>>Fla. Senate Begins Debate on Schiavo Bill
Updated: Wednesday, Mar. 23, 2005 - 2:24 PM
By SAMANTHA GROSS
Associated Press Writer
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - The state Senate began debating a bill Wednesday that would prohibit patients like Terri Schiavo from being denied food and water if they didn't express their wishes in writing.
Sen. Daniel Webster, sponsor of the bill, has said he needs at least two senators to change their position, but another senator predicted the courts would strike such a measure down anyway.
"Whatever it is, today is it," said Webster, a Republican. "I don't even know if I have a majority vote."
The Legislature has stepped in before, in 2003, and Terri Schiavo's feeding tube was reinserted after six days. But "Terri's Law" was later struck down as unconstitutional by the state Supreme Court, which said it violated Schiavo's right to privacy and delegated legislative power to the governor.
The Senate minority leader, Sen. Les Miller, said the new bill faced a similar fate.
"By the time the ink is dry on the governor's signature, it will be declared unconstitutional, just like it was before," said Miller, a Democrat. "So I don't see anything or any language that can persuade my vote."
But at least one senator said he was considering changing his vote Wednesday morning.
"I'm praying about it," said Sen. Gary Siplin, also a Democrat. "I don't want anyone to die who doesn't have to."
Gov. Jeb Bush on Wednesday renewed his call for the Legislature to step in and "spare Terri's life."
If the Senate passes Webster's bill, it would have to take a second vote requiring two-thirds approval to immediately sent it to the House. Otherwise, the House would have to wait until Thursday to consider the measure. The full House is not scheduled to meet Thursday, but it could be called into session if necessary.
The House has already passed a bill, but it has broader language than the Senate version. The Senate bill would apply only to cases where families disagree on a patient's wishes.
Schiavo, 41, has been at the center of a court battle between her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, and her husband, Michael Schiavo, over whether she would want to be kept alive in a severely brain damaged state. She has gone without food and water since Friday, when her feeding tube was removed under court order. Doctors have said she could live through next week.
Michael Schiavo says she wouldn't want to be kept alive in a persistent vegetative state. The Schindlers say those weren't her wishes and contest the diagnosis, saying their daughter is conscious and could recover.
Her parents' options continued to narrow as a three-judge panel of the federal appeals court in Atlanta refused early Wednesday to order the reinsertion of the tube. The Schindlers asked the full 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to review the panel's decision and said they would take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Her brother, Bobby Schindler, arrived in the state capital early Wednesday to plead with lawmakers.
"I'm not going to give up hope," he said. "My family never has. We'll keep doing what we have to do to somehow get my sister out of this mess."
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