WASHINGTON, March 25 (Xinhuanet) -- The parents of brain-damaged Terri Schiavo suffered another setback to keep their daughter alive Friday as a federal judge refused for a second time to reinsert her feeding tube, which was disconnected last Friday.

    Florida-based US District Judge James Whittemore ruled against the parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, denying their emergency request to restore Schiavo's feeding tube while he considers a lawsuit they filed.

    Whittemore refused an emergency request on Tuesday to reinsert the feeding tube for Schiavo, 41, who was incapacitated in 1990 when her heart stopped briefly cutting oxygen to her brain and hassince relied on the feeding tube to keep her alive.

    In his ruling on Friday, Whittemore noted "the difficulties andheartbreak the parties have endured throughout this lengthy process" but said the Schindlers could not establish "a substantial likelihood of success on the merits" of their case.

    The Schindlers have suffered a string of legal setbacks over the past few days, both in state and federal courts, to reconnect Schiavo's feeding tube. When the tube was disconnected last Friday,doctors said she could survive one or two weeks without the feeding tube.

    A state judge on Thursday denied Florida Governor Jeb Bush's request to let the state take over Schiavo's custody, and earlier that day, the US Supreme Court refused to order the feeding tube reinserted.

    Schiavo's parents have battled with their daughter's husband, Michael Schiavo, for years over her fate. Michael Schiavo has argued that his wife would not have wanted to be kept alive in a persistent vegetative state and that she has no hope for recovery,while her parents have contended that she responds to them and hercondition could improve with treatment. Enditem