- TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) --
Invoking a law rushed through the Legislature only an hour earlier, Gov.
Jeb Bush ordered a feeding tube reinserted Tuesday into a brain-damaged
woman at the center of one of the nation's longest and most bitter right-to-die
battles.
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- The bill was designed to save the life of Terri Schiavo,
whose parents have fought for several years to keep her alive. Her husband,
Michael Schiavo, says she would rather die.
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- Schiavo's feeding tube was removed by court order at
her husband's insistence last Wednesday, and doctors have said the 39-year-old
woman will die within a week to 10 days without food and water.
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- The Senate voted 23-15 for the legislation, and the House
passed the final version 73-24 only minutes later. Bush signed it into
law and issued the order just more than an hour later.
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- After the Senate's vote, a cheer went up among about
80 protesters outside Terri Schiavo's hospice in Pinellas Park.
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- "We are just ecstatic," Bob Schindler said
after Bush told him he would issue the order. "It's restored my belief
in God."
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- Suzanne Carr, Terri Schiavo's sister, called the development
"a miracle, an absolute miracle." Terri's mother broke down crying
when she heard the news.
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- George Felos, a lawyer for Michael Schiavo, took steps
to stop Bush even before the governor received the bill. He filed a request
for an injunction if Bush issued an order. Pinellas Circuit Court Judge
George Greer denied it on technical grounds, but said Felos could refile
the request.
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- The family's lawyer, Pat Anderson, said Schiavo would
have to be placed on an IV to rehydrate her before the feeding tube is
reinserted.
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- "It ain't over until its over. "Until I see
that IV running she is not out of the woods," Anderson said.
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- In the Senate, even some supporters of the legislation
expressed concern about their actions.
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- "I keep on thinking 'What if Terri didn't really
want this done at all?' May God have mercy on all of us," said Senate
President Jim King, a Republican.
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- Lawmakers were already called to the Capitol for a special
session on economic development when they decided to intervene in the case.
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- Bush said he did not think lawmakers were motivated by
politics.
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- "This is a response to a tragic situation."
Bush said. "People are responding to cries for help and I think it's
legitimate."
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- Opponents said government was stepping in where it had
no business being.
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- "I do not believe the governor of Florida should
be making a decision of life and death rather than the next of kin,"
said Sen. Steven Geller, a Democrat.
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- Suzanne Carr, Terri Schiavo's sister, called the development
"a miracle, an absolute miracle."
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- Earlier in Tampa, U.S. District Judge Steven Merryday
denied a request by an advocacy group that Schiavo be kept alive so it
could investigate whether removal of the tube was abusive.
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- Merryday wrote that federal courts - other than the U.S.
Supreme Court - are forbidden from interjecting themselves into matters
already decided by state courts. He also said the group failed to provide
enough evidence to support its request.
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- The bill sent to Bush was designed to be as narrow as
possible. It is limited to cases in which the patient left no living will,
is in a persistent vegetative state, has had nutrition and hydration tubes
removed and where a family member has challenged the removal.
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- Court-appointed doctors have described Schiavo as being
in a vegetative state, caused when her heart stopped in 1990 from a suspected
chemical imbalance.
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- Bush last week promised the woman's parents that he would
help them if he could find a way.
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- The Florida Supreme Court has twice refused to hear the
case, and it also has been rejected for review by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Last week, a Florida appeals court again refused to block removal of the
tube.
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- Felos said he thinks the legislation would be unconstitutional.
It is Terri Schiavo's right under the Florida Constitution to not be kept
alive artificially, and the courts have affirmed that, he said.
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- During a two-hour debate in the House, several Democrats
argued that the Constitution does not let the Legislature give the governor
the power to overrule the courts.
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- "This bill so oversteps our role it ... turns democracy
on its head," said Rep. Dan Gelber, a Democrat.
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- But many Republicans and some Democrats said they need
to be involved in dire cases where judges might be wrong.
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- "The Constitution is supposed to protect the people
of this state," said Rep. Sandy Murman, a Republican from Tampa. "Who
is protecting this girl?"
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- Copyright © 2003 The Associated Press. All rights
reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority
of The Associated Press.
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