Editorial: Bill sets rules for all like Schiavo

The proposed law says the terminally ill must get food and water unless a living will says otherwise.

By STEVE BOUSQUET, Times Staff Writer

TALLAHASSEE - The Legislature's first attempt to keep Terri Schiavo's feeding tube connected was a law tailored to her case, but the Florida Supreme Court struck it down unanimously.

Now, lawmakers are pushing a broader proposal that could affect thousands of Floridians lying incapacitated in hospitals, hospices and nursing homes.

The new bill would require that food and water be given to terminally ill people unless they specified in a living will that they did not want to be kept alive that way. A verbal declaration to relatives or loved ones would not necessarily be recognized.

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"This is one of the most antifamily bills that I've ever seen come across this Legislature," said Larry Spalding of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida. "The key unit of society is the family, and you're taking away the rights of the family."

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Dr. Howard Tuch of Hospice of Southwest Florida in Sarasota, a member of a state commission on end-of-life care, warned that the bill would force thousands of patients in nursing homes and assisted living centers to have feeding tubes surgically attached.

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http://www.sptimes.com/2005/03/10/State/Bill_sets_rules_for_a.shtml