WASHINGTON (ABP) — A Florida judge ruled May 6 that a law specifically created to keep a brain-damaged woman alive violates the state's constitution.
Pinellas County Circuit Judge Douglas Baird said the bill — passed in emergency session Oct. 21 by Florida legislators and signed into law almost immediately by Gov. Jeb Bush (R) — violates patient Terri Schiavo's right to personal privacy.
Schiavo has been in what doctors have described as a “permanent vegetative state” since 1990, when she collapsed and suffered subsequent brain damage as a result of a previously undiagnosed medical condition.
In 1998, her husband, Michael, began legal proceedings to have his wife's feeding tube removed, thus ending her life. He claimed she had previously told him she would not want to be kept alive in such a state. But Terri Schiavo's parents, Robert and Mary Schindler, have opposed his efforts, arguing that she can be rehabilitated and shows signs of consciousness.
Nonetheless, last year a court-appointed doctor agreed that Schiavo's condition is irreversible, and a state court granted permission for the tube to be removed on his order. It was removed Oct. 15.
However, the Schindlers and their allies convinced state legislators to pass an emergency law that gave Bush the authority to override the courts and have Schiavo's feeding tube reinserted. Supporters dubbed it “Terri's Law.” After Bush signed the bill, he immediately ordered her nourishment to be restored. Schiavo is still alive.
Several national anti-abortion and anti-euthanasia groups have taken up the cause to keep Schiavo alive, arguing that her husband has done little to rehabilitate her and implying that he wants her dead to collect insurance money and move on with his life.
However, most medical experts and ethicists criticized the legislature's action as improper.
In his ruling, Judge Baird said the bill violates the state's separation of powers by giving legislative power to the governor. He also said that authorizing Bush “to exercise unbridled discretion in making the ultimate decision regarding the life or death of a private Florida citizen, without standards, direction, review, or due process protection of that citizen's private desires, exceeds any reasonable concept of 'least intrusive means.'”
Bush has said he plans to appeal the ruling, which means Baird's decision is automatically put on hold and Schiavo's feeding tube will remain in place pending action by an appeals court.
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