Published Thursday, March 10, 2005
Forced Feeding Bill OK'd In Panel
Proposed law would be retroactive to apply in the case of Terri Schiavo.
By Joe Follick
Tallahassee Bureau
TALLAHASSEE -- With eight days remaining until Terri Schiavo's feeding tube can be legally removed, Florida lawmakers approved a bill Wednesday that would require "nutrition and hydration" for all incapacitated individuals unless they've previously, explicitly refused.
The next week seems certain to be a reprise of a heated special session in 2003 when lawmakers hastily passed "Terri's Law" to reinsert her feeding tube after courts ruled her husband said she expressed a wish to die if she reached a vegetative state.
This time, Republican legislators are avoiding personalizing their bills to specifically mention the Schiavo case. In fact, bill sponsors almost denied it was intended for her at all, mindful of the 2004 Florida Supreme Court decision that found "Terri's Law" illegal, in part because of its focus on one person.
But lawmakers inserted at least three amendments Tuesday that made it clear the law would apply retroactively, and keep Schiavo's tube in, regardless of previous court decisions.
"If somebody is alive when this bill passes, they should benefit from that," said Rep. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, the sponsor of House Bill 701. The bill was approved by the House Health Care Regulation Committee on Wednesday with a 7-4 vote.
If passed, both sides predicted yet more legal battles in a litigious saga that has drawn international attention.
For 14 years, Schiavo has been in a persistent vegetative state after suffering heart failure from a potassium imbalance. Her husband, Michael Schiavo, said his wife had told him she did not wish to be kept alive artificially and courts have largely agreed.
Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, have argued that she could improve and is responsive. But Pinellas Circuit Court Judge George Greer ruled that Schiavo will have her feeding tube removed March 18.
Detractors said the bill would require thousands of Floridians near the end of their lives to have surgical feeding tubes inserted if they hadn't explicitly stated they didn't want them.
"That's thousands of people you can't kill now," said Baxley, dismissing the criticism.
"(The bill) makes the assumption that guardians or proxies are cold-hearted individuals with nothing more in their vision than to terminate the life of the individual," said Twila Sketchley, a Tallahassee lawyer. "I assure you that's absolutely false in every sense of the way."
Beyond the constitutionality of making such changes retroactive, detractors ripped a portion of the bill that would require anyone charged with the "end of life" decisions for another person to spend at least two hours per week over a 12-week period with that person or an average of 10 hours each month over a threemonth period.
"If you are going to withdraw hydration or starve them to death," said Rep. John Stargel, RLakeland, "you should spend some time with them."
Requiring that much time could be torture for someone suffering, said Scott Solkoff, chair of the elder law section of the Florida Bar.
"Twelve weeks (in near-death and pain) is an extremely cruel punishment," he said.
Many lawmakers and witnesses talked about their own dealings with the death of loved ones.
Larry Spalding of the ACLU of Florida said he'd never seen his father cry until a feeding tube was inserted in him against his will.
"Larry, Larry. Please don't let them do that to me," Spalding said his father told him. Spalding said the bill would put the Legislature's intent in place of family's decision-making. "I think this is one of the most anti-family bills I've ever see," he said.
Baxley disagreed.
"If I'm doing something wrong . . . I certainly hope that whatever error I make is on the side of allowing someone to live," he said. "I hope this is a defining moment in our culture."
Michael Schiavo's lawyer, George Felos, called the bill "the worst spectacle of political grandstanding" and said its aim at overriding families' wishes meant that "no one's rights are protected."
Rex Sparklin, a lawyer for the Schindler family, said the "the very nature of the horror of the nightmare for both families on both sides" pointed to the need for the bill. He said it was constitutional and would save Schiavo's life.
House Speaker Allan Bense, RPanama City, said he hoped to get the bill passed by the March 18 deadline, but only if it was legally sound.
"I just don't think we're doing a service to Terri by ginning up a bill and getting it out quickly in a helter-skelter fashion," Bense said.
On Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Dave Weldon and U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez, both Republicans from Florida, introduced legislation in Washington that could give the Schindlers access to federal courts in the effort to save their daughter's life.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this article.
Congressional Republicans Fight for Terri's Life
By Susan Jones
CNSNews.com Morning Editor
http://www.cnsnews.com//ViewPolitics.asp?Page=\Politics\archive\200503\POL20050310a.html
March 10, 2005
(CNSNews.com) - Terri Schindler Schiavo deserves the same rights as serial killers and convicts, a U.S. congressman says.
Rep. Joe Pitts (R-Pa.) says because the Florida courts have sentenced Terri to death by starvation and dehydration, he is lending his support to a bill that might save Terri and others like her by bringing their cases before federal courts.
At a Thursday morning press conference, Pitts and Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) were expressing their support for the "Incapacitated Persons Legal Protection Act."
The bill would protect the due process and equal-protection rights of people who have had their life-sustaining treatment withdrawn by court order. Essentially, the bill would give federal courts the right to review state court decisions in cases involving incapacitated persons.
The same type of "habeas corpus" review is given to death row inmates, Pitts noted.
"The Incapacitated Persons Legal Protection Act," was introduced this week by Sen. Mel Martinez and Rep. Dave Weldon (both Florida Republicans).