Posted on 03/15/2005 8:08:59 AM PST by gopwinsin04
House and Senate legislators Monday reached a deal Monday on a bill designed to prevent Terri Schiavo's death, as the Florida Legislature, for the second time in two years, moved to intervene in the internationally watched case.
Key members in both chambers say they expect the bill to come up for a vote before Friday, the say the severely brain damaged woman's feeding tube is scheduled to be removed.
In most cases, the legislation would block a guardian from allowing someone 'in a persistent and vegtative state' to die by withholding food and water unless that person had written instructions asking not to be kept alive with artifical feedings.
The bills, HB 701 and SB 804, are scheduled for hearings in their final committees today and could come to the floor of both chambers by Thursday.
Legislators in both chambers said Governor Jeb Bush's legal counsel played an integral role in shaping the legislation and indicated that he would likely sign it.
George Felos, the attorney for Michael Schiavo, predcicted that the measure would again be declared unconstitutional.
'This is purely a knee jerk response to the growing political clout of the far right, and it's tragic that legislators don't have any concern about the constitutionality of the acts they pass.'
(Excerpt) Read more at sun-sentinel.com ...
LifeNews.com had a similar article last night...
Ping
I think next the Florida State House should see about impeaching Judge Greer!
Yeah, but this'll be struck down just like the last one. It'll buy time no doubt, but she still needs something on the federal level. She needs to get out from under the FL judiciary, as they ALL want her dead, period.
Terri needs a writ of habeus corpus.
Excellent, thanks... http://www.lifenews.com/bio779.html
That one may take longer, so another Florida law is probably the best bet for now.
In the absence of written instructions, the legislation would allow a guardian to deny food and water if there was "clear and convincing evidence" that the incapacitated person made his or her wishes clear orally.
So, how will this stop Schiavo? He's claimed all along that Terri made her wishes known orally, and it sounds like this legislation will rely on court interpretation of how clearly this was done via "clear and convincing evidence." This won't bind Greer at all as he consider's Schiavo's testimony to be "clear and convincing evidence."
Also from the article -
But Bruce Winick, a constitutional law professor at the University of Miami, disagreed.
"It amounts to another legislative interference with an ongoing court case, which was the issue the Supreme Court raised last time," he said. "This is still changing the rules. When she made her original decision not to be kept alive artificially, the laws of Florida allowed her to make that decision orally."
Hey Bruce, when Terri allegedly made these statements to her husband, the law did NOT allow a feeding tube to be considered life support. Several years later the law was amended to include feeding tubes as life support, and this revision was applied retroactively to Terri's case. So who exactly, is changing the rules?
No, what Terri needs is for the Courts to be made a co-equal branch of the government again. Yes, you are correct, the courts will strike this down again and the circle will continue. Sooner or later, the legislature and the Executive (it could start in Florida and, who knows, spread to the Federal level) have to say to the Courts, "you are overruled and we will NOT enforce your illegal order. We are the legislature, the voice of the people and we have spoken."
If the Executive refuses to enforce or obey a Court ruling, and the Legislature backs the Executive up, there is NOTHING the Court can do about it. The power of the runaway judiciary will only be curbed when this starts to happen.
But I don't think Terri's parents have the time to wait for the Congressional wheels to get moving right now.
That could very well be, I wish (former Justice Thomas clerk) Laura Ingraham could see that and look to see if it meets constitional muster.
Terri bump!
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
Just the fact that we are wondering how the Florida Supreme Court will rule is an indicator that we expect this legislation to pass. Yeah! Let's keep praying hard!
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