A Dunedin lawmaker takes the road less traveled as the only state House Republican from the area to vote as he did on Terri Schiavo.
By MICHAEL SANDLER
Published October 23, 2003
He thought about Terri Schiavo.
He thought about Florida's Constitution.
He thought about his wife.
Then state Rep. Tom Anderson, a freshman Republican from Dunedin, broke ranks with Gov. Jeb Bush, House Speaker Johnnie Byrd and most of his party, voting against an emergency bill that called for reinserting a feeding tube into Schiavo.
"If I was in that condition for 13 years, I would say, "Enough is enough,' " Anderson said Wednesday in a telephone interview from Tallahassee.
He was in a very small group. The bill passed with overwhelming Republican support in the House and Senate on Tuesday. Anderson was one of three Republican House members to vote against it and the only Republican in the House from the Tampa Bay area to do so. Bush signed the bill within half an hour of its passage.
"I believe there is a serious constitutional question raised by having the legislative branch overrule the judicial branch on this issue," Anderson said.
Anderson said a judge had ruled on the intent of the patient. There had been medical and legal research presented, and the decisions were upheld by other courts.
Anderson also drew on his own life experience. At 71, he is the second-oldest member of the House. He remembered a few years back, when his wife had open-heart surgery. There had been complications. Fortunately, she survived. But the experience prompted him and his wife to have living wills prepared.
A living will informs doctors and family members about the kind and extent of care patients want to receive should they become terminally ill and unable to speak for themselves.
Before the vote, Anderson listened to people on both sides of the debate. He also called his wife and reviewed their living wills.
"Speaker Byrd made the announcement that people should vote their conscience," Anderson said. "I took him at his word. Some of the others may have gotten pressure. I don't know. I did not."
On Wednesday, he received calls and e-mails. Most, he said, supported his decision.
Former state Sen. Jack Latvala called Anderson's decision "courageous" and said it could have political repercussions.
Latvala, a Republican, represented much of Anderson's district when he was in the Florida Senate and said those voters probably supported keeping Schiavo alive.
"That's my gut feeling," Latvala said. "I'm not sure why he voted that way. But it was a courageous thing, if that's what he intended to do, and more power to him."
