BlogWood: MT Archives

Why do Republicans hate families?

In the latest attempt to meddle in a patient’s right to die, Rep. Dennis Baxley proposes that the Legislature should have the last and final right to override the decisions of family members and courts. Yesterday, the GOP pushed this anti-family bill through committee.

The Legislature's first attempt to keep Terri Schiavo's feeding tube connected was a law tailored to her case, but the Florida Supreme Court struck it down unanimously.

Now, lawmakers are pushing a broader proposal that could affect thousands of Floridians lying incapacitated in hospitals, hospices and nursing homes.

The new bill would require that food and water be given to terminally ill people unless they specified in a living will that they did not want to be kept alive that way. A verbal declaration to relatives or loved ones would not necessarily be recognized.

And the bill says the Legislature, not a judge, has the final say in an end-of-life case. It also would apply retroactively, to cover the Schiavo case.

"I certainly hope that whatever error I make is on the side of allowing someone to live rather than to die," said Rep. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, who sponsored the bill. "I have an intimate respect for human life, for the special gift that it is, and I hope that this is a defining moment for our culture."

Critics, including doctors and lawyers who deal with terminally ill patients, called the bill "antifamily" and say it would allow the state to step in and override the wishes of relatives and loved ones.

"This is one of the most antifamily bills that I've ever seen come across this Legislature," said Larry Spalding of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida. "The key unit of society is the family, and you're taking away the rights of the family."

After two hours of emotional debate and much critical testimony, a House committee approved the bill Wednesday 7-4. It was a party-line vote with Republicans voting in favor of the bill (HB 701) and Democrats voting against.
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Dr. Howard Tuch of Hospice of Southwest Florida in Sarasota, a member of a state commission on end-of-life care, warned that the bill would force thousands of patients in nursing homes and assisted living centers to have feeding tubes surgically attached.

Those patients may not have wanted to be kept alive artificially, Tuch said, but they did not write it down in advance. He cited the case of his mother, who's dying of Alzheimer's disease.

Tuch has authority to make end-of-life decisions on her behalf.

"Are you going to force her to have a feeding tube?" Tuch asked legislators. "Who is going to provide consent for that medical procedure? I'm not."

Meanwhile, Judge Greer announced that DCF had no new evidence of abuse to investigate, an indication that the state agency’s attempt to insert itself into the Schiavo case is little more than a political gambit. The allegations that DCF brought before the judge have all been investigated in the past and found to be without merit.

After hearing the testimony, Greer said, "All of the things (the witness) ticked off ... were all issues that have been in open court in front of the media and in the court files which the media has access to."

Greer is expected to decide today whether to grant a motion by DCF to intervene in the case. The agency wants Greer to extend the March 18 date for pulling Schiavo's feeding tube to investigate the complaints.

DCF asked that the testimony be closed to the media. Greer ordered the courtroom cleared, then released the transcript because he said he heard nothing not already public.

Also Wednesday, Greer:

-- Rejected a motion by attorneys for Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, to allow new medical testing of Schiavo to determine whether she is in a vegetative state or is minimally conscious. Greer noted doctors and the court have already determined Schiavo's condition.

-- Rejected a motion by the Schindlers asking for a new trial because of an error Greer made about the Karen Ann Quinlan in his 2000 order that said Schiavo would not have wanted to live by artificial means.