-country this hour.

Erica Hill joins us now from Headline News with the latest -- hey, Erica.

ERICA HILL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Anderson.

Yes, six people are dead now after a shooting rampage at a high school on the Red Lake Indian Reservation. Local officials say a total of 18 people were shot. The FBI says a teacher, security guard and four students were killed. One of those students is thought to have been the shooter. Local authorities say the gunman also fatally shot his grandparents before going to the school. We're staying on top of this story. We'll bring you more details as they become available.

The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected an appeal from the only person to be changed in the United States in connection with the September 11 terrorist attacks. Zacarias Moussaoui had asked the court to decide if his right to a fair trial hinged on his being able to question some al Qaeda detainees. Moussaoui says their testimony would exonerate him. Today's ruling clears the way for his trial.

Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist was back on the bench today for the first time since being diagnosed with thyroid cancer last October. Rehnquist presided over two hours of arguments and asked several questions in a hoarse voice.

Michael Jackson arrived late and seemingly in pain again today for his trial on child molestation charges. A Jackson spokesman says the pop singer is experiencing excruciating back pain at time. The judge threatened to revoke Jackson's bail on March 10, when he arrived late. But today, the judge pushed ahead with testimony after a 45- minute delay.

And that is the latest from Headline News.

Anderson, I'll hand it back to you.

COOPER: All right, Erica, thanks very much. See you back in about 30 minutes for another news update.

Coming up next, though, on this special two-hour edition of 360, the talk of the nation, how a turn of the dial reveals a lot about what people think of the battle over Terri Schiavo. What do you think? See if your opinions are echoed in some of the sentiments we're hearing on the radio.

Also tonight, before the battle, there was the couple. We're going to have the love story of Michael and Terri Schiavo, how they met, how they fell in love, their life together.

Also, a little later, the ultimate choice, how one daughter helped her mother end her life, an impossible choice. You'll hear from her.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. TOM DELAY (R-TX), MAJORITY LEADER: I say again, the legal and political issues may be complicated, but the moral ones are not. A young woman in Florida is being dehydrated and starved to death.

REP. BARNEY FRANK (D), MASSACHUSETTS: This is a terribly difficult decision which we are institutionally totally incompetent to make and to allow ideology to triumph in that context is a shame.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Well, we are getting a lot of e-mails from viewers on the Terri Schiavo case. As you just heard, Congress has taken sides on the subject, and not just Congress, indeed, what must be the most intensely private decision any family ever could be called upon to make. Well, it's become something just about everyone in this country and around the world with a microphone seems to feel free to weigh on.

Now, we don't take sides on 360. We like to look at all the angles. And, on this case, on this story, on the radio and TV today, there have been a whole lot of angles expressed.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER (voice-over): She is the talk of talk, Terri Schiavo, the Florida woman who hovers somewhere between death and life.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, did you ever feed her?

COOPER: All over the country, people are ringing in with their very public opinions about this family's once private ordeal.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, Ken, you're on 710 KIRO.

COOPER: They didn't stop calling at "The Dori Munson Show" in Seattle.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And that they're just looking for a way to abuse her further.

COOPER: Phone lines lit up in L.A.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And she'll get better as soon as she's allowed to have standard approaches to therapy.

COOPER: Words were exchanged in Chicago.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're giving her the normal humanitarian aid of food and water. She's just getting what any human being would get or a dog or an animal would get.

COOPER: On New York's Public Radio, WNYC, Brian Lehrer hosted a quiet discussion that quickly got loud.

BRIAN LEHRER, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: This is kind of the perfect talk radio storm. You have the personal and the political all coming together.

COOPER: Even on TV, Terri Schiavo's story played agonizingly close to home.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Have you ever seen anyone in her condition come out of it?

COOPER: Who hasn't or will not some day witness an ailing loved one struggling? How many of us will one day be forced to decide when and how their life will end?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nicki (ph) in Atlanta.

COOPER: All over radio, people want to know.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They have no problem executing the retarded or juveniles, for that matter. They don't love children. It's the fetus they love.

COOPER: Is this really the government's business? Should the courts have the right to decide?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The politicians shouldn't be getting involved. They're not doing a good job anyway dealing with politics. Now they're going to try get into the medical field.

COOPER: What happened to this family, to Terri Schiavo's tearful parents, with the haunting video of her blinking eyes? What of her husband, who swears Schiavo believed this half-life was no life at all?

M. SCHIAVO: This is about Terri Schiavo, not the government, not President Bush and Governor Bush. They should be ashamed of themselves. COOPER: America is talking about it all now that this family's life and death dispute has taken on a life of its own in the courts and Congress, enough life to summon the president back from his ranch, enough to put medicine and religion the defensive.

What happens to Terri Schiavo means so much to so many. It could someday be their own Terri Schiavo caught in the lurch, their wife, their daughter or even them. And then who gets to decide? For now, it seems, everyone is having their say.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Now, of course, the question, who gets to decide?

360 next, Terri's lost future, a glimpse of what her life was once like, not the pictures from a hospital bed, the pictures from her life with her husband, her life before the hospital.

Also tonight, letting her mother go, how a daughter helped one woman, her own mother, end her life, her remarkable story ahead. You won't want to miss that.

And, a little later, sounding off, what you have to tell us about the Schiavo battle, a lot of e-mails pouring in right now. Log on to CNN.com/360. Send us your opinion. You just click on the instant feedback link. We'll read some of them later on in the program.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOBBY SCHINDLER, BROTHER OF TERRI SCHIAVO: If you would see Terri, you would see how alive she is, how alert she is, how much she responds, how she's trying to speak with us. There's a reason Michael and his attorney are doing everything they can to keep Terri hidden from the public.

Terri could be sitting here right now. She could be on the House floor during this debate in a wheelchair.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: In this special edition of 360, we are looking at not only the Terri Schiavo case, but at those life and death decisions that all of us will have to make at some point in our life.

Before her name came to stand for a heartbreaking struggle, before she became a cause and a subject for judges and legislators to debate, Terri Schiavo was simply a young women with plans for the future, modest plans for a modest life with her husband, Michael.

From John Zarrella now, the poignant story of what should have been.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN MIAMI BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): You would probably never recognize the photographs, just a young couple in love. But, today, the world knows their story of star-crossed tragedy, the stuff of Shakespearian drama.

SCHIAVO: We loved each other tremendously. She was shy. She was warm. She was sweet.

ZARRELLA: Now the lives of Terri and Michael Schiavo are forever changed.

SCHIAVO: Look at those ducks.

ZARRELLA: Before Terri became disabled in 1990, she and Michael had the dreams and plans of any young couple in love.

SCHIAVO: We had wanted kids, and that's what we were trying to have when all this occurred. She loved kids. We wanted to have a house full. Just to have a happy little normal life. We didn't want anything big. We weren't into the glimmer and the shine. We just wanted to have a nice little comfortable life together.

ZARRELLA: The two met by chance in school in the early 1980s. It was, Michael says, love at first sight.

SCHIAVO: I met Terri in community college. We just happened to start a new semester, and she was in, I believe it was, my psychology class -- don't quote me on that, but I believe it was. She just happened to be sitting there. I was over on one side of the room, and she was over on the other, and I heard this little laugh, and I looked over and there she was. I fell in love with her the instant I saw her.

ZARRELLA: And it wasn't long before they were dating.

How did you ask her out? What did you -- what was it...

SCHIAVO: I just -- we got to talking and I just asked her, I said, we're having a family get-together; would you like to go with me? And she said yes. She was just -- like I said, she had this persona, this aura about her that just attracted you. She was just a -- beautiful smile, just shy and outgoing at the same time.

ZARRELLA: They dated, Michael says, about a year, and were married in 1984.

Wedding day was special?

SCHIAVO: Oh, yes. Yes, when I saw her walking down the aisle, I said, oh, my God, look at that. It was just a vision of beauty, I'm telling you. She was gorgeous, and all I saw was her big smile, just laughing at everybody, but that shy little laugh, but just outgoing.

ZARRELLA: For six years, Terri and Michael lived their storybook life until February 25, 1990 when Terri suffered heart failure believed to be caused by a potassium imbalance. Michael has moved on and is in a new relationship, but he never divorced Terri in order to carry out what he says were her wishes, never to become a burden to people. And he says he will never forget the time they had together.

Do you still hold those memories of those days very dear?

SCHIAVO: Oh, they're in my heart forever, my heart and my mind forever. Terri will always be in my heart. She will never leave it. She was a piece of my life, and she'll always be a piece of my life.

ZARRELLA: John Zarrella, CNN, Clearwater, Florida.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Well, Michael Schiavo, the man you just met in that piece, the man who meant to share Terri Schiavo's bright future with her, and now finds himself fighting to end her life, spoke this morning with Soledad O'Brien on CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING."

Here's some of that conversation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SCHIAVO: I think it's an invasion to the American people when you make a private decision in a family matter -- that they're thumbing their nose up to the American people and the Constitution. This is a sad day for Terri, and it's a sad day for every American in this country, and people should be outraged.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: The issue now goes to a federal judge. If the federal judge rules that, in fact, the feeding tube has to be reinserted into Terri, what happens then? Do you continue your fight?

SCHIAVO: Oh, yes, of course.

O'BRIEN: In what way? With that recourse?

SCHIAVO: I'll let the -- my attorney handle that one.

DEBORAH BUSHNELL, MICHAEL SCHIAVO'S ATTORNEY: We feel confident that the federal courts are not going to find this act constitutional. This is simply an abuse of power by the legislative branch and the executive branch.

We thank, so much, the Congressmen and women who stood up for us when this act was being debated. We are sorely disappointed in the result. However, the courts have supported us consistently, and we believe that they will continue to support Terri's constitutional rights and the rights of every U.S. citizen to make medical decisions for themselves.

O'BRIEN: In a last-minute maneuver, as you both know, the president got involved. I want to read what the president had to say.

"In cases like this one, where there are serious questions and substantial doubts, our society, our laws, and our courts should have a presumption in favor of life. This presumption is especially critical for those like Terri Schiavo who live at the mercy of others. I will continue to stand on the side of those defending life for all Americans, including those with disabilities."

Why, Michael, do you think the president's wrong?

SCHIAVO: Number one, this is what Terri wanted, this is Terri's wish. OK? It's not President Bush's wish. This is about Terri Schiavo, not the government, not President Bush, and Governor Bush. They should be ashamed of themselves.

BUSHNELL: Soledad, this has gone -- this case has gone up and down through the Florida courts for years. Every conceivable issue has been resolved -- litigated and relitigated. This case has had more due process than any situation in memory.

Terri has a right at this point to have her medical wishes honored, and we're very disappointed that the Congress has chosen to interject itself into this process, and the president as well. We feel it's an abuse of power, and every U.S. citizen should be outraged.

O'BRIEN: Terri's family members, though, say her that medical wishes are, in fact not what you claim they are, and I want to play you a little bit of what Terri Schiavo's brother Bobby Schindler had to say.

B. SCHINDLER: If you would see Terri, you would see absolutely how alive she is, how alert she is, how much she responds, how she's trying to speak with us. There's a reason Michael and his attorney are doing everything they can to keep Terri hidden from the public. Terri could be sitting on the House floor during this debate in a wheelchair.

O'BRIEN: Is that right, Michael? She could be sitting on the House floor, doing this debate, in a wheelchair?

SCHIAVO: She can sit in a wheelchair, yes, but she's not able to fly. That's -- you know, let me say something. Terri can't communicate. She cannot swallow. This is Bobby Schindler's soap box, OK? This is his way to pander votes from the Republican people up in Congress. He's not presenting the accurate facts. This case has been in front of the state courts for seven years; 20 judges have heard this case, including the Supreme Court justices, and Bobby Schindler is up there stating inaccurate facts and the Republicans up there are feeding into it.

BUSHNELL: Soledad, that statement is simply incredible. Terri does not respond. She has very little cerebral cortex left. The thinking part of her brain is simply gone and is replaced with liquid. Terri has not responded in the 15 years that she's been in this condition. Doctors, reputable doctors agree, there's simply no hope in Terri's situation, and for Bobby Schindler or anyone to say otherwise is simply deluded.

O'BRIEN: Deborah Bushnell and Michael -- go ahead Michael. SCHIAVO: And they all testified in court that even if Terri wanted this, they wouldn't remove it. It's because this is what they want.

O'BRIEN: The family members, you're saying.

SCHIAVO: This has nothing to do with Terri.

O'BRIEN: Michael Schiavo and Deborah...

SCHIAVO: I am her family.

O'BRIEN: I meant your in-laws.

Terri Schiavo's husband, Michael Schiavo and his attorney, Deborah Bushnell, joining us this morning from Deneden (ph), in Florida.

Thanks to both of you for joining us.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Well, 360 next, what would you do? Would you help a parent or a child die? Coming up, on daughter's decision to help her mom die, an interview you won't want to miss.

Also, tonight, a conversation you must have with your family, tonight. Don't delay it. What would you want done, if you were in Terri Schiavo's condition? If you don't have a living will already, we're going to tell you how to get one, and why you got to have one. That's ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: The agonizing life and death situation facing Terri Schiavo's family is, sad to say, increasingly common. I spoke earlier with a woman whose mother was terminally ill. She wasn't on a feeding tube, as Terri Schiavo was. But this woman did want to die, and she begged her daughter to help her do just that.

"Last Wish" is the harrowing book by Betty Rollin about coming to grips with her mother's cancer and her wish not to fight it any longer. As you listen to her story, ask yourself, what would you do?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: When your mom first raised the idea about ending her life, did it come as a complete surprise to you?

BETTY ROLLIN, AUTHOR, "LAST WISH" Yes. A surprise and an unwelcome surprise. I mean, I didn't know how to deal with it.

COOPER: Did you want to hear about it? Or did you...

ROLLIN: No, I didn't want to hear about it. I did not want to hear that she wanted to die. First of all, I didn't know how to do that. And secondly, although I knew she was near death and suffering greatly and that it was perfectly reasonable for her to want to die, I couldn't deal with it at first.

And then I dealt with it, because she was so clear that that's what she wanted.

COOPER: It wasn't really -- I mean, she wasn't depressed. It wasn't depression speaking?

ROLLIN: Not at all depressed. My mother never was depressed, and she would be very angry at that accusation, which I've heard many times. She was being rational. And I couldn't deal with it, and then she kept insisting.

I got a doctor on the phone, a friend of a friend of a friend who counseled us and told us what we would need.

COOPER: Because you had thought about renting a car.

ROLLIN: I thought about carbon monoxide, renting a car. We don't have a car. We live in New York. So what, were we going to rent a car and then turn on, you know, whatever you turn on so that people die? No.

We didn't live in Texas or one of those places, so we had -- I had never seen a gun. And anyway, the idea of my mother shooting herself was horrible.

And finally, the doctor told us what to do. My mother asked her doctor for pills, for barbiturates, saying she couldn't sleep. She saved them. And on a particular day, when she felt well enough to swallow. I mean, she was -- she said, "I get it. I have to feel well enough to kill myself, because otherwise I won't be able to swallow."

But here's the thing that really moved me and made me to this day a part of the right to die movement. When my mother knew that we had a way out for her, when she knew she was going to get out of life, which is how she put it, the first thing she said to me was, "There's this stupid hat that I got in Bloomingdale's that's in the closet. Don't forget to return it."

I mean, she became herself again. She became -- she was in charge. She was calm. Her terror, which I had mentioned, that she was terrified of this horrible death she was facing. And who could blame her? And so this knowledge that she was going to get out of life really made her last day of life peaceful, calm.

However, I do not think that I should have -- we should have been in that situation. I do not recommend this. I mean, what -- it's very tricky for a loved one to help a person die.

First of all, we could have messed it up. This is something that should be done by physicians. In Oregon, the only state in America -- this is what I'm fighting for. This is what I'm in the movement for, a group called Death with Dignity. Oregon is the one state in America where my mother could have called a doctor herself and said, "Please help me out of this."

COOPER: Toward the end, your mom said, "Next to happiness of my children, I want nothing more than to die."

ROLLIN: Well, I questioned her at the end. I mean, I kept saying, "Are you sure you want to do this?"

And she was sort of, "Yes, I want to do this. Next to the happiness of my children, I want to die more than anything in the world." And, you know...

COOPER: Betty Rollin, thank you very much.

ROLLIN: Thank you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Betty Rollin's book is "Last Wish."

A deadly school shooting in Minnesota. Erica Hill joins us now from Headline News with the latest on that.

Hey, Erica.

ERICA HILL, HEADLINE NEWS: Hi, Anderson.

Yes, that shooting has reportedly left five people dead. We're learning more about it. Authorities say it happened at a high school on the Red Lake Indian Reservation. A student reportedly opened fire there, wounded 12 people now. The FBI says the gunman killed three students, a teacher and a security guard before turning the gun on himself. Local authorities say the gunman shot and killed his grandparents before heading over to the school.

A convicted sex offender is now charged with capital murder in the death of a 9-year-old Florida girl. John Couey allegedly confessed to kidnapping and killing Jessica Lunsford. Her body was found buried in the yard of the house where Couey was staying, very close to where the Lunsfords lived. Authorities say they will urge prosecutors to seek the death penalty. Couey will be arraigned tomorrow.

President Bush is on a two-day road trip pushing for Social Security reform. In Tucson, Arizona, the president said many Americans believe their Social Security contributions are like money in the bank. But then he said the program will start running deficits in 2018 unless something is done before then.

Chess legend Bobby Fischer may have found a new home in a place very special to him. Iceland's Parliament has voted to grant citizenship to the fugitive American chess champion, and Iceland is where he won the world championship in 1972. Now, Fischer has, of course, been in Japanese custody since last year. He's been fighting deportation to the U.S., where he could face charges of violating sanctions against the former Yugoslavia for playing in a chess match there in 1992. And that is the latest from Headline News. Anderson, back to you.

COOPER: Erica. Thanks very much, Erica.

360 next, the Terri Schiavo case puts the spotlight on living wills. If you don't have one, we're going to tell you how to get one, and you've got to get one very soon. We'll give you the facts on that life and death decision.

Also ahead tonight, emotions running high. We're going to read some of our viewer e-mail. We're getting a lot of them involving the fight over Terri. You can send us your thoughts. You can log on to CNN.com/360 right now. Still have some time.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: The Terri Schiavo case has a lot of people thinking about a living will, something that officially specifies how far doctors can go in keeping you alive when you can't speak for yourself.

At least 75 percent of American adults do not have living wills, which is extraordinary, 75 percent. So how can you be sure what has happened to the Schiavo family does not happen to you? Let's ask Dr. Joseph Barmakian, founder of the U.S. Living Will Registry.

Thanks very much. Why do so many Americans not have living wills?

JOSEPH BARMAKIAN, FOUNDER, U.S. LIVING WILL REGISTRY: I think having the discussion about end-of-life care is a very uncomfortable thing to have. People don't want to think about being in that situation, so they don't talk about it.

COOPER: But everyone has an opinion about what they would want in their case.

BARMAKIAN: Exactly. If you ask anyone, what would you want in that situation, they don't hesitate. They have a very strong opinion about what they would want.

COOPER: So how do you go about translating what you want into an actual piece of paper that's going to make a difference? I mean, is it a big problem -- big process, making a living will? I mean, I did it; I had my attorney do it. How hard is it?

BARMAKIAN: There's a very big misperception that it's a very difficult process. And in fact, it's very simple.

COOPER: Wait a minute, so I paid an attorney a lot for this? It's simple?

BARMAKIAN: Really, you don't need an attorney. What you need is what's called an advanced directive. And advanced directive is a legal document that you prepare in advance of your illness so that you can direct your own care. And there's basically two kinds of advance directives. The most commonly known one is called a living will. And in a living will, you actually write down the kind of care you want or don't want. You want to be on a ventilator. You don't want dialysis. Very specific types of choices about the care you want.

COOPER: And where do you get these documents?

BARMAKIAN: Well, there's many places you can get them. You can get them from your local hospital. The hospitals are required to have -- have the documents around.

But let me just finish about the different kinds. Because the problem with a living will is that the medical science now puts you in situations which might not be exactly determined in your living will. In other words, you don't know as a layperson what situations you could be in.

COOPER: Right.

BARMAKIAN: So what's more important, really, to have is a second kind of document, which is called a durable medical health care -- durable power of attorney for healthcare. Also called a healthcare proxy.

COOPER: So that's someone else to make a decision.

BARMAKIAN: Exactly. You direct, you name someone that knows your feelings and knows your philosophy to make the decisions for you if you can't speak for yourself.

And I think people should have both, a living will that lists all the different kinds of treatment you want or don't want and a health care proxy, or a person that you're naming who knows you and knows -- knows what you think to make the actual decisions.

COOPER: Is a living will and even this proxy thing, is that enough? I mean, do you need the person to be, really, an advocate? Or, because a lot of the people just assume -- it's like with the do not resuscitate thing -- they just assume, OK, well, the doctors are going to pay attention. But I mean, in the heat of the moment, oftentimes will doctors -- do they know that there's thing out there? I mean, how do you -- where do you store this thing?

BARMAKIAN: It's an important point. These are not documents that are used as an emergency document. It's not -- when you come to the emergency room, you always get treatment.

And some people are afraid to make an advanced directive, because they think that care will be withheld from them. That's not true at all. These documents only come into effect when there's no hope for recovery.

So this is, you know, after all the treatments have been done and all the dust has settled and you say, "OK, there's no hope," then we look for the advanced directive. Now, by definition, you make an advanced directive well in advance of when you need it. So you might make one now because it's in the news, put it in your drawer and forget about it; 10 years from now when you need it, where is it?

COOPER: You should also have your health care proxy probably have it -- have a copy of it, as well. So you need the living will and you need the proxy statement.

BARKAMIAN: Exactly. But the problem is that, when you need it, it's not there because it's in the drawer or it's in your safe deposit box or it's in the lawyer's office.

So that's what we do is register the documents.

COOPER: OK.

BARMAKIAN: So they're available to healthcare providers across the country 24 hours a day by Internet or by telephone facsimile so that the doctors can always get your wishes wherever you are.

COOPER: All right, Dr. Joseph Barmakian, thanks very much.

Well, time now to check in with Larry King and see what's ahead on the top of the hour.

Hey, Larry.

LARRY KING, HOST, "LARRY KING LIVE": Hey, Anderson. How are you?

Quite a show tonight. Michael Schiavo is with us with his lawyer as we await that judge's ruling. And then we'll have Mark Lunsford and his ex-wife, Angela Bryant, discussing the death of their daughter.

I guess dying and wanting to live are the topics tonight in this incredible turn of events. That's right at the top of the hour, Anderson.

COOPER: All right. That's about six minutes from now, Larry. We'll see you then.

Telling us what you think. Going to read some 360 viewer mail. That's next.

Also remembering a legend, Bobby Short. We'll take the cabaret singer's life of music to "The Nth Degree."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Time to check on some viewer e-mail. And we were inundated by people writing in about the Terri Schiavo case. Many of you pointed out the same incongruity that Paul did.

He writes, "George W. Bush signed a law in Texas that expressly gave hospitals the right to remove life support if the patient could not pay and there was no hope of revival, regardless of the patient's family's wishes. It is called the Texas Futile Care Law. Under this law, a baby was removed from life support against his mother's wishes in Texas just this week."

Jacqueline from Loafer's Glory, North Carolina writes, "Let me start by saying that, 1) I'm a Democrat; 2) I support stem cell research; 3) I support a woman's right to choose. Let me also say that I applaud Congress's intervention in this very sad case, giving Terri yet one more final check, one more final chance of finding out the truth, to the extent that it can be found out. In other words, I applaud, quote, "erring on the side of life," end quote, in this particular case."

And Winifred writes, "This case has triggered two reactions in me. An overwhelming disgust with Congress for using this family's tragedy so cynically as a political ploy, rather than letting this woman finally die with some dignity, and an incredible fear of what might happen to me, were I in the same situation, which is why I've now decided to make a living will."

And as we just pointed out in that segment, living will is a good idea.

Got something on your mind? Send us an e-mail at CNN.com/360. Click on the "instant feedback" link. We always love to hear from you.

And finally tonight, a final bow to "The Nth Degree." Well, that is it. You wouldn't think that the loss of just one individual could actually affect the world's fund of elegance and sophistication and dapper tunefulness, but trust me, it has, drastically. Bobby Short died today at the age of 80.

There was a reason everyone, everyone called him the greatest cabaret entertainer of our time, is because that's what he was, hands down. Hands down on that piano of his, that is, and voice raised.

He was a bridge between this age and the age of Gershwin and Cole Porter and Harold Arlen. The age of nightclubs, of men in black ties and women in silver lame, of an entire world that sparkled, the music and the talk, at least, as much as the champagne.

(MUSIC)

COOPER: Bobby Short sang and played the way Fred Astaire danced, effortlessly, completely hiding all the hard work that went into making it seem so very, very easy.

He modestly called himself a saloon singer. He was a family friend. I first saw him play in his saloon when I was a kid. For almost 40 years, he was a regular in New York's Hotel Carlisle. Some saloon and some singer.

In case the world seems a little drabber today than it did just yesterday, now you know why. We're suddenly short to the tune of the only Bobby Short we ever had. More is the pity.

Thanks very -- thanks very much for watching this special two- edition of 360. I'm Anderson Cooper. Join me again tomorrow for another two-hour special edition of ANDERSON COOPER 360.

Prime time coverage continues now with "LARRY KING LIVE." Good night.

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