Changes
Proposed In Right-To-Die Laws(Note:
FLORIDIANS
[and
all others that care about this issue because it could be any one of us
in Terri's shoes!]: Please contact Senate Leader Jim King on king.james.web@flsenate.gov
and urge him to allow Senate Bill 692 to be heard. Here are King's
feelings about this bill: "
all of a sudden I'm sitting there facing a bill or bills that can
dismantle what I consider to be my legacy.'')
December
3, 2003
By Jerome
R. Stockfisch
Senate
Bill 692, introduced by Republican state Senator Stephen Wise of
Jacksonville, would prohibit courts from ordering feeding tubes removed
from any mentally incompetent patient in Florida who doesn't have a
living will or other advance directive stating otherwise. Experts
predict fewer than 12 percent of American adults have living wills. The
measure faces stiff opposition. Senate President Jim King, a fellow
Jacksonville Republican who helped craft the state's current
right-to-die statutes -- and who controls which bills reach the chamber
floor -- said Tuesday that Wise's bill will go nowhere in the 2004
session. Wise
said it's the Schiavo case that persuaded him to introduce the
"Starvation and Dehydration of Persons with Disabilities Prevention
Act.'' The measure would require courts and medical professionals to
presume that mentally incapacitated patients would want life-sustaining
nutrition and hydration unless they have a written document stating
otherwise. A
disagreement among family members over Schiavo's wishes led to the
current controversy over her care. "The
Schiavo case is he-said, she-said, who-said -- and she's not able to
talk,'' Wise said. "I don't know who said what. And that's the
issue we wanted to get to -- have something in writing.'' Not
so fast, King said. When asked Tuesday whether Wise's bill would get a
hearing in the coming session, he abruptly answered, "No.'' In
the 1980s, King was the architect of Florida's right-to- die law,
considered a national death-with-dignity model and touted by the Senate
leader as one of his key accomplishments. "I
don't want anything on the floor in that Senate that is going to give
platforms to people who want to roll back the hands of time for whatever
reason,'' King said. "As soon as you put something on the floor, as
well-intended as it may be, anybody can amend it. Then all of a sudden
I'm sitting there facing a bill or bills that can dismantle what I
consider to be my legacy.'' Wise
acknowledged that he crafted the bill with the help of Florida Right To
Life and the Florida Catholic Conference. As
written, Wise's bill contains a glitch that could allow the end of
treatment to someone providing "express and informed consent.''
That could be interpreted as verbal direction, but Wise said that
language was included in error and would be stricken. Larry
Spalding, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union,
said there is a constitutional issue with requiring end-of-life wishes
in writing. Spalding
offered the example of a physician tending to a patient in a vegetative
state who has no written instructions. Even if all family members agreed
withdrawal of treatment was what the patient wanted, the doctor is
setting himself up for civil or criminal penalties if he abides,
Spalding said. The
doctor "would have to say, 'I'm sorry, we're going to have to
continue to provide treatment whether he would have wanted it or not,'
'' Spalding said. "If you're going to make [the law] so strong as
to say, 'No, not even if all the players agree,' ... I just can't see a
court sustaining that.'' We have a lot to be thankful for! Terri's Links: http://heavenlyhands.net/terrislinks.html http://www.propertyrightsresearch.org/articles4/terrifrms.htm |