Florida legislature grants Gov. Bush authority to issue stay in starvation of Clearwater woman

CLEARWATER (FBW)-Both chambers of the Florida legislature voted Oct. 21 to authorize Florida Gov. Jeb Bush a one-time stay to prevent the withholding of nutrition and hydration from Terri Schiavo, a 39-year-old Florida woman whose feeding tube was removed Oct. 15.

The Senate passed the bill 23-15; the House 73-24. The two chambers voted on the bills within an hour of one another -- reflecting a sense of urgency to keep Schiavo alive.

The Senate vote followed a 68-23 vote in the House after an unexpected late-night session Oct. 20. Frantic debate over the case of Schiavo has had lawmakers from Tampa to Clearwater scurrying Oct. 20-21 while Florida lawmakers were already in town for a Special Session to discuss the state budget.

The bill now goes to Bush, who is expected to sign it. Schiavo's supporters are hoping to have her feeding tube re-inserted by midnight, Oct. 21. "She's still viable. Terri Schiavo is still viable," Senator Anna Cowin (R-Leesburg), said during debate, arguing for the bill's passage. "... She can hear. You say, 'Open your eyes' and she opens them and you tell [her], 'Open them wider' and her eyes open wider. You tell her, 'Turn your head,' and she turns her head."

A videotape posted on the web (www.terrisfight.org) shows that Shiavo's not a vegetable, Cowin asserted.

"The real reason we're here today is because of the gut feeling of people who have turned on the Internet and have seen her not as an unconscious vegetable ... but as a person who just can't vocalize what she wants," Cowin concluded.

Another bill supporter, Daniel Webster (R-Winter Garden), asked, "Does anyone here believe that every single time a court acts, it acts justly? Has there ever been a mistake made by a court in this state?"

Although Schiavo remains alive, her condition has worsened since being removed from the feeding tube. The attorney for her parents told Bill Bunkley, legislative consultant for the Florida Baptist Convention, that as of noon Oct. 21 Schiavo looked "gaunt" and ashen.

"The attorney told me Terri is conscious and responsive," Bunkley told the Florida Baptist Witness. "She acted like she knew the parents were in the room and she was not out of it in spite of any drugs they may have given her."

Bunkley said he heard Schiavo's attorney, George Felos, has told doctors, hospice workers, and anyone involved in the case that he will sue anyone who rehydrates Schiavo.

The house actually passed a bill Oct. 20 on a 68-23 vote, but the Senate's version Oct. 21 differed slightly, requiring the House to pass a newer version.

Additionally, Bunkley said Circuit Court Judge George Greer in Clearwater refused to hear Felos' who requested an injuction barring anyone from re-hydrating Schiavo.

House Speaker Johnnie Byrd (R-Plant City), who initiated the legislative involvement, told reporters Oct. 20 he wanted to do something to save Schiavo. Bush met with the family Oct. 15 and promised to try and find a way to help them. Senate President Jim King (R-Jacksonville) originally indicated he did not want to intervene, but in a late afternoon press conference Oct. 20, told reporters if there was to be an error, he would rather err on the side of caution.

Byrd called House members back for a late-night session Oct. 20. After nearly two hours of debate, House members handily passed the bill by a 68-23 vote. The bill listed a rigid set of guidelines meant for Schiavo's relief that gives Bush 15 days to order the feeding tube reinstated.

The House bill was nearly identical to the Senate's original proposal, both of which stipulate the governor's intervention in a narrow set of parameters: (1) The patient does not have a written directive; (2) The court has determined the patient to be in a "persistent vegetative state"; (3) The patient's nutrition and hydration has been withheld; and (4) A member of the patient's family challenges the withholding of nutrition and hydration.

In 1990 Schiavo suffered unexplained heart failure that caused oxygen deprivation and severe brain damage. Since 1998, her husband, Michael Schiavo, has sought the court's approval to remove her feeding tube and has refused to allow her to receive rehabilitative care. Her parents, Mary and Bob Schindler, have fought his efforts and have garnered support from pro-life advocates across the country.

Later, after the Senate vote, Bunkley said he was surprised, but grateful, at the speed in which lawmakers moved to expedite matters work together.

"I just have witnessed one of the most extraordinary 24 hours in the history of the Florida legislature to see the speed and dispatch with which this problem was addressed," Bunkley said.

The issue prompted Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Commission to reflect on the culture.

"The fight over Terri Schiavo's right to live and our society's reaction to that fight shows us just how deeply the sanctity of life ethic has been eroded in our culture," Land said in a statement issued to Baptist Press.

"This is a terribly wrenching case wherein we see the clash of two very disparate civilizations -- the Judeo-Christian civilization, which is based upon the sanctity of all human life, and the neo-pagan relativist quality of life civilization," he continued. "When those two totally antagonistic worldviews come up against each other, it makes a real difference in real peoples' lives because real people die when the quality of life ethic usurps the sanctity of life ethic."

Land said a feeding tube historically has not been considered an extraordinary measure in terms of medical care for a terminally ill patient. An extraordinary measure, he said, would be medical intervention beyond a basic feeding tube, such as a heart-lung machine or a ventilator.

"The problem is that we have courts that have been infected with this quality of life ethic," Land said, noting it goes back to the abortion issue. "For over 30 years now we have been killing a baby every 20 seconds. By allowing this barbarity, we have brutalized our whole society, including our court system, in that we have devalued and de-sanctified human life to the point that now a court can casually sentence a human being to die by malnutrition and dehydration."

Calling the Schiavo case an example of the "culture of death" which he says threatens society, Land said, "This is one of the most scandalous stories that I have heard about in a long time."

Land cited the court's consistent support of Terri's husband, despite the fact her family desires the authority to provide her care and therapy.

"We need to have a presumption in favor of life not a presumption in favor of death," Land concluded, expressing appreciation that Florida's legislature and Governor Jeb Bush had not yet given up on Terri.

(With additional reporting by Michael Foust, Baptist Press).