CBN.com – (CBN News) - Is it right to die? Or right to murder? That was the question suddenly put before Florida lawmakers last October. Many were stunned to learn that then 39-year-old Terri Schiavo, a severely brain-damaged woman from Pinellas Park, Florida, was being starved to death after a judge ordered her feeding tube removed at the request of her husband and legal guardian Michael Schiavo. House Speaker Johnnie Byrd felt something had gone terribly wrong.

Byrd said, "And I called the governor, called Gov. (Jeb) Bush, and he said, yes, we need to do something. I called the President of the Senate, Jim King, and said, Jim, we need to save Terri Schiavo's life, and he said, ‘No, I wrote this legislation several years ago, and I want her to die,’ and I said, No, you don't want her to die."

Byrd won his argument in a reversal of the national trend, which has the courts usurping the will of the people expressed by their legislatures. In this case, the Florida legislature trumped the courts by passing a law that went against their ruling. The House and Senate overwhelmingly passed Terri's bill. Gov. Bush quickly signed it into law, ordering her feeding tube reinserted.

Terri was in her seventh day without food and water when the law took effect. Her parents say it was a miracle she survived. Bob Schindler, Terri's father, said, "I attribute that to God."

Scores of protestors holding vigil outside Terri's Pinellas Park hospice had prayed for her survival. And joining in efforts to keep Terri alive were Regent University law students.

Courtney Langiness, a Regent law student, said, " I had the opportunity to work with a couple of Regent alumni down at a law firm in Florida. One of them wrote the bill that saved Terri Schiavo's life. And, the other was monitoring the work at the hospital to make sure that her feeding tube was placed back in so that she could live."

Another Regent law student, Tarra Trotter, said, "I just remember the feeling when Gov. Bush signed the legislation and how, just to know that we were a part of it, was very exciting."

The Schindler's attorney, Pat Anderson, says Terri has a constitutional right to life, and that her husband Michael should be removed as her legal guardian.

Anderson said, "[Michael] Schiavo has been living with another woman since 1995. They have now had two children together, and where I come from that's called adultery and abandonment. There is no way that someone in that position should have the life or death say-so over somebody in Terri's position."

And Terri's life is still on the line. A Florida judge is expected to rule any day that Terri's law is unconstitutional, meaning that her feeding tube could be immediately removed again.

Shouldn't the legislature, a body elected by the people of Florida, have more authority than a handful of judges?

Speaker Byrd said, "The judicial branch is arrogant in their way, because they believe they can not only apply the law but they can make up the law in the first instance, and so whenever the legislature actually stepped up into this case and said, wait a minute, the judicial branch is on the wrong path. We believe the law should be, in cases like this, that the governor should be able to appoint a new guardian and slow down, err on the side of life. The judicial branch, actually, most of them, had apoplexy that the legislature would actually stand forth and have courage and say, no, we make the law, not the judges."

Terri's family just celebrated her 40th birthday on December 3^rd. Last year, it was uncertain whether Terri would make it to that day. Now, the question is, will Terri Schiavo be allowed to live for yet another birthday?

Copyright 2004, The Christian Broadcasting Network, Inc.