Schiavo bill advanced by Senate panel

Full vote is expected today that would allow governor to step in to restore Terri Schiavo's feeding tube.

TALLAHASSEE - A state Senate panel approved legislation today giving Gov. Jeb Bush the power to order a feeding tube be reinserted in a brain-damaged woman in defiance of courts and her husband.

The bill would give the governor 15 days to order a feeding tube reinserted into Terri Schiavo, the subject of one of the nation's longest and most bitter legal battles over care for a disabled person.

Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, want her to live. Her husband, Michael Schiavo, says she would rather die.

Terri Schiavo's feeding tube was removed Wednesday. Doctors have said the 39-year-old woman will die within a week to 10 days without nutrition and water.

Bush said he would sign legislation into law tonight and immediately issue the stay, ordering the feeding tube reinserted. He said he did not think lawmakers were motivated by politics.

"This is a response to a tragic situation." Bush said. "People are responding to cries for help and I think it's legitimate."

Sen. Tom Lee said Schiavo would "essentially starve ... to death," unless lawmakers and the governor intervene.

"It's a pretty awful way to go," Lee, R-Brandon, said during the committee meeting.

Opponents said government was stepping in where it had no business being.

"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, D-Hallandale.

The Senate Rules & Calendar Committee approved the bill on a 10-2 vote. And the Senate planned to consider the legislation (SB 12E) this afternoon. The House passed a similar bill 68-23 Monday.

Meanwhile in Tampa, U.S. District Judge Steven Merryday denied a request by the Advocacy Center for Persons with Disabilities, which monitors the treatment of disabled adults, that Schiavo be kept alive so it could investigate whether removal of the tube was abusive.

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.

State lawmakers were in Tallahassee for a special session on economic development, but Schiavo's fate dominated much of the first day.

The legislation they've drafted is designed to be as narrow as possible. It would give the governor 15 days to order a feeding tube reinserted, 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.

Court-appointed doctors have described Terri Schiavo as being in a vegetative state, caused when her heart stopped in 1990 from a suspected potassium imbalance.

Bush last week promised the woman's parents that he would help them if he could find a way.

House Speaker Johnnie Byrd, R-Plant City, said early Monday he wanted to do something to save Schiavo. Senate President Jim King at first said he didn't want to intervene. King, R-Jacksonville, said he changed his mind because he wanted to limit the scope of the bill as much as possible.

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.

George Felos, attorney for Michael Schiavo, 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.

Pat Anderson, the attorney for the parents, said she was "dumbfounded" by the Legislature's action, although the Schindlers had hoped for such help in the wake of continued court defeats.

During a two-hour debate in the House, several Democrats argued that the Constitution doesn't let the Legislature give the governor the power to overrule the courts.

"This bill so oversteps our role it ... turns democracy on its head," said Rep. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach.

But many Republicans and some Democrats said they need to be involved in dire cases where judges might be wrong.

"The Constitution is supposed to protect the people of this state," said Rep. Sandy Murman, R-Tampa. "Who is protecting this girl?"

In a statement released Monday by Felos, Michael Schiavo said he "did what I believe Terri would have wanted me to do."

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