"All retirees who avoid Florida"
Retirees might want to move to Louisana...seems they've put laws in place to prevent deaths like Terri's.
No, they haven't. While the originally-proposed bill under consideration in Louisiana would have removed artificially-provided nutrition and hydration from the definition of "life-sustaining medical treatment" under Louisiana law, and would have further created a presumption for the provision of ANH in the absence of a very specific, written advance directive to the contrary, that bill was completely gutted.
The final bill (which passed, and was signed into law) removed all references to ANH, left ANH among the "life-sustaining medical treatment" subject to removal (same as respirators, chemo, etc.), and created absolutely no presumption for the provision of ANH in the absence of a written advance directive.
The original bill was replaced (totally) with language which defined "spouse," and which placed 3 situational restrictions on when a spouse may NOT act as a guardian (empowered to make health care decisions) for his/her wife/husband:
1. When they are "judicially separated" (this was already in the law)
2. When the spouse is cohabiting with another person (this is new, and the only part of Louisiana's new law that relates to the Schiavo case facts)
3. When the spouse has been convicted of violent domestic abuse upon the (incapacitated) spouse (as we all know, Michael Schiavo has never been legally accused of domestic abuse, much less convicted).
The Louisiana law with regard to end-of-life care and decisions (even with the recent modifications) is actually far more liberal and permissive with regard to the decision of a proxy/guardian to withdraw ANH from an incapacitated person than is Florida's law. Of the three, relatively insignificant, "spouse as guardian" restrictions, #1 and #3 already apply in Florida, and #2 is easily avoided as a problem. The restriction doesn't prevent (or penalize) adultery, only cohabitation. If this law had been adopted in Florida, Michael Schiavo could have still had a relationship with another woman, and could have still had children with her, without endangering his guardianship status. All he would have had to do is maintain a separate legal residence. Not a big deal (although who knows if it might not have motivated Michael Schiavo to seek the withdrawal of Terri's feeding tube even earlier than he did, so perhaps it's a good thing that wasn't a facet of the Florida law).
Altogether, in the state legislative sessions held earlier this year, bills which were "related" to the Schiavo situation were introduced in Florida, Louisiana, Delaware, Alabama, Minnesota, South Dakota, Kansas, Missouri, and Hawaii (and probably a few more states). Only in Louisiana (with it's new law, above) and Delaware (which passed a law allowing for a driver's license notation as to whether or not a person has a living will--much like whether or not a person is an organ donor) were any laws (or changes to laws even remotely related to end-of-life choices) passed. The truth is that the actual state legislative impact of Terri Schiavo's situation and death was net zero in 2005.