Cash to keep wife alive rejected

A man fighting to have a feeding tube removed from his brain-damaged wife rejected a California businessman's offer to pay him US$1 million ($1.3 million) to give up his right to decide her medical treatment.

Terri Schiavo's parents are trying to keep her alive, but Michael Schiavo contends he had promised his wife he would not keep her alive by artificial means before she suffered a heart attack 15 years ago. Now 41, she has lived since then in what court-appointed doctors call a persistent vegetative state.

San Diego businessman Robert Herring said he felt "compelled" to try to have the husband transfer the legal right to decide to the parents, Bob and Mary Schindler.