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CNN Wolf Blitzer Reports

Terri Schiavo's Life Nears Conclusion But Debate Rages On; Laura Bush Visits Afghanistan; Aftershock in Southeast Asia Kills Hundreds More

Aired March 30, 2005 - 17:00   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.


(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Happening now: Is the last stop the United States Supreme Court? Or has the door just slammed shut on Terri Schiavo's parents legal hopes? Stand by for hard news on WOLF BLITZER REPORTS.

Emergency appeal. Terri Schiavo's parents get their answer from the court. Is it already too late to reinsert the feeding tube?

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: At this point, usually there is what we call a multisystem organ failure.

BLITZER: Live fire: We'll take you inside an armored HUMVEE as troops train to deal with roadside ambushes.

Earthquake chaos: A stricken island struggles to cope as another aftershock rattles the region.

Johnnie Cochran remembered.

JOHNNIE COCHRAN: If it doesn't fit, you must acquit.

BLITZER: He won fame for defending the famous, even as he stood up for ordinary citizens.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is WOLF BLITZER REPORTS for Wednesday, March 30, 2005.

BLITZER: Thanks for joining us. After a relative lull in legal action, there are some late court developments in the Terri Schiavo case. Just a short time ago, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a new filing from Schiavo's parents to reconsider the case on new grounds.

The Reverend Jesse Jackson met with the Florida governor, Jeb Bush, to discuss the case. Both support reinserting Schiavo's feeding tube. Meanwhile the severely brain-damaged woman is now entering her 13th day without food and water. Doctors initially said Schiavo would probably die within two weeks. CNN's Rick Sanchez begins our coverage. He's outside the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta. What exactly happened, Rick? RICK SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's been an interesting day here, Wolf. As a matter of fact, there's been a 9-2 vote against the Schindlers in this case. But not only did one justice rule against the Schindlers, he also kind of struck back at both Congress and the White House for some of the actions they've taken in the last couple of weeks, in defense of what he calls the criticism of activists judges.

This justice, named Justice Birch (ph) says "Congress violated court constitutional separation principles. It prescribed a rule of decision and acted unconstitutionally." Let me read you now what two other justices say. These are justices who also think that in fact this motion should have been denied and they so voted. They say there was abundant testimony before the state court to prove that evidentiary standard that Mrs. Schiavo would have wanted nutrition and hydration to be withdrawn under these circumstances.

That's important, Wolf, because that's the argument that was being made by the Schindler's attorneys, essentially arguing that one of the district courts in Tampa had only looked at part of the case; they should have looked at the entire case and then they would have realized that in fact that that was an important decision.

And now I'm going to tell you what some of the dissenting opinions were. There were two. Again, it was a 9-2 vote. This is Justice Tjoflat and Justice Wilson. They argue in fact against the other justice and say that Congress was in its right to argue this. They say Congress also "has the power to require federal courts to entertain causes of action entertained for prudent reasons."

And they do also argue Wolf, finally, that Mrs. Schiavo could have wanted nutrition and hydration, that that was the relevant question here, and that it could have been determined in an expedited fashion. And they say in fact that maybe they should have been given more time. Unfortunately there's only two of them. The vote 9-2 against the Schindlers in this case, and the action they were asking was a TRO or some kind of stay -- more time, essentially, Wolf -- which would have probably included reinserting the feeding tube. Back to you, Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, Rick Sanchez with the latest from Atlanta. Thank you very much. Let's go to our CNN National Correspondent Bob Franken. He's outside the hospice in Pinellas Park, Florida, where Schiavo is now in her 13th day without nutrition or hydration. What's the latest there, Bob?

BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, one of the many representatives of the Schindler family, the blood relatives of Terri Schiavo, Randall Terry, just a few moments ago said it is anticipated that the rejection by the appeals court judges will be appealed to the Supreme Court justices. That is expected, of course, very quickly because time is running out. Nobody disputes the probability that there's only a short amount of time that Terri Schiavo would live unless that feeding tube is reconnected. However, the family is pulling out all the stops, making repeated appearances to say "She's still with us. The fight is not over." (BEGIN VIDEO-CLIP)

BOB SCHINDLER, FATHER OF TERRI SCHIAVO: Terri is still with us. She's -- under the circumstances she looks darned good, surprisingly good. She is weak from the lack of food and hydration. But her skin tone is not -- is fine. Nothing is breaking down. We know that some of her organs are still functioning.

JAY CARPENTER, SCHINDLER FAMILY DOCTOR: It may not be too late and if there's any chance at all she can recover, we ought to give her that chance. And I would beg the governor. I would beg the President of the United States to enforce the will of Congress and act and end this travesty. Show the world -- stand up and show the world that in the United States of America we do not dehydrate innocent human beings, handicapped people, to death.

FRANKEN: And things look very, very low-hope as far as the legal system is concerned, and also as far as the political system. Reverend Jesse Jackson, the latest ally of the family, spent the day in Tallahassee talking to Governor Bush, talking to members of the state legislature, hoping they would take action. All accounts we have gotten from legislative sources, he was unsuccessful. Wolf.

BLITZER: Bob Franken from Pinellas Park outside the hospice there. Bob, thanks very much.

The first lady, Laura Bush, is weighing in on the Schiavo case. On her trip to Afghanistan, she told reporters the federal government has to be involved in what she called a "life issue."

(BEGIN VIDEO-CLIP)

LAURA BUSH, FIRST LADY: I'm not surprised over the debate, because I think it's an issue that, you know, everyone is concerned about and interested in. But I'm sorry for the family that it has to be so public, because it's such a very, very difficult time for them, and for everyone who watches Terri.

(END VIDEO-CLIP)

BLITZER: Mrs. Bush also said that both she and the president have living wills, along with their parents. For more on the latest legal developments in the Schiavo case, we are joined by a familiar face, Roger Cossack. He's the legal analyst of ESPN, formerly of CNN. Roger, thanks very much for joining us.

ROGER COSSACK, LEGAL ANALYST, ESPN: Always a pleasure.

BLITZER: All right. Is it realistic. They say they are probably going to go once again to the U.S. Supreme Court. Is that a realistic hope for the parents?

COSSACK: No, I think it's not realistic. It's a desperate attempt. Obviously these parents are suffering greatly and are trying to do everything they can. But the courts have spoken time and time again, both federal courts and state courts, and denied their petitions, which are basically old wine in a new bottle. Wolf, they keep trying the same thing and it just doesn't work, and it won't work again.

BLITZER: It was a 9-2 vote in the court of appeals in Atlanta. Was that surprising, it was so overwhelmingly against the parents?

COSSACK: What's surprising is that there was a two-person -- a two-judge dissent. The vote has been overwhelming against the parents time and time again, and they keep coming up with the same argument. In a sense stressing -- it's a plea for mercy but wrapping it up in new evidence. And there really is no new evidence, unfortunately. There really is nothing new, unfortunately, and so the courts keep rejecting it time and time again. This time two of the judges criticized Congress and say what they tried to do in an attempt to help her was political and probably unconstitutional.

BLITZER: That's pretty rare for a court of appeals to do that -- to slam Congress like that.

COSSACK: It is rare, but most people in law would agree it was kind of constitutionally shaky what they did and perhaps a violation of the separation of powers.

BLITZER: So is there any legal recourse right now to get that feeding tube reinserted or is it basically over with, as far as you can tell, having studied this now for these past several weeks?

COSSACK: Wolf, I think that, short of some newly discovered medical technique that appears on the scene overnight, the parents are pretty well out of options, and I think there really is no hope.

BLITZER: What about the notion that the facts of the case have to be reviewed because there were flaws in presenting the facts to the original judge who reviewed this many years ago?

COSSACK: Yes. That has been reheard and heard again and appealed again, and has been denied time and time again. As in any case, to make an argument that the facts -- that the original arguments -- were flawed you have to come in with evidence that shows it was pretty overwhelming, and the parents just have been unable to do that.

BLITZER: So at this point, what do you anticipate happening after she passes and presumably she will pretty soon, I don't know how long people can live in this kind of a condition. But will Congress in your opinion take legal -- take steps to change the law right now to deal with this kind of matter down the road?

COSSACK: No, I don't think so. I think the law is settled. What the problem here is, is there's a conflict between the parents and her husband. And the law says, and it's pretty well settled, the husband would be the one that speaks for her. And the parents have never been able to come up with evidence that says they should speak for her. They have made innuendoes, he has a girlfriend, but they've never been able to overwhelm that. But I think most Americans legally would be happy with their spouse making the decision rather than their parents, who may not be alive or may have different interests.

BLITZER: Roger Cossack, as usual, thanks very much for that analysis.

COSSACK: My pleasure.

BLITZER: Good. Turning now to another closely watched health case, the Vatican says Pope John Paul II is now being fed by a tube in his nose. A spokesman says the tube is being used to help the Pope increase his nutrition as he recovers his strength from his throat surgery last month. Medical experts say the use of a nasal feeding tube is usually a temporary measure.

Coming up, more on the Terri Schiavo case. We'll hear from the Florida priest who has administered communion to her. Our Mary Snow joins us from Pinellas Park; she has that part of the story.

And amid heavy security, the First Lady Laura Bush, delivers a personal message to the women of Afghanistan.

Live fire exercise: a front-line lesson on how to avoid an attack by insurgents, and how to survive if you're hit. This is a story you'll see only here on CNN.

And chaos in the aftermath of the Indonesia earthquake; supply drops spark a stampede on the small island of Nias.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: First Lady made a surprise visit to Afghanistan. It was a brief trip to a country still racked by deadly attacks from remnants of the Taliban.

CNN's Zain Verjee is at the CNN Center; she has details.

Zain?

ZAIN VERJEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, Laura Bush flew half-way around the world for a trip that lasted five hours. She championed Afghan women and their pursuit of education.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VERJEE (voice-over): Until the last minute, her trip was a secret. America's first lady landed in Kabul, Afghanistan, amid heavy security. Laura Bush brought a message from American women to Afghan women.

LAURA BUSH, FIRST LADY: We want to encourage them to send their girls to school, to get educated.

VERJEE: Speaking at a teacher's training institute, Laura Bush, a former teacher and librarian, drove home her message saying, "democracies must give women basic tools to succeed."

BUSH: And the most critical tool of all is education.

VERJEE: Wearing an Afghan scarf on her shoulders, Mrs. Bush met with Afghanistan's president, Hamid Karzai. She spent time talking to teachers and students, and even bought some local cookies for a dollar.

BUSH: Very good deal.

VERJEE: Mrs. Bush committed millions of dollars to fund an international school and an American university in Afghanistan. Under the repressive Taliban regime, women were banned from attending school. They also had to be clad top to toe in a veil, or face severe beating.

BUSH: It's an extraordinary privilege to be with you today, to celebrate the incredible progress that's been made by the people of Afghanistan over the past four years. I have especially watched with great pride as courageous women across your country have taken on leadership roles, as students, teachers, judges, doctors, business and community leaders, ministers, and governor.

VERJEE: In spite of the progress, women still face hurdles. Not everyone in Afghanistan likes the changes, and conservative customs mean women's movements are still restricted. Warlords and remnants of the Taliban regime, according to human rights groups, have intimidated and sometimes beaten women who have tried to break out of traditional roles.

Still, according to the United Nations, nearly 2.5 million girls are enrolled in schools today, an accomplishment that Laura Bush credited, at least in part, to the presence of U.S. troops stationed in Afghanistan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VERJEE (on camera): Wolf, Mrs. Bush isn't the first First Lady to travel into a potentially dangerous region. In 1969 Pat Nixon went to Vietnam to visit American troops. During World War II, Eleanor Roosevelt secretly flew across the Atlantic to boost morale among British allies.

Wolf?

BLITZER: Very interesting. Zain Verjee, reporting for us. Thank you Zain, very much.

Road side bombs and ambushes have taken a terrible toll among U.S. troops in Iraq. Last week I joined some soldiers for a front line lesson in how to avoid getting hit by insurgents, and how to get away alive if you are hit.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (voice-over): For U.S. troops heading into Iraq, there's nothing more dangerous than simply making the drive from Kuwait. The convoys constantly come under attack from insurgents, whether those dreaded IEDs, or improvised explosive devices, hidden along the sides of the roads, or from snipers, or from rocket-propelled grenades, and other missiles.

We here in the Kuwaiti desert. This is a training exercise that's under way. Live fire; we have protection, we've got the helmet on. This is an opportunity for these troops, mostly young soldiers who are about to go on a military convoy into Iraq for the first time. So they are going through these training exercises to prepare themselves for what will be a very, very, dangerous mission.

Bullets flying all over the place, the training exercise here at the Udari range can themselves be quite dangerous.

BRIG. GEN. MIKE MILANO, U.S. ARMY: Things don't always go well during this, and that's the purpose of the after-action review. We talk about, what was the plan, how'd you prepare for it, and then what happened during execution.

BLITZER: The best way to prepare the troops for the dangerous drive through Iraq is to simulate, on this range, what they might eventually encounter. To do that, the troops drive through a nearly 10-mile course during which they come under simulated hostile fire.

MILANO: The whole principle here is, if there's a threat, return fire and get out of the area as quickly as possible.

BLITZER: It's a three-day program of instruction. On this day, I'm in the front seat of an armored humvee, and our driver explains that one vehicle has come under attack and has been disabled.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's going to be a hasty evacuation. Get him in the vehicle and get him out of the kill zone. After you do that, then we will recover the vehicle. Same thing -- will be a hasty recovery, throw a tow strap on there, pull it out of the kill zone, all while somebody else is suppressing the enemy, and then continue to move.

BLITZER: The military has built an overpass to show drivers how to evade grenades that could be dropped into their vehicles. The key, I'm told, is to swerve rapidly either to the left or the right, just before going underneath. Even though the insurgents already know this maneuverer, it makes it tougher to hit the target.

At the same range, U.S. troops practice firing at an incoming vehicle trying to maneuver through barricades at the entrance to a camp. The objective is to avoid another "Beirut," a reference to what happened in 1983 when a suicide truck driver simply approached the U.S. Marine barracks in Lebanon, killing 241 Americans. On this day, they assess how the trainees did.

MAJOR MATT FATH, U.S. ARMY: Big lag from the time that thing started moving and your first round. You gotta remember, that vehicle's coming at you, trying to blow through your check points. You have got to stop him.

(END VIDEOTAPE) BLITZER (on camera): And they say, the soldiers, this is a lot more than simply a training exercise, this could make the difference, these three days on this course, the difference between life and death.

When we come back, Terri Schiavo now in her 13th day without food and water -- could she survive if the feeding tube were immediately restored? A medical expert weighs in on her current condition.

Aftershock: the earth moves again in Indonesia as residents of the hardest hit islands scramble for relief.

Kennedy in crisis: the former wife of U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy is found lying in a Boston street. We will have details.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back.

Indonesia's northern Sumatra region was rattled by a 6.3 magnitude aftershock today, 48 hours after a killer earthquake struck the area. At least 500 are confirmed dead. Most on the island of Nias as relief workers cope with chaos.

CNN's Hugh Riminton is on the scene.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HUGH RIMINTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A smell familiar from December's tsunami, that of decomposing bodies, now hangs over Garum Sitarbi (ph)n. Many roads are impassable. The only link to the airport is cut and the death toll continues to rise. In these few streets alone, the small Chinese community reports 300 people dead. After a few harried prayers, conducted under public gaze, the coffins are quickly sealed and trucked off for burial. In this group a family of four.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Husband, and wife, and two child.

RIMINTON: Continual aftershocks cause an almost perpetual sway here, but people continue to search for survivors. This is what might be called the crazy/brave part of a search-and-rescue operation. These are ordinary people without any training at all, and there's no help for that at the moment. They are desperately digging into the remnants of these buildings. They're actually about 15 meters above ground level here, but these buildings, like all the others, have collapsed upon themselves.

They're simply digging there, without any particular protection, looking for bodies, and this is what you will see right across this commercial center of Garum Sitarbi (ph): there are people everywhere digging their way down, literally with their hands, with whatever they can find, looking for bodies, and if they're lucky, looking for somebody who might still be alive.

Elsewhere the work is on saving the living. The local hospital's doctor was among those killed. The hospital itself, damaged and overwhelmed by the number of patients. Aid workers seek frantically for chopper flights to get the wounded out. Then, in the early afternoon, a gift from above: three massive Chinook helicopters of the Singapore Air Force arrived. The first two choppers cleared the immediate backlog of critical cases, but their small supply drop of water and food sparks a stampede. Control is lost. Within minutes, not a thing that can be carried remains.

Amid the chaos below, the third Chinook flies off with potentially tragic consequences: just moments later, a group of villagers carries in a severely injured woman on a make-shift stretcher, after an almost heroic trek that nearly made it. But, thanks to the looters, any hope she had of immediate medical rescue had just flown away.

Hugh Riminton at CNN, Nias, Indonesia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: The U.S. hospital ship Mercy which has been on its way home after providing tsunami relief has been ordered to remain in Indonesia to provide earthquake relief. The ship has both military and civilian personnel on board. It's expected to reach the stricken island of Nias next week.

There are new developments in the Terri Schiavo case. We will hear from the Schindler family priest who recently administered communion to Terri, and an expert on care for the dying.

Plus, Joan Kennedy in crisis, again. The former wife of Senator Edward Kennedy is found lying in a Boston street by a passer-by.

And later, he became a household name during the O.J. Simpson trial. I will speak with defense attorney Ben Brockman (ph) about the life and legacy of Johnnie Cochran.

We are also standing by for a news conference. You are looking at live pictures from Pinellas Park in Florida. Jesse Jackson expected to emerge before those microphones, as well as the parents of Terri Schiavo.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: From our studios in Washington, once again, Wolf Blitzer.

BLITZER: Welcome back.

We're standing by for a news conference. The Reverend Jesse Jackson, he is with Terri Schiavo's parents. They are standing by for a news conference. We will go there live once it begins.

First, though, a quick check of some other stories now in the news.

A former top official with the Boy Scouts has entered a guilty plea to child pornography charges. Douglas Smith Jr. is accused of downloading child porn over the Internet, including pictures of boys under the age of is 12. He face from five to 20 years in prison. Smith retired from the Boy Scouts in February. He had served as the organization's director of programming.

In a bid to stem the seasonal surge of illegal immigrants, the U.S. Border Patrol is beefing up its presence along the border with Mexico. The Homeland Security Department plans to send 500 additional agents to the most troublesome stretch of the border. That would be Arizona. The move comes just two days before a volunteer group called the Minutemen Project starts its own patrol along a 50-mile stretch of the border.

In Virginia, the Reverend Jerry Falwell's condition has improved. And he has been taken off a ventilator. Falwell is in a Lynchburg hospital. His doctors say he suffered an acute onset of congestive heart failure, but he did not have a heart attack and does not have pneumonia, as reported earlier.

Let's go bake to Pinellas Park, Florida, more on the Schiavo case. There's the Reverend Jesse Jackson. He's with the parents.

There, you see Bobby Schindler, Bob Schindler, the father, behind them. Let's hear what the Reverend Jesse Jackson has to say.

REV. JESSE JACKSON, FOUNDER, RAINBOW/PUSH COALITION: At this very difficult hour, we have sought to have a prayerful and simple conversation with the family.

Today, we met in Tallahassee to make inquiry of the governor as to what more he could do. He says, if he could wave a magic wand and put in the feeding tube and the water, but he can't, he says. There are two appeal cases before the appellate court that are not likely to be -- to be answered.

We then met with the president of the Senate, Senator Lee, who says a vote took place last week. It really didn't have anything to do with the outcome of this particular case, but it would have required someone from the opposite side of the position to reopen it today. And that did not happen. So, what would have been two votes yesterday would be maybe 10 votes today.

It seems, at every turn, these various legal doors are being closed. Of course, there is the moral, ethical issue. On the one hand, we have food and water. On the other hand, Terri needs food and water and we will not offer it to her. To me, that is the moral and ethical dimension of this that is unjustifiable.

But, having said that, oftentimes, when people die, the cruel hand of fate is beyond our control. In this case, we have the power to have restored -- to restore food and water. I have said to the family, be prepared for her to live. Be prepared for her to die. But, through it all, don't get bitter and don't -- get better.

We must learn, even from the tragedies of our lives. It was Job who said, after having lost his family and having lost his property, it was him who said, my worst fears have come upon me. When his worst fears came upon him, he did not curse God and die. He said a few chapters later, yet will I trust him. It is that faith that must sustain this family.

We must learn lessons from this tragedy that has long-term healing value for our nation. On the one hand, had it not been for a malpractice lawsuit, we wouldn't have had the money to help sustain her, on the other hand, during this crisis, the issue of long-term medical care for all of us. So, in many ways, Terri embodies the great themes of our time.

We fight for her life, but we learn from her life. And we learn from her life the valuable lessons that could be good for the healing of our nation. Even as she lies in this state, the very debate about her health care is having a healing impact, a teaching impact, the issue of wills, the issue of medical care, the issue of malpractice. We are learning even today, as she suffers. And so we ask God to sustain this family, to be the wind beneath their wings as they go through this gut-wrenching ordeal. Thank you.

QUESTION: Mr. Jackson, I want to ask you a question?

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: Are you giving them a false sense of hope, when they've exhausted almost every legal aspect (OFF-MIKE)

JACKSON: You know, you hope against hope. But, as -- but, as Christians, we know that the innocent do suffer and that you need not be guilty to be crucified. We even believe that even beyond the grave, that there's life. That is a matter of our -- of our faith. And, certainly, in the case of Terri, it is unearned suffering. That's why the rule has been caught up in her situation, because it's unearned suffering, seemingly unnecessary suffering.

But from this, we must learn lessons that, even whether she lives or dies, she has created a legion of health challenges for all of us.

QUESTION: Are you going to be (OFF-MIKE)

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)

JACKSON: I'm sorry?

QUESTION: Are you disappointed that you were not enable to enact (OFF-MIKE)

JACKSON: Well, all I know is that we did the best that we could do against the odds.

This has been a long ordeal and lots of debate about sides. And I say that, while the law has spoken, law without tempered by mercy can be cruel and crude. Law with mercy tempers law. And you have a justice that is an abiding justice. We are learning lessons from this. And I want the family to remain strong. I said to them, also, that I remember talking some years ago with Dr. King's father. He had lost his youngest son so suddenly and so violently. So, he put so much focus on that one son he had lost. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He went to the grave site every day, as if he forgot he had other children. And while focusing on Dr. King, his other son drowned in a swimming pool.

Before he could adjust to that, his wife was killed while playing the organ in the pulpit on a Sunday morning, and so three hits back- to-back. He then concluded, but I will not curse God and die, because I will thank God for what I have left. This family has other children left. They have a lot left. They have a lot in Terri. They have a lot in each other and they have a lot left. And so, they should use that faith to sustain them during this very, very difficult, difficult period.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)

JACKSON: I'm sorry?

QUESTION: Do you plan on staying with them or are you going back tonight?

JACKSON: Well, I will be going back and forth. I will not be here tonight.

And we've reached out. I've been available throughout a lot of this ordeal for a long time. And the family invited me to come down. And I came because I care. I came because I think it was the morally right thing to do. And I think that they inviting me gave me a chance to share with them how so many other people feel about the ordeal, as we seek some solution. If I had come and not been invited by them, then I would have been devoured by you. And so I came upon invitation. And I'm glad that I did come.

QUESTION: Pastor Jackson, let me ask you a question.

JACKSON: Yes.

QUESTION: As one preacher to another. This whole thing hinges on whether or not he's telling the truth on whether she asked him to remove the feeding tube. We have offered him a polygraph test to see whether he's lying while she's dying. And so far, we have not been allowed to do that. But do you see any merit in that, because it could diffuse the hatred if he passed it...

(CROSSTALK)

JACKSON: Well, you know, I do not want to get into the legal battles here or the painful polarization within the family.

I hope, within time, that the polarization would give healing and bridge-building. It will not serve any useful purpose for me to get into that kind of match. I hope that the appeal made by Mrs. Schindler last night, a very merciful and innocent appeal, will be heard by Michael and by the court. I hope that will happen. But even if that does not happen, God is still real.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: Reverend Jackson?

JACKSON: Yes, sir.

QUESTION: The family has told me they don't want to speak personally, but, in your conversations with them, can you characterize, do they still feel there's a fight left?

JACKSON: The family still knows there's a fight, and yet, they are also facing the fact of their faith.

They know that she cannot live but so long without water and without food. The family is both optimistic and realistic. The good news is that they are a praying family. And with so much coming at them, they now live their lives under the camera lights. But they, too, are learning and teaching by their example.

I have been just impressed with how close the family is and how, whatever happens, they will be able to lean on each other and find strength.

QUESTION: We have heard that there might be one more appeal to the Supreme Court. Are you guys working at that at this point?

JACKSON: Well, I'm sure that will be in this appeal.

But, in the meantime, while the appeals are going up, her lack of access to food and water, she's sinking. And, at some point, unless she gets water, then her kidneys will fail. And then she will have a heart failure and then she will die. And the painful part of it is that we believe that it was avoidable.

Whether avoidable or not, we will not surrender our faith and we will keep believing in this issue here of the need for us to be more caring about life and less callous. We believe that we must learn from this tragedy here for our nation.

The Congress that ran back to meet last Sunday night, that same Congress must now do what they can do. That is public policy, appropriate resources to address the other terrorists of our country. They must now use that congressional power and those resources to address the issue of malpractice, which she's benefited from, the issues of medical care, long-term medical care. It's a great moment, really, for the Congress to show just how they will turn passion into policy.

Last one.

QUESTION: There's criticism that you waited to late to get involved, sir. Why not make these calls and have gone to Tallahassee earlier?

JACKSON: Well, I really came here when I was invited.

We actually wrote articles about this. I reached out before then. But you know and I knew, if we had come here without invitation, we would have been so bludgeoned by you for having unpure motives until we couldn't have gotten the message through. So, the family had the right to choose who they wanted to reach out to. And when they did reach out to me, I was glad to respond.

Yes, sir.

PAUL O'DONNELL, SCHINDLER FAMILY ADVISER: On behalf of the family, I want to thank the Reverend Jackson for caring and for coming. And the family knows that he's sincere. And they are very, very grateful.

MARY SCHINDLER, MOTHER OF TERRI SCHIAVO: I would like -- I would just like to thank Reverend Jackson for coming, for praying with us, for spiritually giving us strength that we're going to need and just for being here.

BOB SCHINDLER, FATHER OF TERRI SCHIAVO: I can echo the words that my wife, Mary, just said, in that he's a fine man. He's a fine gentleman. And he's brought us great comfort in his wisdom.

O'DONNELL: Thank you.

B. SCHINDLER: Thank you all.

BLITZER: So, there we heard from the parents of Terri Schiavo, Bob and Mary Schindler, together with the Reverend Jesse Jackson, a heart-wrenching moment for this family, clearly, clearly, going through major, major distress, as they watch their daughter without that feeding tube.

More now on a familiar face in the Schiavo drama. He's the family priest who is among the few people allowed to visit Terri and who has given her communion.

Our Mary Snow is outside the hospice. She is joining us now live with more on the monsignor -- Mary.

MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, just saw the Reverend Jackson speaking. To his right was the Schindler family.

On his left was Monsignor Malanowski who has been a constant presence on the side of the Schindler family. He's been appointed by the court to administer sacraments. And he went inside to see Terri Schiavo earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SNOW (voice-over): He is one of a few dozen people allowed to visit Terri Schiavo. Monsignor Malanowski, who is often seen leading prayer outside the hospice, today wore the general's star he wore as an Army chaplain during the Cold War. MSGR. THADDEUS MALANOWSKI, DIOCESE OF SAINT PETERSBURG: We in the uniform -- I'm a veteran, and I'm representing them here today. I'm here not as a demonstrator. I am here as a citizen, like many veterans, past, present and future veterans. We came in the service wearing the uniform to uphold our Constitution. We took an oath, a promise, to uphold the -- to, what, protect, preserve life, liberty, pursuit of happiness.

SNOW: The 83-year-old former general first met Terri at another medical facility, where she was a patient. He's been visiting her for five years.

MALANOWSKI: I cannot go in alone, I have to go in with one of the parents or both parents or with Bobby and Suzanne. And I abided by that. And we have gone normally every Saturday afternoon about 2:00, 2:30, for an hour.

SNOW: He now comes on a daily basis and gave Terri what was described as her last communion on Easter Sunday. At times, he has been refused permission to administer the sacrament.

MALANOWSKI: I would say, yes, she's slowing up. Sure, it's obvious, no water or food for going on 13 days, as of 2:00.

SNOW: Monsignor Malanowski says, while he tries to stay stoic, he gets emotional at times.

MALANOWSKI: I tell people now I feel she she's like a sister, you know. She's 41 years old, my. Anyway, yes, I looked upon her as a sister, even though I had nine blood sisters.

SNOW: And while the word has seen images of a woman drying, he thinks she will be remembered by her strength.

MALANOWSKI: The legacy, I think people will admire her for...

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SNOW: And Monsignor Malanowski says that, in his years as a priest, he has never counseled someone so extensively. He says he has been inspired by Terri Schiavo's fight -- Wolf.

BLITZER: CNN's Mary Snow reporting from Florida -- thank you, Mary, very much.

When we come back, Terri Schiavo is now in her 13th day without food and water. Could she survive if the feeding tube were immediately restored? We will her from an expert who knows this subject quite well.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Earlier today, I spoke with an expert on care for the dying. Dr. Christina Puchalski is the founder and director of the Institute of spirituality and Health at George Washington University Medical Center. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: And, Dr. Puchalski, thank you very much for joining us.

DR. CHRISTINA PUCHALSKI, GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY: Nice to be here.

BLITZER: Let's get into the issue of spirituality in a moment, but you're an M.D. After 13 days, taking that feeding tube and reconnecting it, there are medical ramifications. It's not as simple as it may sound.

PUCHALSKI: Absolutely.

At this point -- and, again, I'm not her doctor. I don't know the exact medical data, but, at this point, usually, there's what we call a multisystem organ failure, or all of the organs start shutting down slowly. So the kidney is not working as effectively. The liver is not working as effectively. Now, you insert a tube.

First of all, there's an increased risk of infection and being in a weakened state she might not be able to overcome the infection. There's also -- it's not food as most people are thinking. These are chemicals that are mixed together. And there's a balance of sodium and all the electrolytes and water content, etcetera.

And if her kidneys are not able to process the toxins, the food, if her kidneys are not being able to eliminate the fluid, she could go into fluid overload, which will cause her to have difficulty breathing and it will cause her to have extra secretions that could make her dying very uncomfortable. So, there are serious ramifications of reinserting a feeding tube at this stage.

BLITZER: So, what do you do? Let's say the court decide they are going to hear the facts of the case once again, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, and they say, in the meantime, you have got to keep her alive. Well, how do you do that?

PUCHALSKI: Well, I'm hoping that the courts will look at the medical data of the fact. Persistent vegetative state is a medical diagnosis. There's criteria. The criteria has been met. And my hope is that they will look at it objectively.

(CROSSTALK) he

BLITZER: But, as they look at it objectively, they have to decide are they simply going to let her slip away or are they going to try to let her live.

PUCHALSKI: Well, slip away or die naturally or are they going to force it. If that happens, if the feeding tube is forced to be reinserted, there's going to have to be very careful monitoring on fluid balance, frequent lab tests. And that still might not make a difference. It still might be actually a more cruel, might do more harm than good.

BLITZER: Should we be surprised that someone can live in her state for 13 days without any food and water?

PUCHALSKI: Absolutely not. I've had patient -- I'm a palliative care physician as well. And I have had patients go on. Recently, I had a patient go on almost a month without -- without food and water.

BLITZER: A young patient, an old patient?

PUCHALSKI: An older patient who had a severe form of laryngeal cancer. But everybody is different. Everybody handles things differently.

At a spiritual level, people could be waiting for something. Sometimes, people are waiting for families to reconcile, for example, before they let go. And even though her brain may not be functional, her cortex isn't functional. Who knows? And that's the mystery. Who knows at a spiritual level what she may be yearning for, what she may be longing for. Maybe she wants to see that reconciliation between her husband and her parents.

BLITZER: Talk a little bit about the spirituality of dying and how some people can hold on for a little bit longer. They are waiting for a son or daughter or family member to show up, and they show up and then they are at peace. Talk a little bit about that.

PUCHALSKI: Well, spirituality, broadly defined, is whatever gives us a deep meaning in life. And that can be expressed in religious terms, which, clearly, we've heard a lot. There are a lot of religious aspects to that.

But it can be many other things. It can be relationships. It can be family. It can be something that we don't understand, but is mysterious. It's a connection to a higher power or transcendent concept. And I've seen many, many, many times at the bedside of a dying patient or loved one, myself having gone through that with a loved one, that there are things that happen for which we have no scientific explanation at this point.

And there are -- people have a tremendous attachment to loved ones. There's a desire. People often -- as I have walked the journey in the last year of a person's life, there are dreams that people want to accomplish. There are last wishes that they have, reunions that they want to have. And they will hold on often for that.

For example, in one patient's case, she held on for a grandchild that she hadn't seen because of some schism in the family and held on. And as seen as that grandchild walked into the room, she was able to hug him, give him all these collections of baseball cards she had, and then let go. And she died very peacefully.

So, there's a lot that we don't understand. And I think it's important, beyond all the legal issues here and ethical issues and the acrimony, to just look at Terri and others who are like that as human beings and say, how can we create this environment of living and dying in a sacred way? How can we honor her wishes? How can we make it so that, at the bedside, there's not strife and protesters outside of the hospice, where, parenthetically, other people are also trying to die in peace?

But how can we try to make it a spiritual experience? Let's transcend our own need to hold onto her for some reason, which is very understandable. Let's transcend our own need to win or lose. But look at the individual and say, what can I do? What is it that she might be needing at this point? Does she need me just to sit and be present?

The most awesome moments for me at the side of a dying loved one or a patient has been that sitting in silence and just being present to someone and fully bringing your soul and your spirit to that encounter.

BLITZER: We're almost out of time. But do you believe that someone in Terri Schiavo's condition, which has been formally diagnosed as a persistent vegetative state, has these kinds of spirituality feelings that you're talking about?

PUCHALSKI: Well, in my definition of spirituality, I think everyone done and all living beings do. And she is a living being.

Whether she has any function above her brain stem is what's at debate. But I think the spirit goes much deeper than the physical. It is so inherent just to us. And spirituality can pay such an incredible role. We have seen people in wartime situations, during the war, who are able to overcome tremendous obstacles that we might on paper say, how is this possible?

And it's really that drive within them, that spirit, for trying to overcome things. And, at the end, it's the drive for us to face our death honestly. We are all going to die, and so the issue at hand here is to say, we are going to die and we need to take some progressive role in our lives to say, what is important to me while I'm living? What are the really important things? How would I want to be remembered if, tomorrow, something like what happened to Terri happens to me?

And how do I want to die? What are my values? Document them. DNR, living wills, these are extremely important documents. Five Wishes is an excellent document I would recommend, because it goes into the spiritual aspects as well.

BLITZER: Dr. Christina Puchalski of George Washington University, thanks very much for joining us. Fascinating material.

PUCHALSKI: Thank you.

BLITZER: Appreciate it.

(CROSSTALK)

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In a country where women didn't have a voice, Wangari Maathai spoke to the people. Born a farmer's daughter in Kenya in 1940, she traveled to America on a scholarship and became the first woman from Central or East Africa to earn a doctorate degree. But Maathai returned home, she found most of Kenya's forests had been destroyed.

WANGARI MAATHAI, NOBEL PRIZE WINNER: It is the women who are expected to produce food to feed the family, so it is the woman who feels it when the land can no longer produce.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Under her leadership, more than 30 million trees have been planted all over Kenya. Her movement has helped citizen foresters improve their quality of life. MAATHAI: We realize that people need to understand that some of the problems they have are of their own making and they can do something about those problems.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Her commitment to community and women made her the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004. Maathai is now 64 years old and a member of the Kenyan parliament. Her political standing has taken her fight for the environment and democracy onto a larger landscape.

MAATHAI: Outside, you can make all the noise you want, but you cannot change laws. When I'm in parliament, I can make contributions to ensure that the future will be better.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: That's all the time we have today. Thanks very much for joining us. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington.

"LOU DOBBS TONIGHT" starts right now.

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 30, 2005 - 17:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Happening now: Is the last stop the United States Supreme Court? Or has the door just slammed shut on Terri Schiavo's parents legal hopes? Stand by for hard news on WOLF BLITZER REPORTS.

Emergency appeal. Terri Schiavo's parents get their answer from the court. Is it already too late to reinsert the feeding tube?

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: At this point, usually there is what we call a multisystem organ failure.

BLITZER: Live fire: We'll take you inside an armored HUMVEE as troops train to deal with roadside ambushes.

Earthquake chaos: A stricken island struggles to cope as another aftershock rattles the region.

Johnnie Cochran remembered.

JOHNNIE COCHRAN: If it doesn't fit, you must acquit.

BLITZER: He won fame for defending the famous, even as he stood up for ordinary citizens.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is WOLF BLITZER REPORTS for Wednesday, March 30, 2005.

BLITZER: Thanks for joining us. After a relative lull in legal action, there are some late court developments in the Terri Schiavo case. Just a short time ago, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a new filing from Schiavo's parents to reconsider the case on new grounds.

The Reverend Jesse Jackson met with the Florida governor, Jeb Bush, to discuss the case. Both support reinserting Schiavo's feeding tube. Meanwhile the severely brain-damaged woman is now entering her 13th day without food and water. Doctors initially said Schiavo would probably die within two weeks. CNN's Rick Sanchez begins our coverage. He's outside the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta. What exactly happened, Rick? RICK SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's been an interesting day here, Wolf. As a matter of fact, there's been a 9-2 vote against the Schindlers in this case. But not only did one justice rule against the Schindlers, he also kind of struck back at both Congress and the White House for some of the actions they've taken in the last couple of weeks, in defense of what he calls the criticism of activists judges.

This justice, named Justice Birch (ph) says "Congress violated court constitutional separation principles. It prescribed a rule of decision and acted unconstitutionally." Let me read you now what two other justices say. These are justices who also think that in fact this motion should have been denied and they so voted. They say there was abundant testimony before the state court to prove that evidentiary standard that Mrs. Schiavo would have wanted nutrition and hydration to be withdrawn under these circumstances.

That's important, Wolf, because that's the argument that was being made by the Schindler's attorneys, essentially arguing that one of the district courts in Tampa had only looked at part of the case; they should have looked at the entire case and then they would have realized that in fact that that was an important decision.

And now I'm going to tell you what some of the dissenting opinions were. There were two. Again, it was a 9-2 vote. This is Justice Tjoflat and Justice Wilson. They argue in fact against the other justice and say that Congress was in its right to argue this. They say Congress also "has the power to require federal courts to entertain causes of action entertained for prudent reasons."

And they do also argue Wolf, finally, that Mrs. Schiavo could have wanted nutrition and hydration, that that was the relevant question here, and that it could have been determined in an expedited fashion. And they say in fact that maybe they should have been given more time. Unfortunately there's only two of them. The vote 9-2 against the Schindlers in this case, and the action they were asking was a TRO or some kind of stay -- more time, essentially, Wolf -- which would have probably included reinserting the feeding tube. Back to you, Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, Rick Sanchez with the latest from Atlanta. Thank you very much. Let's go to our CNN National Correspondent Bob Franken. He's outside the hospice in Pinellas Park, Florida, where Schiavo is now in her 13th day without nutrition or hydration. What's the latest there, Bob?

BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, one of the many representatives of the Schindler family, the blood relatives of Terri Schiavo, Randall Terry, just a few moments ago said it is anticipated that the rejection by the appeals court judges will be appealed to the Supreme Court justices. That is expected, of course, very quickly because time is running out. Nobody disputes the probability that there's only a short amount of time that Terri Schiavo would live unless that feeding tube is reconnected. However, the family is pulling out all the stops, making repeated appearances to say "She's still with us. The fight is not over." (BEGIN VIDEO-CLIP)

BOB SCHINDLER, FATHER OF TERRI SCHIAVO: Terri is still with us. She's -- under the circumstances she looks darned good, surprisingly good. She is weak from the lack of food and hydration. But her skin tone is not -- is fine. Nothing is breaking down. We know that some of her organs are still functioning.

JAY CARPENTER, SCHINDLER FAMILY DOCTOR: It may not be too late and if there's any chance at all she can recover, we ought to give her that chance. And I would beg the governor. I would beg the President of the United States to enforce the will of Congress and act and end this travesty. Show the world -- stand up and show the world that in the United States of America we do not dehydrate innocent human beings, handicapped people, to death.

FRANKEN: And things look very, very low-hope as far as the legal system is concerned, and also as far as the political system. Reverend Jesse Jackson, the latest ally of the family, spent the day in Tallahassee talking to Governor Bush, talking to members of the state legislature, hoping they would take action. All accounts we have gotten from legislative sources, he was unsuccessful. Wolf.

BLITZER: Bob Franken from Pinellas Park outside the hospice there. Bob, thanks very much.

The first lady, Laura Bush, is weighing in on the Schiavo case. On her trip to Afghanistan, she told reporters the federal government has to be involved in what she called a "life issue."

(BEGIN VIDEO-CLIP)

LAURA BUSH, FIRST LADY: I'm not surprised over the debate, because I think it's an issue that, you know, everyone is concerned about and interested in. But I'm sorry for the family that it has to be so public, because it's such a very, very difficult time for them, and for everyone who watches Terri.

(END VIDEO-CLIP)

BLITZER: Mrs. Bush also said that both she and the president have living wills, along with their parents. For more on the latest legal developments in the Schiavo case, we are joined by a familiar face, Roger Cossack. He's the legal analyst of ESPN, formerly of CNN. Roger, thanks very much for joining us.

ROGER COSSACK, LEGAL ANALYST, ESPN: Always a pleasure.

BLITZER: All right. Is it realistic. They say they are probably going to go once again to the U.S. Supreme Court. Is that a realistic hope for the parents?

COSSACK: No, I think it's not realistic. It's a desperate attempt. Obviously these parents are suffering greatly and are trying to do everything they can. But the courts have spoken time and time again, both federal courts and state courts, and denied their petitions, which are basically old wine in a new bottle. Wolf, they keep trying the same thing and it just doesn't work, and it won't work again.

BLITZER: It was a 9-2 vote in the court of appeals in Atlanta. Was that surprising, it was so overwhelmingly against the parents?

COSSACK: What's surprising is that there was a two-person -- a two-judge dissent. The vote has been overwhelming against the parents time and time again, and they keep coming up with the same argument. In a sense stressing -- it's a plea for mercy but wrapping it up in new evidence. And there really is no new evidence, unfortunately. There really is nothing new, unfortunately, and so the courts keep rejecting it time and time again. This time two of the judges criticized Congress and say what they tried to do in an attempt to help her was political and probably unconstitutional.

BLITZER: That's pretty rare for a court of appeals to do that -- to slam Congress like that.

COSSACK: It is rare, but most people in law would agree it was kind of constitutionally shaky what they did and perhaps a violation of the separation of powers.

BLITZER: So is there any legal recourse right now to get that feeding tube reinserted or is it basically over with, as far as you can tell, having studied this now for these past several weeks?

COSSACK: Wolf, I think that, short of some newly discovered medical technique that appears on the scene overnight, the parents are pretty well out of options, and I think there really is no hope.

BLITZER: What about the notion that the facts of the case have to be reviewed because there were flaws in presenting the facts to the original judge who reviewed this many years ago?

COSSACK: Yes. That has been reheard and heard again and appealed again, and has been denied time and time again. As in any case, to make an argument that the facts -- that the original arguments -- were flawed you have to come in with evidence that shows it was pretty overwhelming, and the parents just have been unable to do that.

BLITZER: So at this point, what do you anticipate happening after she passes and presumably she will pretty soon, I don't know how long people can live in this kind of a condition. But will Congress in your opinion take legal -- take steps to change the law right now to deal with this kind of matter down the road?

COSSACK: No, I don't think so. I think the law is settled. What the problem here is, is there's a conflict between the parents and her husband. And the law says, and it's pretty well settled, the husband would be the one that speaks for her. And the parents have never been able to come up with evidence that says they should speak for her. They have made innuendoes, he has a girlfriend, but they've never been able to overwhelm that. But I think most Americans legally would be happy with their spouse making the decision rather than their parents, who may not be alive or may have different interests.

BLITZER: Roger Cossack, as usual, thanks very much for that analysis.

COSSACK: My pleasure.

BLITZER: Good. Turning now to another closely watched health case, the Vatican says Pope John Paul II is now being fed by a tube in his nose. A spokesman says the tube is being used to help the Pope increase his nutrition as he recovers his strength from his throat surgery last month. Medical experts say the use of a nasal feeding tube is usually a temporary measure.

Coming up, more on the Terri Schiavo case. We'll hear from the Florida priest who has administered communion to her. Our Mary Snow joins us from Pinellas Park; she has that part of the story.

And amid heavy security, the First Lady Laura Bush, delivers a personal message to the women of Afghanistan.

Live fire exercise: a front-line lesson on how to avoid an attack by insurgents, and how to survive if you're hit. This is a story you'll see only here on CNN.

And chaos in the aftermath of the Indonesia earthquake; supply drops spark a stampede on the small island of Nias.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: First Lady made a surprise visit to Afghanistan. It was a brief trip to a country still racked by deadly attacks from remnants of the Taliban.

CNN's Zain Verjee is at the CNN Center; she has details.

Zain?

ZAIN VERJEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, Laura Bush flew half-way around the world for a trip that lasted five hours. She championed Afghan women and their pursuit of education.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VERJEE (voice-over): Until the last minute, her trip was a secret. America's first lady landed in Kabul, Afghanistan, amid heavy security. Laura Bush brought a message from American women to Afghan women.

LAURA BUSH, FIRST LADY: We want to encourage them to send their girls to school, to get educated.

VERJEE: Speaking at a teacher's training institute, Laura Bush, a former teacher and librarian, drove home her message saying, "democracies must give women basic tools to succeed."

BUSH: And the most critical tool of all is education.

VERJEE: Wearing an Afghan scarf on her shoulders, Mrs. Bush met with Afghanistan's president, Hamid Karzai. She spent time talking to teachers and students, and even bought some local cookies for a dollar.

BUSH: Very good deal.

VERJEE: Mrs. Bush committed millions of dollars to fund an international school and an American university in Afghanistan. Under the repressive Taliban regime, women were banned from attending school. They also had to be clad top to toe in a veil, or face severe beating.

BUSH: It's an extraordinary privilege to be with you today, to celebrate the incredible progress that's been made by the people of Afghanistan over the past four years. I have especially watched with great pride as courageous women across your country have taken on leadership roles, as students, teachers, judges, doctors, business and community leaders, ministers, and governor.

VERJEE: In spite of the progress, women still face hurdles. Not everyone in Afghanistan likes the changes, and conservative customs mean women's movements are still restricted. Warlords and remnants of the Taliban regime, according to human rights groups, have intimidated and sometimes beaten women who have tried to break out of traditional roles.

Still, according to the United Nations, nearly 2.5 million girls are enrolled in schools today, an accomplishment that Laura Bush credited, at least in part, to the presence of U.S. troops stationed in Afghanistan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VERJEE (on camera): Wolf, Mrs. Bush isn't the first First Lady to travel into a potentially dangerous region. In 1969 Pat Nixon went to Vietnam to visit American troops. During World War II, Eleanor Roosevelt secretly flew across the Atlantic to boost morale among British allies.

Wolf?

BLITZER: Very interesting. Zain Verjee, reporting for us. Thank you Zain, very much.

Road side bombs and ambushes have taken a terrible toll among U.S. troops in Iraq. Last week I joined some soldiers for a front line lesson in how to avoid getting hit by insurgents, and how to get away alive if you are hit.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (voice-over): For U.S. troops heading into Iraq, there's nothing more dangerous than simply making the drive from Kuwait. The convoys constantly come under attack from insurgents, whether those dreaded IEDs, or improvised explosive devices, hidden along the sides of the roads, or from snipers, or from rocket-propelled grenades, and other missiles.

We here in the Kuwaiti desert. This is a training exercise that's under way. Live fire; we have protection, we've got the helmet on. This is an opportunity for these troops, mostly young soldiers who are about to go on a military convoy into Iraq for the first time. So they are going through these training exercises to prepare themselves for what will be a very, very, dangerous mission.

Bullets flying all over the place, the training exercise here at the Udari range can themselves be quite dangerous.

BRIG. GEN. MIKE MILANO, U.S. ARMY: Things don't always go well during this, and that's the purpose of the after-action review. We talk about, what was the plan, how'd you prepare for it, and then what happened during execution.

BLITZER: The best way to prepare the troops for the dangerous drive through Iraq is to simulate, on this range, what they might eventually encounter. To do that, the troops drive through a nearly 10-mile course during which they come under simulated hostile fire.

MILANO: The whole principle here is, if there's a threat, return fire and get out of the area as quickly as possible.

BLITZER: It's a three-day program of instruction. On this day, I'm in the front seat of an armored humvee, and our driver explains that one vehicle has come under attack and has been disabled.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's going to be a hasty evacuation. Get him in the vehicle and get him out of the kill zone. After you do that, then we will recover the vehicle. Same thing -- will be a hasty recovery, throw a tow strap on there, pull it out of the kill zone, all while somebody else is suppressing the enemy, and then continue to move.

BLITZER: The military has built an overpass to show drivers how to evade grenades that could be dropped into their vehicles. The key, I'm told, is to swerve rapidly either to the left or the right, just before going underneath. Even though the insurgents already know this maneuverer, it makes it tougher to hit the target.

At the same range, U.S. troops practice firing at an incoming vehicle trying to maneuver through barricades at the entrance to a camp. The objective is to avoid another "Beirut," a reference to what happened in 1983 when a suicide truck driver simply approached the U.S. Marine barracks in Lebanon, killing 241 Americans. On this day, they assess how the trainees did.

MAJOR MATT FATH, U.S. ARMY: Big lag from the time that thing started moving and your first round. You gotta remember, that vehicle's coming at you, trying to blow through your check points. You have got to stop him.

(END VIDEOTAPE) BLITZER (on camera): And they say, the soldiers, this is a lot more than simply a training exercise, this could make the difference, these three days on this course, the difference between life and death.

When we come back, Terri Schiavo now in her 13th day without food and water -- could she survive if the feeding tube were immediately restored? A medical expert weighs in on her current condition.

Aftershock: the earth moves again in Indonesia as residents of the hardest hit islands scramble for relief.

Kennedy in crisis: the former wife of U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy is found lying in a Boston street. We will have details.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back.

Indonesia's northern Sumatra region was rattled by a 6.3 magnitude aftershock today, 48 hours after a killer earthquake struck the area. At least 500 are confirmed dead. Most on the island of Nias as relief workers cope with chaos.

CNN's Hugh Riminton is on the scene.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HUGH RIMINTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A smell familiar from December's tsunami, that of decomposing bodies, now hangs over Garum Sitarbi (ph)n. Many roads are impassable. The only link to the airport is cut and the death toll continues to rise. In these few streets alone, the small Chinese community reports 300 people dead. After a few harried prayers, conducted under public gaze, the coffins are quickly sealed and trucked off for burial. In this group a family of four.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Husband, and wife, and two child.

RIMINTON: Continual aftershocks cause an almost perpetual sway here, but people continue to search for survivors. This is what might be called the crazy/brave part of a search-and-rescue operation. These are ordinary people without any training at all, and there's no help for that at the moment. They are desperately digging into the remnants of these buildings. They're actually about 15 meters above ground level here, but these buildings, like all the others, have collapsed upon themselves.

They're simply digging there, without any particular protection, looking for bodies, and this is what you will see right across this commercial center of Garum Sitarbi (ph): there are people everywhere digging their way down, literally with their hands, with whatever they can find, looking for bodies, and if they're lucky, looking for somebody who might still be alive.

Elsewhere the work is on saving the living. The local hospital's doctor was among those killed. The hospital itself, damaged and overwhelmed by the number of patients. Aid workers seek frantically for chopper flights to get the wounded out. Then, in the early afternoon, a gift from above: three massive Chinook helicopters of the Singapore Air Force arrived. The first two choppers cleared the immediate backlog of critical cases, but their small supply drop of water and food sparks a stampede. Control is lost. Within minutes, not a thing that can be carried remains.

Amid the chaos below, the third Chinook flies off with potentially tragic consequences: just moments later, a group of villagers carries in a severely injured woman on a make-shift stretcher, after an almost heroic trek that nearly made it. But, thanks to the looters, any hope she had of immediate medical rescue had just flown away.

Hugh Riminton at CNN, Nias, Indonesia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: The U.S. hospital ship Mercy which has been on its way home after providing tsunami relief has been ordered to remain in Indonesia to provide earthquake relief. The ship has both military and civilian personnel on board. It's expected to reach the stricken island of Nias next week.

There are new developments in the Terri Schiavo case. We will hear from the Schindler family priest who recently administered communion to Terri, and an expert on care for the dying.

Plus, Joan Kennedy in crisis, again. The former wife of Senator Edward Kennedy is found lying in a Boston street by a passer-by.

And later, he became a household name during the O.J. Simpson trial. I will speak with defense attorney Ben Brockman (ph) about the life and legacy of Johnnie Cochran.

We are also standing by for a news conference. You are looking at live pictures from Pinellas Park in Florida. Jesse Jackson expected to emerge before those microphones, as well as the parents of Terri Schiavo.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: From our studios in Washington, once again, Wolf Blitzer.

BLITZER: Welcome back.

We're standing by for a news conference. The Reverend Jesse Jackson, he is with Terri Schiavo's parents. They are standing by for a news conference. We will go there live once it begins.

First, though, a quick check of some other stories now in the news.

A former top official with the Boy Scouts has entered a guilty plea to child pornography charges. Douglas Smith Jr. is accused of downloading child porn over the Internet, including pictures of boys under the age of is 12. He face from five to 20 years in prison. Smith retired from the Boy Scouts in February. He had served as the organization's director of programming.

In a bid to stem the seasonal surge of illegal immigrants, the U.S. Border Patrol is beefing up its presence along the border with Mexico. The Homeland Security Department plans to send 500 additional agents to the most troublesome stretch of the border. That would be Arizona. The move comes just two days before a volunteer group called the Minutemen Project starts its own patrol along a 50-mile stretch of the border.

In Virginia, the Reverend Jerry Falwell's condition has improved. And he has been taken off a ventilator. Falwell is in a Lynchburg hospital. His doctors say he suffered an acute onset of congestive heart failure, but he did not have a heart attack and does not have pneumonia, as reported earlier.

Let's go bake to Pinellas Park, Florida, more on the Schiavo case. There's the Reverend Jesse Jackson. He's with the parents.

There, you see Bobby Schindler, Bob Schindler, the father, behind them. Let's hear what the Reverend Jesse Jackson has to say.

REV. JESSE JACKSON, FOUNDER, RAINBOW/PUSH COALITION: At this very difficult hour, we have sought to have a prayerful and simple conversation with the family.

Today, we met in Tallahassee to make inquiry of the governor as to what more he could do. He says, if he could wave a magic wand and put in the feeding tube and the water, but he can't, he says. There are two appeal cases before the appellate court that are not likely to be -- to be answered.

We then met with the president of the Senate, Senator Lee, who says a vote took place last week. It really didn't have anything to do with the outcome of this particular case, but it would have required someone from the opposite side of the position to reopen it today. And that did not happen. So, what would have been two votes yesterday would be maybe 10 votes today.

It seems, at every turn, these various legal doors are being closed. Of course, there is the moral, ethical issue. On the one hand, we have food and water. On the other hand, Terri needs food and water and we will not offer it to her. To me, that is the moral and ethical dimension of this that is unjustifiable.

But, having said that, oftentimes, when people die, the cruel hand of fate is beyond our control. In this case, we have the power to have restored -- to restore food and water. I have said to the family, be prepared for her to live. Be prepared for her to die. But, through it all, don't get bitter and don't -- get better.

We must learn, even from the tragedies of our lives. It was Job who said, after having lost his family and having lost his property, it was him who said, my worst fears have come upon me. When his worst fears came upon him, he did not curse God and die. He said a few chapters later, yet will I trust him. It is that faith that must sustain this family.

We must learn lessons from this tragedy that has long-term healing value for our nation. On the one hand, had it not been for a malpractice lawsuit, we wouldn't have had the money to help sustain her, on the other hand, during this crisis, the issue of long-term medical care for all of us. So, in many ways, Terri embodies the great themes of our time.

We fight for her life, but we learn from her life. And we learn from her life the valuable lessons that could be good for the healing of our nation. Even as she lies in this state, the very debate about her health care is having a healing impact, a teaching impact, the issue of wills, the issue of medical care, the issue of malpractice. We are learning even today, as she suffers. And so we ask God to sustain this family, to be the wind beneath their wings as they go through this gut-wrenching ordeal. Thank you.

QUESTION: Mr. Jackson, I want to ask you a question?

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: Are you giving them a false sense of hope, when they've exhausted almost every legal aspect (OFF-MIKE)

JACKSON: You know, you hope against hope. But, as -- but, as Christians, we know that the innocent do suffer and that you need not be guilty to be crucified. We even believe that even beyond the grave, that there's life. That is a matter of our -- of our faith. And, certainly, in the case of Terri, it is unearned suffering. That's why the rule has been caught up in her situation, because it's unearned suffering, seemingly unnecessary suffering.

But from this, we must learn lessons that, even whether she lives or dies, she has created a legion of health challenges for all of us.

QUESTION: Are you going to be (OFF-MIKE)

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)

JACKSON: I'm sorry?

QUESTION: Are you disappointed that you were not enable to enact (OFF-MIKE)

JACKSON: Well, all I know is that we did the best that we could do against the odds.

This has been a long ordeal and lots of debate about sides. And I say that, while the law has spoken, law without tempered by mercy can be cruel and crude. Law with mercy tempers law. And you have a justice that is an abiding justice. We are learning lessons from this. And I want the family to remain strong. I said to them, also, that I remember talking some years ago with Dr. King's father. He had lost his youngest son so suddenly and so violently. So, he put so much focus on that one son he had lost. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He went to the grave site every day, as if he forgot he had other children. And while focusing on Dr. King, his other son drowned in a swimming pool.

Before he could adjust to that, his wife was killed while playing the organ in the pulpit on a Sunday morning, and so three hits back- to-back. He then concluded, but I will not curse God and die, because I will thank God for what I have left. This family has other children left. They have a lot left. They have a lot in Terri. They have a lot in each other and they have a lot left. And so, they should use that faith to sustain them during this very, very difficult, difficult period.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)

JACKSON: I'm sorry?

QUESTION: Do you plan on staying with them or are you going back tonight?

JACKSON: Well, I will be going back and forth. I will not be here tonight.

And we've reached out. I've been available throughout a lot of this ordeal for a long time. And the family invited me to come down. And I came because I care. I came because I think it was the morally right thing to do. And I think that they inviting me gave me a chance to share with them how so many other people feel about the ordeal, as we seek some solution. If I had come and not been invited by them, then I would have been devoured by you. And so I came upon invitation. And I'm glad that I did come.

QUESTION: Pastor Jackson, let me ask you a question.

JACKSON: Yes.

QUESTION: As one preacher to another. This whole thing hinges on whether or not he's telling the truth on whether she asked him to remove the feeding tube. We have offered him a polygraph test to see whether he's lying while she's dying. And so far, we have not been allowed to do that. But do you see any merit in that, because it could diffuse the hatred if he passed it...

(CROSSTALK)

JACKSON: Well, you know, I do not want to get into the legal battles here or the painful polarization within the family.

I hope, within time, that the polarization would give healing and bridge-building. It will not serve any useful purpose for me to get into that kind of match. I hope that the appeal made by Mrs. Schindler last night, a very merciful and innocent appeal, will be heard by Michael and by the court. I hope that will happen. But even if that does not happen, God is still real.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: Reverend Jackson?

JACKSON: Yes, sir.

QUESTION: The family has told me they don't want to speak personally, but, in your conversations with them, can you characterize, do they still feel there's a fight left?

JACKSON: The family still knows there's a fight, and yet, they are also facing the fact of their faith.

They know that she cannot live but so long without water and without food. The family is both optimistic and realistic. The good news is that they are a praying family. And with so much coming at them, they now live their lives under the camera lights. But they, too, are learning and teaching by their example.

I have been just impressed with how close the family is and how, whatever happens, they will be able to lean on each other and find strength.

QUESTION: We have heard that there might be one more appeal to the Supreme Court. Are you guys working at that at this point?

JACKSON: Well, I'm sure that will be in this appeal.

But, in the meantime, while the appeals are going up, her lack of access to food and water, she's sinking. And, at some point, unless she gets water, then her kidneys will fail. And then she will have a heart failure and then she will die. And the painful part of it is that we believe that it was avoidable.

Whether avoidable or not, we will not surrender our faith and we will keep believing in this issue here of the need for us to be more caring about life and less callous. We believe that we must learn from this tragedy here for our nation.

The Congress that ran back to meet last Sunday night, that same Congress must now do what they can do. That is public policy, appropriate resources to address the other terrorists of our country. They must now use that congressional power and those resources to address the issue of malpractice, which she's benefited from, the issues of medical care, long-term medical care. It's a great moment, really, for the Congress to show just how they will turn passion into policy.

Last one.

QUESTION: There's criticism that you waited to late to get involved, sir. Why not make these calls and have gone to Tallahassee earlier?

JACKSON: Well, I really came here when I was invited.

We actually wrote articles about this. I reached out before then. But you know and I knew, if we had come here without invitation, we would have been so bludgeoned by you for having unpure motives until we couldn't have gotten the message through. So, the family had the right to choose who they wanted to reach out to. And when they did reach out to me, I was glad to respond.

Yes, sir.

PAUL O'DONNELL, SCHINDLER FAMILY ADVISER: On behalf of the family, I want to thank the Reverend Jackson for caring and for coming. And the family knows that he's sincere. And they are very, very grateful.

MARY SCHINDLER, MOTHER OF TERRI SCHIAVO: I would like -- I would just like to thank Reverend Jackson for coming, for praying with us, for spiritually giving us strength that we're going to need and just for being here.

BOB SCHINDLER, FATHER OF TERRI SCHIAVO: I can echo the words that my wife, Mary, just said, in that he's a fine man. He's a fine gentleman. And he's brought us great comfort in his wisdom.

O'DONNELL: Thank you.

B. SCHINDLER: Thank you all.

BLITZER: So, there we heard from the parents of Terri Schiavo, Bob and Mary Schindler, together with the Reverend Jesse Jackson, a heart-wrenching moment for this family, clearly, clearly, going through major, major distress, as they watch their daughter without that feeding tube.

More now on a familiar face in the Schiavo drama. He's the family priest who is among the few people allowed to visit Terri and who has given her communion.

Our Mary Snow is outside the hospice. She is joining us now live with more on the monsignor -- Mary.

MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, just saw the Reverend Jackson speaking. To his right was the Schindler family.

On his left was Monsignor Malanowski who has been a constant presence on the side of the Schindler family. He's been appointed by the court to administer sacraments. And he went inside to see Terri Schiavo earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SNOW (voice-over): He is one of a few dozen people allowed to visit Terri Schiavo. Monsignor Malanowski, who is often seen leading prayer outside the hospice, today wore the general's star he wore as an Army chaplain during the Cold War. MSGR. THADDEUS MALANOWSKI, DIOCESE OF SAINT PETERSBURG: We in the uniform -- I'm a veteran, and I'm representing them here today. I'm here not as a demonstrator. I am here as a citizen, like many veterans, past, present and future veterans. We came in the service wearing the uniform to uphold our Constitution. We took an oath, a promise, to uphold the -- to, what, protect, preserve life, liberty, pursuit of happiness.

SNOW: The 83-year-old former general first met Terri at another medical facility, where she was a patient. He's been visiting her for five years.

MALANOWSKI: I cannot go in alone, I have to go in with one of the parents or both parents or with Bobby and Suzanne. And I abided by that. And we have gone normally every Saturday afternoon about 2:00, 2:30, for an hour.

SNOW: He now comes on a daily basis and gave Terri what was described as her last communion on Easter Sunday. At times, he has been refused permission to administer the sacrament.

MALANOWSKI: I would say, yes, she's slowing up. Sure, it's obvious, no water or food for going on 13 days, as of 2:00.

SNOW: Monsignor Malanowski says, while he tries to stay stoic, he gets emotional at times.

MALANOWSKI: I tell people now I feel she she's like a sister, you know. She's 41 years old, my. Anyway, yes, I looked upon her as a sister, even though I had nine blood sisters.

SNOW: And while the word has seen images of a woman drying, he thinks she will be remembered by her strength.

MALANOWSKI: The legacy, I think people will admire her for...

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SNOW: And Monsignor Malanowski says that, in his years as a priest, he has never counseled someone so extensively. He says he has been inspired by Terri Schiavo's fight -- Wolf.

BLITZER: CNN's Mary Snow reporting from Florida -- thank you, Mary, very much.

When we come back, Terri Schiavo is now in her 13th day without food and water. Could she survive if the feeding tube were immediately restored? We will her from an expert who knows this subject quite well.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Earlier today, I spoke with an expert on care for the dying. Dr. Christina Puchalski is the founder and director of the Institute of spirituality and Health at George Washington University Medical Center. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: And, Dr. Puchalski, thank you very much for joining us.

DR. CHRISTINA PUCHALSKI, GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY: Nice to be here.

BLITZER: Let's get into the issue of spirituality in a moment, but you're an M.D. After 13 days, taking that feeding tube and reconnecting it, there are medical ramifications. It's not as simple as it may sound.

PUCHALSKI: Absolutely.

At this point -- and, again, I'm not her doctor. I don't know the exact medical data, but, at this point, usually, there's what we call a multisystem organ failure, or all of the organs start shutting down slowly. So the kidney is not working as effectively. The liver is not working as effectively. Now, you insert a tube.

First of all, there's an increased risk of infection and being in a weakened state she might not be able to overcome the infection. There's also -- it's not food as most people are thinking. These are chemicals that are mixed together. And there's a balance of sodium and all the electrolytes and water content, etcetera.

And if her kidneys are not able to process the toxins, the food, if her kidneys are not being able to eliminate the fluid, she could go into fluid overload, which will cause her to have difficulty breathing and it will cause her to have extra secretions that could make her dying very uncomfortable. So, there are serious ramifications of reinserting a feeding tube at this stage.

BLITZER: So, what do you do? Let's say the court decide they are going to hear the facts of the case once again, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, and they say, in the meantime, you have got to keep her alive. Well, how do you do that?

PUCHALSKI: Well, I'm hoping that the courts will look at the medical data of the fact. Persistent vegetative state is a medical diagnosis. There's criteria. The criteria has been met. And my hope is that they will look at it objectively.

(CROSSTALK) he

BLITZER: But, as they look at it objectively, they have to decide are they simply going to let her slip away or are they going to try to let her live.

PUCHALSKI: Well, slip away or die naturally or are they going to force it. If that happens, if the feeding tube is forced to be reinserted, there's going to have to be very careful monitoring on fluid balance, frequent lab tests. And that still might not make a difference. It still might be actually a more cruel, might do more harm than good.

BLITZER: Should we be surprised that someone can live in her state for 13 days without any food and water?

PUCHALSKI: Absolutely not. I've had patient -- I'm a palliative care physician as well. And I have had patients go on. Recently, I had a patient go on almost a month without -- without food and water.

BLITZER: A young patient, an old patient?

PUCHALSKI: An older patient who had a severe form of laryngeal cancer. But everybody is different. Everybody handles things differently.

At a spiritual level, people could be waiting for something. Sometimes, people are waiting for families to reconcile, for example, before they let go. And even though her brain may not be functional, her cortex isn't functional. Who knows? And that's the mystery. Who knows at a spiritual level what she may be yearning for, what she may be longing for. Maybe she wants to see that reconciliation between her husband and her parents.

BLITZER: Talk a little bit about the spirituality of dying and how some people can hold on for a little bit longer. They are waiting for a son or daughter or family member to show up, and they show up and then they are at peace. Talk a little bit about that.

PUCHALSKI: Well, spirituality, broadly defined, is whatever gives us a deep meaning in life. And that can be expressed in religious terms, which, clearly, we've heard a lot. There are a lot of religious aspects to that.

But it can be many other things. It can be relationships. It can be family. It can be something that we don't understand, but is mysterious. It's a connection to a higher power or transcendent concept. And I've seen many, many, many times at the bedside of a dying patient or loved one, myself having gone through that with a loved one, that there are things that happen for which we have no scientific explanation at this point.

And there are -- people have a tremendous attachment to loved ones. There's a desire. People often -- as I have walked the journey in the last year of a person's life, there are dreams that people want to accomplish. There are last wishes that they have, reunions that they want to have. And they will hold on often for that.

For example, in one patient's case, she held on for a grandchild that she hadn't seen because of some schism in the family and held on. And as seen as that grandchild walked into the room, she was able to hug him, give him all these collections of baseball cards she had, and then let go. And she died very peacefully.

So, there's a lot that we don't understand. And I think it's important, beyond all the legal issues here and ethical issues and the acrimony, to just look at Terri and others who are like that as human beings and say, how can we create this environment of living and dying in a sacred way? How can we honor her wishes? How can we make it so that, at the bedside, there's not strife and protesters outside of the hospice, where, parenthetically, other people are also trying to die in peace?

But how can we try to make it a spiritual experience? Let's transcend our own need to hold onto her for some reason, which is very understandable. Let's transcend our own need to win or lose. But look at the individual and say, what can I do? What is it that she might be needing at this point? Does she need me just to sit and be present?

The most awesome moments for me at the side of a dying loved one or a patient has been that sitting in silence and just being present to someone and fully bringing your soul and your spirit to that encounter.

BLITZER: We're almost out of time. But do you believe that someone in Terri Schiavo's condition, which has been formally diagnosed as a persistent vegetative state, has these kinds of spirituality feelings that you're talking about?

PUCHALSKI: Well, in my definition of spirituality, I think everyone done and all living beings do. And she is a living being.

Whether she has any function above her brain stem is what's at debate. But I think the spirit goes much deeper than the physical. It is so inherent just to us. And spirituality can pay such an incredible role. We have seen people in wartime situations, during the war, who are able to overcome tremendous obstacles that we might on paper say, how is this possible?

And it's really that drive within them, that spirit, for trying to overcome things. And, at the end, it's the drive for us to face our death honestly. We are all going to die, and so the issue at hand here is to say, we are going to die and we need to take some progressive role in our lives to say, what is important to me while I'm living? What are the really important things? How would I want to be remembered if, tomorrow, something like what happened to Terri happens to me?

And how do I want to die? What are my values? Document them. DNR, living wills, these are extremely important documents. Five Wishes is an excellent document I would recommend, because it goes into the spiritual aspects as well.

BLITZER: Dr. Christina Puchalski of George Washington University, thanks very much for joining us. Fascinating material.

PUCHALSKI: Thank you.

BLITZER: Appreciate it.

(CROSSTALK)

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In a country where women didn't have a voice, Wangari Maathai spoke to the people. Born a farmer's daughter in Kenya in 1940, she traveled to America on a scholarship and became the first woman from Central or East Africa to earn a doctorate degree. But Maathai returned home, she found most of Kenya's forests had been destroyed.

WANGARI MAATHAI, NOBEL PRIZE WINNER: It is the women who are expected to produce food to feed the family, so it is the woman who feels it when the land can no longer produce.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Under her leadership, more than 30 million trees have been planted all over Kenya. Her movement has helped citizen foresters improve their quality of life. MAATHAI: We realize that people need to understand that some of the problems they have are of their own making and they can do something about those problems.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Her commitment to community and women made her the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004. Maathai is now 64 years old and a member of the Kenyan parliament. Her political standing has taken her fight for the environment and democracy onto a larger landscape.

MAATHAI: Outside, you can make all the noise you want, but you cannot change laws. When I'm in parliament, I can make contributions to ensure that the future will be better.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: That's all the time we have today. Thanks very much for joining us. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington.

"LOU DOBBS TONIGHT" starts right now.

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