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BOBBY SCHINDLER TESTIFIED BEFORE THE LOUISIANA LEGISLATURE TODAY

Bill would restrict family members' right to have feeding tubes removed

Measure would require explicit directions in writing

Tuesday, May 10, 2005
Doug Simpson / Associated Press Writer

BATON ROUGE, La. - A bill that would restrict family members' right to have a feeding tube removed from a severely injured patient who is alive but unresponsive was approved Tuesday by a Senate committee -- but with a twist that could jeopardize its chances in the Legislature.

The bill was inspired by the saga of Terry Schiavo, who had her feeding tube removed earlier this year, after over a decade.

The Senate Judiciary A Committee added financial baggage to Sen. James David Cain's bill: amendments that would require the state to pay health care costs for such patients, if the family cannot. Sen. Cleo Fields suggested the new provisions after questioning how the state can require that those patients remain alive if the family is too poor to afford the hospital costs.

"Who's going to pay the medical bills? The only entity left with any money is the state," said Fields, D-Baton Rouge.
The committee approved Fields' amendments 4-3, then passed the bill without any objections. It now moves to the full Senate, with a potentially heavy price tag for the state.

Cain's bill was inspired by the case of Terri Schiavo, the Florida woman who died in March, 13 days after her feeding tube was removed by court order, ending a four-year legal battle between her husband, who wanted the tube removed, and her parents, who did not. She had suffered brain damage in 1990 after a chemical imbalance caused her heart to stop.

Schiavo's brother, Bobby Schindler, testified that Cain's bill would help prevent other people from having to go through the "absolutely horrific" experience he had, watching his sister slowly die without nutrition.

Cain, R-Dry Creek, told the committee that Louisiana's law is ambiguous about when a feeding tube can be removed and can lead to similar legal disputes among families.

"What happened in Florida could indeed happen here, and we're trying to prevent that," Cain said.

The bill would define the food and water that moves through feeding tubes as separate from "life support." Under current law, both respirators and feeding tubes are legally considered life support. Cain said many people sign living wills that provide for removal of the feeding tubes without realizing that can in some cases mean they will essentially starve to death in a hospital bed.

Similar legislation has been filed in the House.

One part of the bill drew opposition from groups ranging from the Louisiana Hospital Association to the American Civil Liberties Union: a provision that would prevent families from removing feeding tubes from a person "legally incapable of making health care decisions" if the person had not filled out a living will or other document specifying such removal.

Testifying in favor of the bill was Oris Pettis, a St. Tammany Parish woman who said her mother had signed a living will saying she did not want to be kept alive on life support. But Pettis said her mother didn't know that feeding tubes were considered part of life support.

After a stroke last year, Pettis' 84-year-old mother wound up in a West Monroe nursing home with a feeding tube.
Pettis sued to keep her mother alive, a legal battle against two siblings who wanted to honor the living will. She lost, the feeding tube was removed in August and Pettis' mother died three weeks later. Watching her mother die of dehydration was horrific, Pettis said.

Opponents of the bill argued the measure would inject the government into an area where family members should be making decisions. Several said Louisiana's current law properly provides family members with final authority over decisions involving the death of a loved one.

"If we start monkeying with a good law in Louisiana, we're going to find ourselves with a Terry Schiavo case every day," said Sen. Tom Schedler, R-Mandeville. "We don't need to go there."

http://www.wwltv.com/local/stories/WWL051005schiavo.25fa594c0.html