October 21, 2003

9:32 PM

By Alisa LaPolt

Florida Today

Melbourne, Florida

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Tallahassee, Florida - With unprecedented power given to him Tuesday, Gov. Jeb Bush bypassed Florida courts and ordered doctors to continue to keep alive a severely brain-damaged woman.

The governor acted immediately after signing a bill -- created and passed by the Legislature in less than 24 hours -- that gave him the rare authority to intervene in the case of Terri Schiavo. She has been without food or water since last Wednesday when a Tampa judge upheld the husband's right to have her feeding tube removed.

Brevard County's lawmakers all voted to give the governor authority over Schiavo's life, but spoke of their own conflicting decisions to remove life support from loved ones.

"The task is not an easy one," said an emotional Rep. Ralph Poppell, R-Titusville, whose 19-year-old grandson last spring suffered a brain injury, but defied doctors' predictions and lived. "Whenever you have a loved one there, it does create a different situation."

Sen. Mike Haridopolos, R-Melbourne, said he felt compelled to vote in favor of saving Schiavo's life, given the complexity of the legal debate thrown at lawmakers just 24 hours earlier.

"There are a lot of facts still in dispute," he said. "This gives us another opportunity to look at this."

The order was meant to resolve a five-year battle between Schiavo's parents and her husband, Michael, who went to court to honor what he says is his wife's wish not to be kept alive.

"Like the tens of thousands of Floridians who have raised their voices in support of Terri Schiavo's right to live, I have been deeply moved by these tragic circumstances," Bush said.

"I am not playing God at all," the governor said, adding that Michael Schiavo's statement that his wife did not want to be kept alive on life support systems "is hearsay" and "she didn't say she wanted to be starved to death."

The legislation, which passed both the House and Senate, will expire in 15 days so that it won't apply to other contested death cases.

"We are just ecstatic," said her father, Bob Schindler. "It's restored my belief in God."

Her husband wasn't so happy about the debate over his wife's life.

"He, as many others, is absolutely stunned at the course of events and deeply troubled, angry and saddened that his wife's wishes have become a political pingpong," said his attorney, George Felos.

Schiavo's feeding tube was removed last Wednesday. Doctors have said the 39-year-old woman will die within a week to 10 days without nutrition and water.

"It ain't over until it's over. Until I see that IV running, she is not out of the woods," said Pat Anderson, an attorney for the Schindlers.

"I keep thinking, what if Terri didn't want this to happen at all?" said a very solemn Senate President Jim King, who authored Florida's right-to-die legislation following the cancer deaths of both his parents.

"God have mercy on us," King said.

Schiavo was taken by ambulance from the Pinellas Park hospice where she had gone without food or water for six days. A crowd outside cheered. She was to be rehydated at a Clearwater hospital before again being fed through a tube.

Schiavo, who has been in a coma-like state since suffering a heart attack 13 years ago at age 26, was in stable condition Tuesday night.

Schiavo did not have a living will that specified her end-of-life directives in writing.

In such cases, Florida law leaves the decision to a patient's spouse. Schiavo's parents have waged a legal battle to block her husband's efforts to have her feeding tube removed.

Sen. Bill Posey, R-Rockledge, noted the new law gives the state a chance to fix a glitch in existing right-to-die legislation by calling for appointed guardians to intervene in such decisions.

"There's a bit of confusion about the intent of the husband," he said. "He can divorce her and be through with it, but he can't collect on an insurance settlement."

Schiavo's parents have accused her husband Michael of wanting her dead so he can have what money is left over from an $800,000 medical malpractice settlement reached in her death. He has since become engaged to another woman, with whom he has a child.

"It's such a political hot potato, but you've got to do what's right in your heart," Posey said.

King directed Senate members to make living will forms available to Florida residents, free of charge, in their district offices.

"Like many Floridians, we believe the process failed to protect Terri Schiavo and her family," said House Speaker Johnnie Byrd. "Our action today helps to restore what has been taken from the Schiavo family."

The new legislation calls for the appointment of a guardian to weigh in on future contested cases.

Meanwhile, U.S. District Judge Steven Merryday on Tuesday blocked a state advocacy council's own bid to force doctors to reinsert Schiavo's feeding tube. The Advocacy Center for Persons with Disabilities, a state-appointed nonprofit agency that oversees the treatment of disabled Floridians, wanted to buy time to investigate whether Schiavo's husband neglected her.

Lawmakers are at the Capitol for a weeklong legislative session on economic development. Bush, under pressure by Schiavo's family to intervene, agreed to expand the Legislature's agenda to include the bill.

Copyright 2003 Florida Today.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

http://www.floridatoday.com/!NEWSROOM/localstoryN1022SCHIAVO.htm