Schiavo bill a race against time
A House committee approves a new end-of-life bill in hopes of having it ready for a Friday deadline.
By STEVE BOUSQUET
Published March 15, 2005
TALLAHASSEE - With emotions running high in the Terri Schiavo case, the Florida Legislature is poised to pass a new end-of-life law before Friday, the day a judge has ordered the removal of the Pinellas Park woman's feeding tube.
The new proposal says a feeding tube could not be withheld unless a patient signed a living will opposing artificial sustenance, or met one of several other narrowly drawn exceptions.
If approved, the law could prohibit withdrawal of Schiavo's feeding tube, even though supporters said they have a broader goal in mind.
"It is a statement of public policy that, in this culture, we don't starve people to death," said Rep. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, sponsor of the bill (HB 701), waving a pile of letters from people and groups pleading to keep Schiavo alive.
In a packed hearing room Monday, the House Judiciary Committee passed the bill 8-2, the first in a series of rapid-fire votes timed to get the bill to Gov. Jeb Bush's desk by Friday.
Outside, demonstrators who support Schiavo's parents wore red tape over their mouths with "life" written on them. Dozens of red roses were placed on the floor next to the state seal in the Capitol's rotunda.
The bill that surfaced Monday is not as broad as the version that surfaced last week, which minimized the role of judges in end-of-life cases and required guardians to prove they had spent a certain number of hours with a patient.
If approved, the bill would mark the second time the Legislature has passed a law to keep Schiavo alive. The first version was struck down last year by the Florida Supreme Court.
Over the weekend, as demonstrators rallied outside the Capitol and flooded lawmakers with e-mails, House members and senators wrote the new version.
It surfaced publicly Monday afternoon, without an analysis of its implications by legal experts who work for the Legislature.
The accelerated pace comes despite a stand taken by House Speaker Allan Bense, R-Panama City, who said last week that he opposed "ginning up a bill and getting it out quickly in helter-skelter fashion. That doesn't work."
Supporters of the new bill took the unusual position of refusing to allow any amendments to be debated, so as not to jeopardize the delicate compromise with the Senate and the governor's office.
Unable to limit the bill's reach, Rep. Kevin Ambler, R-Lutz, described the result as "predetermined and preorchestrated ... that belies what this process is all about."
Ambler protested as too broad a provision that allows "any interested person ... at any time" to ask a court to prevent a feeding tube from being removed.
But he voted for the bill anyway, as did every other Republican on the committee. The only dissenting votes came from Democrats Curtis Richardson of Tallahassee and Dan Gelber of Miami Beach.
"We are now inserting our judgment for the judgment of Florida's families in the most intimate and personal of decisions," Gelber said. "I would urge restraint."
Gelber said the bill could force children, without written directives, to be kept alive on feeding tubes "forever," as he put it, even if they and their parents opposed them.
When he asked Baxley whether that was the goal, Baxley said: "Are you advocating that parents should have the right to starve their children to death if they are incapacitated?"
Some in the audience applauded witnesses who spoke in favor of Baxley's bill. When an ACLU lawyer came forward to oppose the bill, some people muttered, "Oh, brother."
The identical Senate version (SB 804) will be considered for the first time today in the Senate Judiciary Committee in anticipation of passage by both chambers and a signature from Bush before the week ends.
Sen. Dan Webster, R-Winter Garden, sponsor of the Senate bill, said it is his goal to get the new law on the books before 1 p.m. Friday, when Circuit Judge George Greer's tube-removal order would take effect.
"All we're saying is that if someone is alive when this bill passes, we have made a new state policy," Webster said. "It doesn't take a direct shot at the court."
While lawmakers raced against the clock, the Schiavo saga continued to invite fresh legal maneuvering.
The state Department of Children and Families asked a Pinellas-Pasco judge and an appeals court to issue a stay in the case and halt the removal of Schiavo's feeding tube Friday.
DCF said it wanted a stay pending its appeal of Greer's ruling last week, refusing to allow the agency to intervene in the case. The agency wanted to intervene to investigate abuse and neglect allegations involving Schiavo.
Greer had not scheduled a hearing on the matter. A DCF spokesman said papers also had been filed with the 2nd District Court of Appeal seeking a stay. The District Court would hear any appeal of Greer's ruling.
Also Monday, the St. Petersburg Times filed a petition with a Pinellas-Pasco circuit judge seeking an order to permit Michael Schiavo or his attorneys to release abuse and neglect reports DCF has previously received regarding Terri Schiavo.
Attorneys for Michael Schiavo have said the allegations were found to be without merit and have indicated that they want to make them public. But the attorneys decided against a release because of confidentiality concerns expressed by DCF.
--Times staff writer William R. Levesque contributed to this report.