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Defeat Expected in Fla. Brain-Damage Case NewsMax.com WiresCLEARWATER, Fla. – A judge said Tuesday he was ready to rule on the constitutionality of a state law that has been keeping a severely brain-damaged woman alive, and a lawyer for Gov. Jeb Bush predicted the law would be overturned. Circuit Court Judge W. Douglas Baird, at a routine hearing in the case of Terri Schiavo, said he had heard everything he needed and would rule once a court settles appeals filed by the governor's office.
Even though Baird did not indicate which way he would rule, Bush attorney Ken Connor said he believed Baird intended to rule that the law, hastily passed in October to keep Mrs. Schiavo alive, is unconstitutional because it violates her right to privacy.
Her husband, Michael Schiavo, says she would not want to be kept alive artificially. Her parents want to keep her alive and see if she will respond to therapy. Florida courts repeatedly have said Schiavo has the right to remove the feeding tube that has kept her alive. The tube was removed in October, and she went without water and nutrition for six days until the Legislature and the governor stepped in to have the tube reinserted. Appeals pending in the 2nd District Court in Lakeland center on whether a suit Schiavo filed challenging the governor's intervention was filed in the right venue and whether the governor's attorneys should be allowed to question certain witnesses in the case. No timetable has been set for a decision by the appellate court. During the hearing Tuesday, Schiavo's attorney argued that the governor gave himself unchecked powers to override Mrs. Schiavo's personal medical decision, as conveyed by her husband, and urged the court not to allow it. But Connor argued that the governor was acting to protect a disabled woman who is part of a population of Floridians who are "particularly vulnerable." The new law provides an extra layer of protection in cases where there are no written directives by requiring an independent advocate be appointed to represent a patient's interests.
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