Posted on 10/21/2003 1:21:45 PM PDT by kattracks
October 21, 2003, 4:14 PM EDTTALLAHASSEE -- Lawmakers sent Gov. Jeb Bush a bill that will give him the power to order a feeding tube be reinserted into a brain-damaged woman in defiance of courts and her husband.
Bush said he will immediately sign the bill and order the tube to be reinserted into Terri Schiavo, the subject of one of the nation's longest and most bitter legal battles over care for a disabled person.
Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, want her to live. Her husband, Michael Schiavo, says she would rather die.
Schiavo's feeding tube was removed last Wednesday. Doctors have said the 39-year-old woman will die within a week to 10 days without nutrition and water.
Lawmakers were already called to the Capitol for a special session on economic development when they decided to intervene in the case.
Bush said he did not think lawmakers were motivated by politics.
``This is a response to a tragic situation.'' Bush said. ``People are responding to cries for help and I think it's legitimate.''
Sen. Tom Lee said Schiavo would ``essentially starve ... to death'' without intervention from lawmakers and the governor. ``It's a pretty awful way to go,'' said Lee, R-Brandon.
Opponents said government was stepping in where it had no business being.
``I do not believe the governor of Florida should be making a decision of life and death rather than the next of kin,'' said Sen. Steven Geller, D-Hallandale.
The House approved the bill 73-24 after the Senate passed it 23-15.
George Felos, a lawyer for Michael Schiavo, asked a judge to stop Bush even before he received the bill. A hearing was scheduled for Tuesday afternoon.
Earlier in Tampa, U.S. District Judge Steven Merryday denied a request by the Advocacy Center for Persons with Disabilities, which monitors the treatment of disabled adults, that Schiavo be kept alive so it could investigate whether removal of the tube was abusive.
Merryday wrote that federal courts _ other than the U.S. Supreme Court _ are forbidden from interjecting themselves into matters already decided by state courts. He also said the group failed to provide enough evidence to support its request.
The bill sent to Bush was designed to be as narrow as possible. It is limited to cases in which the patient left no living will, is in a persistent vegetative state, has had nutrition and hydration tubes removed and where a family member has challenged the removal.
Court-appointed doctors have described Schiavo as being in a vegetative state, caused when her heart stopped in 1990 from a suspected potassium imbalance.
Bush last week promised the woman's parents that he would help them if he could find a way.
The Florida Supreme Court has twice refused to hear the case, and it also has been rejected for review by the U.S. Supreme Court. Last week, a Florida appeals court again refused to block removal of the tube.
Felos said he thinks the legislation would be unconstitutional. It is Terri Schiavo's right under the Florida Constitution to not be kept alive artificially, and the courts have affirmed that, he said.
Pat Anderson, the attorney for the parents, said she was ``dumbfounded'' by the Legislature's action, although the Schindlers had hoped for such help in the wake of continued court defeats.
During a two-hour debate in the House, several Democrats argued that the Constitution doesn't let the Legislature give the governor the power to overrule the courts.
``This bill so oversteps our role it ... turns democracy on its head,'' said Rep. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach.
But many Republicans and some Democrats said they need to be involved in dire cases where judges might be wrong.
``The Constitution is supposed to protect the people of this state,'' said Rep. Sandy Murman, R-Tampa. ``Who is protecting this girl?''
Former Florida Supreme Court Justice Stephen Grimes said the case is unique and it is not clear whether the law will be upheld.
``It presents a new legal issue that I've never heard of,'' Grimes said.
Copyright © 2003, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
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