WASHINGTON, March 30 (Xinhuanet) -- A US appeals court on Wednesday rejected the latest appeals by Terri Schiavo's parents requesting a new hearing on whether to reconnect the feeding tube for their severely brain-damaged daughter, hours after agreeing to consider the emergency petition.

    The 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals based in Atlanta granted Bob and Mary Schindler's request late Tuesday to file the new petition. But the judges voted to decline a full hearing of all 12judges on the case.

    Judge Stanley F. Birch Jr. wrote that while the members of the Schindlers and the members of Congress had acted in a way that was both fervent and sincere, "the time has come for dispassionate discharge of duty."

    The decision came as Schiavo had entered her 13th day without water and food. Doctors removed her feeding tube on March 18 following the ruling of the presiding judge, saying she was expected to die within two weeks.

    The appeals court has declined previous petitions three times in the case.

    The Schindlers have suffered a string of legal setbacks during the last two weeks, both in state and federal courts, to get the feeding tube of their daughter reconnected.

    Schiavo, 41, has been in a persistent vegetative state since a sudden heart attack in 1990 which cut oxygen to her brain. Her parents have engaged in a seven-year court battle with her husband and legal guardian Michael Schiavo over her fate.

    Michael Schiavo has urged the removal of his wife's feeding tube, saying she would rather die in her condition. But the Schindlers insisted that their daughter be kept alive. Enditem