US Senate Enters Feeding Tube Fray
TAMPA, Fla., March 17, 2005
Congress was immersed Thursday in the controversy over removing the feeding tube from a brain-damaged Florida woman whose husband has been given permission by a state court to let her die.
Within hours of the Republican-controlled House's passage of a bill to block the removal of Terri Schiavo's feeding tube, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., announced the Senate would take up a separate bill to address the situation before leaving for its Easter recess on Friday.
"The immediacy has played out in the last several days because of this decision that has been made not by her parents who want to keep her alive, not by her family who wants to keep her alive, but by her husband," said Frist, a physician.
"The question is, should we allow her to be starved to death?" Frist said Thursday in a Senate speech. "It has to do with the culture of life. And I believe this body is going to have to speak on this particular matter before we leave."
Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada said he sees potential problems with the legislation, but said he was willing to work with the Republicans to try to resolve them.
"We have been in touch with Rose Kennedy School of ethics at Georgetown, we have spoken to ethicists there," Reid said at a news conference.
At the White House, press secretary Scott McClellan said the case raises "a lot of complex issues" and declined to comment on specific legislation. But he said Mr. Bush "stands on the side of defending life."
Schiavo's husband has battled her parents over his efforts to allow her to die, which he contends she would prefer rather than live in a vegetative state.
On Thursday, Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, filed an emergency motion at the Supreme Court to stop the removal of her feeding tube so lower courts can consider whether their daughter's religious freedom and due process rights have been violated.
In Florida, the state House on Thursday passed a bill aimed at keeping Schiavo's feeding tube in place. But the Senate was expected to take up its own bill later in the day, and the differences could be impossible to reconcile before Friday, some legislators have said.
The House bill is more stringent. It would require that patients in a persistent vegetative state receive nutrition and hydration unless they had a living will or left specific oral instructions refusing the measures. The Senate bill would block the denial of food and water only in cases where family members disagreed on whether to keep it in place. Then, the patient would be kept alive unless he or she had expressed different wishes in writing.
It passed 78-37.
"This provides a safety net where the government stands up for the vulnerable who don't otherwise have a voice," said Republican Rep. Kevin Ambler.
Gov. Jeb Bush has strongly urged the Legislature to pass a bill that would save Schiavo, as it did in 2003. That law, which allowed Bush to order doctors to restore Schiavo's feeding tube six days after it had been removed, was later declared unconstitutional by the Florida Supreme Court.
The bill in the U.S. House passed on a voice vote. It would move such a case to federal court. Federal judges have twice turned down efforts by the parents to move the case out of Florida courts, citing a lack of jurisdiction.
Under the House legislation, a federal judge would decide whether withholding or withdrawing food, fluids or medical treatment from an incapacitated person violates the Constitution or U.S. law.
It would apply only to incapacitated people who had not left directives dealing with being kept alive artificially and for whom a state judge had authorized the withholding of food or medical treatment.
Schiavo, 41, suffered severe brain damage in 1990 when her heart stopped temporarily, and court-appointed doctors say she is in a persistent vegetative state. Her husband, Michael Schiavo, says she told him she would not want to be kept alive artificially. Her parents disagree that was her wish and say she could improve with proper treatment.
Her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, are taking the matter to the U.S. Supreme Court, reports Gordon Byrd of CBS radio affiliate WHNZ in Tampa.
"We're going to be petitioning Justice Kennedy for the stay and ask that Terri's life be spared," said David Gibbs, their attorney.
The Schindlers planned to ask the Supreme Court to consider whether their daughter's religious freedom and due process rights have been violated.
Meanwhile, the Florida Department of Children and Families, rebuffed last week when it tried to enter the case, was asking for its own stay.
Florida Circuit Judge George Greer has granted Michael Schiavo permission to remove the feeding tube, a ruling a state appellate court upheld Wednesday. Without the feeding tube, which the state court allowed to be removed as early as Friday, Terri Schiavo would likely die in one to two weeks.
"What's going on in Florida regarding Terri Schiavo is nothing short of inhumane," said House Judiciary Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., who introduced the bill with Rep. Dave Weldon, R-Fla.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/03/17/national/main681114.shtml
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/03/17/national/main681114.shtml
"The immediacy has played out in the last several days because of this decision that has been made not by her parents who want to keep her alive, not by her family who wants to keep her alive, but by her husband," said Senator Frist, a physician.
"The question is, should we allow her to be starved to death?" Frist said Thursday in a Senate speech. "It has to do with the culture of life. And I believe this body is going to have to speak on this particular matter before we leave."
Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada said he sees potential problems with the legislation, but said he was willing to work with the Republicans to try to resolve them.
"We have been in touch with Rose Kennedy School of ethics at Georgetown, we have spoken to ethicists there," Reid said at a news conference.
THANK HARRY REID FOR HELPING US SAVE TERRI. TOLL FREE #1-877-762-8762 (CAPITAL SWITCHBOARD).