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There is one important fact that I've not seen discussed. A patient can reverse their decision for a living will at any time and it must be honored by the medical profession.

I'm a nurse and work at a nursing home. I took care of a patient that had a living will and we had instructions not to send her out again to the ER. I work nights and she went into respiratory distress one night. She looked at me and said, "I need to go to the hospital. It's the only way that I can live." You better believe that I made the necesary calls. When I spoke with the doctor he said, "I thought she wasn't to go out again." I replied, "Yes, sir. But she said....." He replied, "Send her out" and I called 911. She has since died, but it was peaceful and she was at rest.

In reference to Terri, she could change her mind at any time and that DNR or living will will be invalidate. The sad thing here is that she wasn't given the chance to change her mind, if she really did say that to her husband.

EMail just sent to the Governor's office:

To The Honorable Governor Bush;

Though I currently reside in North Carolina, I lived 33 of my 41 years in the Sunshine State and wish to make a suggestion that may be available to you as a means of assisting Mrs. Schiavo.

The Florida Statutes under chapter 252 provide the Governor with a wide range of powers available via Executive Order. Most of these deal with handling widespread calamity or disaster. However, there is no requirement relating to the size or scope of such a disaster, only that you make the declaration that a threat exists that will impact the health or welfare of at least one of Florida's citizens.

Let me quote from 252.311:

"The Legislature finds and declares that the state is vulnerable to a wide range of emergencies, including natural, technological, and manmade disasters, all of which threaten the life, health, and safety of its people; ..."

The Statute permits you to mobilize health care resources in a declared emergency:

"The Governor shall employ such measures and give such directions to the Department of Health and the Agency for Health Care Administration as may be reasonably necessary for the purpose of securing compliance with the provisions of ss. 252.31-252.90 or with the findings or recommendations of such agency of health by reason of conditions arising from emergencies or threats of emergency."

I ask you, then, to declare a "minor" State of Emergency that imminently threatens the life of Mrs. Schiavo in order to permit the resources to be mustered that would keep her alive.

Yes, this would be an extraordinary step to take: but I believe that this is an extraordinary situation perpetrated by one man and one judge in an attempt to take away the life of one of your state's citizens against the wishes of blood relatives and family. The only reason the husband is being permitted to have standing in court has to do with a marriage contract -- that he himself has so obviously and blatantly broken.

Please act quickly. Thank you and God bless you.

Respectfully submitted,

Your next of kin can override the DNR too.

My father made a living will 9 days before his death. Until that point it was strictly "hearsay". We talked about it until he made me cry, because I didn't want to let go. My brothers were not privy to the conversation. They were as opposed to my decisions as was one of the Doctors. Then I pulled out the papers.

I suppose the sticking point here is- Is Terri suffering? You can keep someone alive on life support long enough for the organs to heal and function normally or reasonably so. The young woman, IIRC Karen Ann Quinlan, in the 70's where this whole 'right to die or be unplugged' started was on life support long enough for her bodily functions to work on their own. After that, she was on a feeding tube for years.

As much as people dislike the husband, he could have pulled the plug years ago. So at one time even he had hope. Would a court give him a divorce?