[msmagoo]

Bump, well said.

Is it possible that politicians didn't realize the tragic consequences of this amendment, and approved it as a cost-saving measure? It goes without saying that FL has a huge elderly population. Whom does such an amendment benefit? Certainly not the constituants, unless the Legislature was led to believe that sustaining patients dependent on a feeding tube is inhumane.

Also, did Felos ever promote the notion that adding use of a feeding tube to the definition of 'artifical life support' would be an ideal way to avoid a budget crisis? It would not surprise me.

[Ohioan from Florida]

The legislators could have been misled about feeding tubes being inhumane in that they were probably told that it is wrong to force-feed someone who is terminal, as in actually dying. I don't care what Felos argues, whether Terri is PVS (which personally I don't think she is). In any case she is not dying.

It's interesting to me that in the malpractice trial in 1992, it was argued by MS's attorney at the time that Terri would have a life-span of 50 years. Expert testimony helped the jury reach the decision that Terri life expectancy was 17 years because of the supposed bulimia, and they awarded based on that figure instead.