Senate, House reach deal in effort to block Schiavo's death

[janx]

TALLAHASSEE · House and Senate legislators reached a deal Monday on a bill designed to prevent Terri Schiavo's death, as the Florida Legislature, for the second time in less than two years, moved to intervene in the internationally watched case.

Key members in both chambers said they expected the bill to come up for a vote before Friday, the day the severely brain-damaged woman's life-sustaining feeding tube is scheduled to be removed.

In most cases, the legislation would block a guardian from allowing a person in a "persistent vegetative state" to die by withholding food and water unless that person had written instructions asking not to be kept alive with artificial feedings.

--snip--

But legislators in both chambers said Bush's legal counsel played an integral role in shaping the legislation and indicated that the governor would likely sign it.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/florida/sfl-schiavo15mar15,0,6986227.story?coll=sfla-news-florida

Margaret Atwood, where are you?

[Hobarticus]

1. This is effed-up...don't they have anything else to do? eom

[against all enemies]

2. Does Florida have universal health care for ALL its' citizens?

I mean they're so concerned about this women's health and she's brain dead. They must be even more concerned about the health of their living citizens, especially the poor and the young.

[brook]

3. Ghouls and

fools! They wanna feed somebody? Let them feed the Floridians who are sentient and can feel their own hunger pains.

I'm sick to death of all things *, neo-cons and fundamentalist extremists! A pox on all their houses.

[HockeyMom]

4. Guess a lot

of Seniors will now think twice about moving to Florida.

[slackmaster]

5. If they must keep her alive they should give her an honorary title

Does Florida have a Poet Laureate?

:wtf:

[Orsino]

6. But no, they couldn't reach a deal...

...to block the deaths of one hundred thousand Iraqis.

[CottonBear]

7. Are they going to pay for all of the medical and nursing home bills?

for all people in comas and persistant vegetative states?

Wouldn't that be a form of public health care? How will they afford these costs, for possibly 1,000s of Floridians, since Medicare and Medicaid are already underfunded? Will you be able to be moved there if your family runs out of money to keep you alive in anither state?

Just last week, someone posted about some hospital out west that was going to unplug someone because they'd run out of money.

[Dookus]

8. Michael should put Terri

in the Florida Foster Care system - then nobody would give a shit about her.

[Erika]

9. This law is very damaging to marriages & families

We will know longer have the right to speak for each other in family matters. Big brother government/Jeb is trying to usurp personal authority and replace it with government laws. What are they going to do when an infant is born terminal and in pain?

Since the government is going to mandate it's will, then the government (our taxes) will have to pay the cost of keeping the person alive.

I hope all Florida DU'rs yell and scream about this bill!

[VegasWolf]

10. Aren't there any sensible people in Flordida to stop this reprehensible

law. What person wants to be kept alive as a human vegtable garden.

[Erika]

11. English challenged or on the golf course

pretty well states where they are.

[denese]

24. sensible person here, in Florida

I would love to see this womans suffering come to an end.
Any ideas how I can stop it?
Denese

[Robbien]

12. Almost everything in Texas is such a mess and needs attention

and the Texas House and Senate is busy on this issue.

:shrug:

[Flammable Materials]

13. Maybe they could pin an unsolved murder on Terry Schaivo. n/t

[lonestarnot]

14. She assassinated Kennedy! n/t

[Flammable Materials]

15. No ... no ... an unsolved REPUBLICAN murder. n/t

[NNN0LHI]

16. Texas pulled the plug on a 6 month old baby today against parents wishes

He was black though. Costing the Texas taxpayers too much money to keep him alive. Don't hear much about that though do you?

Don

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/3084934

Baby born with fatal defect dies after removal from life support

The baby wore a cute blue outfit with a teddy bear covering his bottom. The 17-pound, 6-month-old boy wiggled with eyes open and smacked his lips, according to his mother.

Then at 2 p.m. today, a medical staffer at Texas Children's Hospital gently removed the breathing tube that had kept Sun Hudson alive since his Sept. 25 birth. Cradled by his mother, he took a few breaths, and died.

"I talked to him, I told him that I loved him. Inside of me, my son is still alive," Wanda Hudson told reporters afterward. "This hospital was considered a miracle hospital. When it came to my son, they gave up in six months .... They made a terrible mistake."

Sun's death marks the first time a hospital has been allowed by a U.S. judge to discontinue an infant's life-sustaining care against a parent's wishes, according to bioethical experts. A similar case involving a 68-year-old man in a chronic vegetative state at another Houston hospital is before a court now.

"This isn't murder. It's mercy and it's appropriate to be merciful in that way. It's not killing, it's stopping pointless treatment," said William Winslade, a bioethicist and lawyer who is a professor at the Institute for the Medical Humanities at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. "It's sad this (Sun Hudson case) dragged on for so long. It's always sad when an infant dies. We all feel it's unfair, that a child doesn't have a chance to develop and thrive."

more

[NNN0LHI]

17. Boy, this post turned out to be a real thread killer n/t

[LisaL]

21. Do you think he should have kept alive?

He had a genetic disorder incompatible with life.

[NNN0LHI]

23. No I don't. But where are the right to lifers on this one?

Why hasn't the MSM been showing pictures of this poor baby all over the place like it has been doing with the Shiavo woman? Any guesses why? I have a pretty good idea why?

Don

[Mika]

25. Its not about Shiavo nor the baby - its about power

Just like the ANWR move by the repukes.

They are flushing our (so called) representational democracy down their toilet.

[trapper914]

26. Wrong too

It's the merciful thing to do, but in this case, it should be the parents' decision. In the Schiavo case, it should be the husband's decision. Governments and hospitals shouldn't get to decide who lives and who dies.

[leesa]

18. What a phenominal waste of time and money when Florida has so many

problems to work on. Let the poor woman die naturally.

[NNN0LHI]

19. These people doing this are some real sick puppies if you ask me

Like ghouls.

Don

[all.of.me]

20. she should be grandfathered.

[ausiedownunderground]

22. This case is important! The Rest of the World wants to see how it is handl

It might be Florida, it might be Boston (i have difficulty in spelling the state name) it might even be Utah. The really interesting thing about this "diallema" in American society, is how you handle, not just court decisions, but also government decisions. All countries face these decisions! They all handle it differently, based on the cultural mood at the time. Some countries will say its the individual family that has the right to chose! Some will say that it is the next legal kin that has the right. Some will say that it is the Government that has the control, since they own and pay for the machines that are involved. Most countries have no problems with this problem. But modern "Bush Gang" America has likely regressed socially, and as a consequence, is going to waste a lot of resources coming to a solution.