Ultimately, the people. If this judge is so bad, then it's apparent that the people of FLorida have been remiss in their duties. If anyone is to blame for this, the People of Florida certainly have some share of the blame...
It looks like the legislature may be considering changing the law:
Schiavo Case Could Cause Change In Law
Published: Oct 19, 2003
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But legal scholars watching the case suspect the emotionally charged battle over Schiavo's fate will spur lawmakers to act to prevent such disputes in the future.
Those emotions reached a climax last week when the 39-year-old St. Petersburg woman's feeding tube was removed on court orders.
``I don't see that this case itself is in any way groundbreaking in terms of the law,'' said Joseph Little, a professor at the University of Florida's Levin College of Law. The fact that Gov. Jeb Bush got involved after receiving tens of thousands of e-mails from people who want Terri Schiavo kept alive, however, catapulted the case in importance, Little said.
``It could result in the governor or Legislature moving to change the law,'' the professor said.
Michael Allen, a professor studying the Schiavo case at Stetson University College of Law, said he has reached the same conclusion.
``I don't think the Florida statute known as the `right-to- die law' has been changed,'' Allen said. ``I think what the courts did in this case is that they resolved the he-said, she- said dispute the best they could.''
Circuit Judge George Greer has endured repeated criticism for consistently ruling in Michael Schiavo's favor in a more than five-year battle with his in-laws, Bob and Mary Schindler. Michael Schiavo contends his wife is in a persistent vegetative state with no hope of recovery and would not want to be kept alive with the help of a feeding tube inserted into her stomach.
The Schindlers contend their daughter reacts to them and could improve with therapy.
On Saturday, they and Monsignor Thaddeus Malinowski were prohibited from administering the rite of Viaticum, the last communion for a Catholic before death. Pinellas Park police officers at the hospice told the family if they administered the rite it would violate a doctor's order that nothing be placed in Terri Schiavo's mouth to prevent choking.
An attorney for Michael Schiavo said Malinowski instead administered a ``spiritual communion'' that did not include the traditional wafer.
Debate Had Already Begun
Terri Schiavo has been unable to speak since January 1990, when at age 26 she suffered unexplained heart failure that cut off the blood supply to her brain.
At the time she fell ill, the Florida Legislature and the state court system were embroiled in disputes over how to honor the wishes of people who do not want to be kept alive by artificial means. The landmark case that helped shape the Health Care Advance Directives Law involved a Dunedin woman kept alive with a feeding tube.
Estelle Browning died of natural causes in a nursing home while the Legislature and Florida Supreme Court wrestled with the issues raised by her case. The 89-year-old woman had drafted a ``living will'' in 1985 to prevent doctors from taking extraordinary measures to prolong her life in the event of terminal illness, specifically including feeding tubes among those measures.
After a 1986 stroke left her unable to speak or swallow, a nursing home refused a relative's request that Browning's feeding tube be disconnected.
In September 1990, more than a year after Browning's death, the Supreme Court ruled that Floridians have the right to refuse medical treatment, no matter what the treatment or the prognosis.
The court also upheld a state law that said people who can no longer communicate need only to have told friends or family of their wishes not to be kept alive by artificial means, said George Felos, the lawyer who argued that Browning's written advance care directive, or living will, should have been honored.
Felos is also Michael Schiavo's lead attorney.
The Schiavo case hinged on Michael Schiavo's contention that his wife made statements prior to her illness indicating she would not want to be kept alive in her current condition. The Schindlers dispute that.
After a January 2000 trial, Greer concluded evidence showed Terri Schiavo made those statements. His judgment has been repeatedly upheld on appeal, and both the Florida and U.S. Supreme Courts declined to get involved, as has a lower federal court.
Changes Might Come
Because Greer has been consistently upheld, the Health Care Advance Directives Law stands as both constitutional and enforceable, Felos and the law professors said.
But, they said, the Schiavo case could result in efforts to change the law.
``Other states require much more explicit evidence of a person's desires - written evidence, for example,'' Stetson's Allen said.
And Brown said right-to-life groups could push to have the advance directives law thrown out.
Lynda Bell, spokeswoman for Florida Right To Life Inc., said the Schiavo case shows the advance directives law goes too far.
``The Schiavo precedent is a very dangerous one,'' she said. ``We need protective legislation to protect people from the so-called right to die when it is becoming a duty to die.''
State Rep. Frank Peterman, D-St. Petersburg, said he intends to raise the issue during the 2004 session.
``What we need to do is take a look at the provision of the law that talks about withholding food and water,'' Peterman said. ``It is not an issue if the person said this is what they wanted, but if you don't know [for sure], you ought to err on the side of keeping them alive.''