The Terri Schiavo case has shown what can happen when someone doesn't spell out his or her wishes.
By LEONORA LaPETER
Published October 23, 2003
ST. PETERSBURG - Katherine Banning had never heard of Terri Schiavo until Wednesday morning, when her mother brought the case up at the clothing boutique where they work.
"You know what I want, don't you, Mom?" Banning, 33, asked as she nursed a cold with some chicken soup.
Her mother did. But Banning, 33, decided to make sure that doctors, hospitals and even Gov. Jeb Bush know what she wants if she becomes incapacitated as Schiavo has been for the past 13 years.
By noon, their attorney, Karen Keaton, had arrived at the Chic Boutique downtown, and Banning signed documents saying she does not want a feeding tube placed into her stomach if she is permanently brain-damaged.
Two customers shopping in the tropical, Palm Beach-style clothing store, which Banning manages and her mother owns, served as witnesses. Keaton had the document stored in an online registry she manages.
"While I hope nothing happens to me, I'm not going to necessarily leave it up to people who don't necessarily have my best interest at heart to decide what happens to my body," Banning said.
Banning is one of hundreds of people, prompted by the Schiavo case, who have decided it is time to make clear what they want to happen should they become incapacitated. Some lawyers reported dozens of additional calls recently, and a Tallahassee advocacy group received 500 requests for its living will form on Wednesday alone.
The Florida Senate even placed a copy of a living will and forms designating a health care surrogate on its Web site, www.flsenate.gov Forms are also available at Project GRACE, a nonprofit educational foundation, and at Keaton's America Living Will Registry, an online registry of forms that has 3,000 members.
"People are watching this tragic case unfold, and they're calling us, saying, "I don't want this to happen to my family,"' said Paul Malley, president of Aging with Dignity, a Tallahassee advocacy group.
The group has received some 2,500 requests for copies of Five Wishes, its living will form, in the past week.
"Because if Terri Schiavo had had Five Wishes or any living will, all of this would have been avoided because there wouldn't have been any questions about her wishes or who should make decisions for her," Malley said.
Schiavo, 39, has been in a persistent vegetative state since 1990, when she suffered cardiac arrest from a possible potassium imbalance. Her husband says she told him she would not want to be kept alive by machines, but she did not put that down in writing.
"In general, (the case) is promoting the notion that it's time to get our affairs in order, even if we're not old and even if we're not sick," Malley said.
Some area probate lawyers also reported increased calls from clients who wanted to make sure that existing wills covered them or to create new living wills.
"I would say over the last two or three weeks, we've probably had a couple hundred calls, from both existing clients and new clients," said John M. Sakellarides, 39, a Palm Harbor probate lawyer for 10 years. "They want to make sure they're not going to be in a Schiavo situation."
Though hospitals accept many of the living wills available on the Internet, such as the Five Wishes form, some lawyers cautioned against downloading forms that may not be up to date with state laws. Several lawyers said they typically charge $50 for a living will.
"The problem is that if you get something for free on the Internet, it doesn't mean it won't work, but every state law is different," said Ken Weiss, a probate and estate lawyer from Treasure Island. "To me, this thing is a significant enough decision, you would not want to do that."
James R. Kennedy Jr., a St. Petersburg lawyer, said the Schiavo case has been playing a role in his living will business for as long as it has been in the news. He estimates that three-quarters of his new clients bring up the case when they're asking him to create documents establishing their wishes.
"This has definitely taught a lesson," Kennedy said.
- Times staff writer Tamara Lush contributed to this report.
