Terri's Last Chance

Terri's Last Chance It's time to try giving Terri Schiavo orally administered liquids. by William Anderson 03/23/2005 12:45:00 PM

THE CHIPS ARE DOWN. We have had a surfeit of due process. It is now well past time to consider the facts which process has willfully ignored. There is no reason, medical, moral, or legal, to refrain from an attempt to provide Terri Schiavo with orally administered liquids.

There are only two possible explanations for having employed gastric tube feeding. Either (1) her neurologic damage has brought about a swallowing dysfunction with danger of aspiration pneumonia; or (2) it was simply a matter of convenience to avoid labor intensive hand feeding.

In either case, no medical reason now exists to refuse a trial of natural drinking. She may have impaired swallowing function, but that at its worst cannot be as bad as death by dehydration.

Allowing her to drink water would be the definitive test of swallowing function. She may be able to swallow water and other clear liquids, in which case she will avoid death by dehydration, even if she later succumbs to malnutrition. Or she may be able to swallow pureed food, which will avoid death by malnutrition. Or she may not be able to swallow water without aspiration into the lungs, and so would develop pneumonia, and have a quicker and more peaceful death.

As to legal concerns, a guardian may refuse any medical treatment, but drinking water is not such a procedure. It is not within the power of a guardian to withhold it, and not in the power of a rational court to prohibit it.

The moral case speaks for itself. When we awaken from this queasy nightmare, people will ask how it could have been that a court could post a police officer by the bedside to insure that a dying woman succumbed to a ghastly death by thirst.

William Anderson is a lecturer at Harvard University and Senior Psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital.

What Greer is doing and all the courts have ignored is denying her the opportunity to have food or water by mouth. That is active euthanasia and is not permitted under Florida law. Whether she could take water or not is immaterial and in any case we don't know what would happen, at least it would give her a chance and she has none right now. On this order at least I believe the Shindler's have the law on their side -- giving water by mouth is not in any shape, fashion or form artificial life support as mentioned in the Florida statute. Any outcome of a trial of drinking, even death by choking, is preferable to what is going on now.

What I cannot figure out is why Jeb Bush and her parents are so focused on getting the feeding tube back in when it is clear that this will not happen when this other clearly illegal order by Greer is apparently going unchallenged. The state law was changed in April 1999 - House Bill 2131 was introduced in the legislature by the Florida Elder Affairs & Long-Term Care Committee to amend Section 765 (Civil Rights) of the Florida Statute to include food and water in the definition of life prolonging measures. This is the cite I have been given:

Amendments to Section 765.101 = legal definition of life prolonging procedures to add: "INCLUDING ARTIFICIALLY PROVIDED SUSTENENCE AND HYDRATION, WHICH SUSTAINS, RESTORES, OR SUPPLANTS A SPONTANEOUS VITAL FUNCTION". It becomes law on October 1, 1999.

The key words here are "ARTIFICIALLY PROVIDED." This part of the law authorizes Greer to remove the feeding tube but in no way authorizes him to stop Terri's parents or caregivers from giving her food and water NATURALLY by mouth.

People seem to defer to a judge on this, evidently including the Governor. Just because a judge issues an order or denies a motion does not mean his act is legal. Greer denied this motion by Terri's parents on March 8. I have tried without success to find out if anyone has challenged it even talking to someone in Jeb Bush's office yesterday who did not know but said he would "pass along" my comments to the legal team. I have been unable to get through to anyone on the Shindler's team despite many efforts including sending an email message (no phone number) to terrisfight.org. They post no telephone number (and information has none) but there is an address. Can anyone get through to the Shindler's? Maybe someone in St. Petersberg can go to the terrisfight organization address and find someone who can get through to the Shindlers and ask these questions.

Unless there is something in the law that has not yet come to light, and I have trouble believing any legislature has given a judge the power to stop a person from being fed by mouth, then this order is clearly illegal and an abomination as well as an eggregious abuse of judicial authority.

FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE, AND FOR THE SAKE OF OUR CONSTITUTIONAL REPUBLIC, SOMEONE CHALLENGE THIS JUDICIAL POWER GRAB AND HAND GREER HIS FIRST DEFEAT AND GIVE TERRI SOME CHANCE!!! JEB BUSH KEEPS SAYING HE MUST FOLLOW THE LAW. HOW ABOUT THIS LAW?

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