BlogWood: MT Archives

"Terri's Law" disables rights

Making end of life decisions? Troxler has some advice.

Call your lawyer. Put your wishes in writing, make sure that writing stays someplace where they can't ignore it and then hope they don't change the rules yet again.

And if you're in a Florida family that is already wrestling with this terrible decision, well, you are out of luck - the state is going to make it for you.

Admittedly, the new version of the bill unveiled Monday is better and more thoughtful that the one-page rush job rammed through in late 2003. The first law was a raw, unconstitutional power grab written to cover the single case of Terri Schiavo. It was thrown out in court.

But the new version still has some amazing flaws:

"Any interested person" would be able to tie up a feeding-tube case in court, regardless of the wishes of the patient or the patient's caretakers.

Your own statements to your friends and family, and their knowledge that you would not have wanted to be sustained, would not be valid evidence.

This law would apply to all persons already in a vegetative state today, no matter what their families, guardians or loved ones believe is best for them, or what they believe they would have wanted.

According to critics, a child in a permanent vegetative state would be doomed to a lifetime of artificially prolonged existence, since he or she would never have been old enough to express a legally competent choice. His parents would have no say.

If you think these intrusions into the lives of Floridians are oversights or flaws in the bill, well, they are not oversights. Each appears to be deliberately worded.

State Rep. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, the sponsor of the House version, argued in favor of allowing a wide array of people to intervene in court.

"You never know who might have to intervene for someone else," he said, calling it a "rescue provision."

When asked whether his intention was to take away the power of parents to decide the fate of a child in a vegetative state, Baxley replied that the questioner really was asking whether "parents should have the right to starve their children to death."

For more on Terri Schiavo, just scroll down or click.