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Crist: Schiavo a family matter

The attorney general says that had he been governor, he would not have intervened in the end-of-life case.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published April 21, 2006

WEST PALM BEACH - Attorney General Charlie Crist said Monday the state shouldn't have entered the bitter fight over whether to keep Terri Schiavo alive.

Government should not be involved in end-of-life decisions, Crist, a Republican candidate for governor, told a gathering of the nonpartisan Forum Club of the Palm Beaches.

"There are some decisions that ought to be left to God and family," Crist said. "Had I have been governor, I would not have done the same thing" as Gov. Jeb Bush.

The pronouncement was notable because Crist had for so long been silent on the Schiavo case, even as Bush and the Florida Legislature strove to overrule court orders that allowed Schiavo die. Crist was the most prominent Florida Republican not involved in the debate.

In the summer, Crist called the judges in the Schiavo case "heroes" but distanced himself from the decisions. "I try to say nice things about judges," said Crist. "I didn't talk about any specific case. . . . It's important that those checks and balances exist. Our system of government needs to have that."

Rep. Dennis Baxley, an Ocala Republican who sponsored legislation to force Schiavo's tube to be reconnected, said Crist was "conspicuously absent" from the debate. He pointed out that Crist's opponent, Chief Financial Officer Tom Gallagher, sent Baxley a personal letter of support in the spring.

But on Thursday Gallagher seemed to hedge a bit.

"These kinds of end-of-life matters do not belong in government," Gallagher said. "But when these kinds of situations come in front of me, I would always err on the side of life. I think that's what you must do when you don't know anything else."

Polls show most Americans, including Republicans, opposed government attempts by Congress to intervene in the Schiavo case. Some political experts say the issue was the beginning of a political slide for the GOP from which is has yet to recover.

Schiavo was at the center of a 15-year legal fight between her husband, Michael Schiavo, and her family over whether she should be kept alive with a feeding tube after a brain injury that doctors said left her in a vegetative state.

Congress, President Bush and Gov. Bush pressed to keep Schiavo alive. Ultimately, the courts sided with Schiavo's husband. She died of dehydration on March 31, 2005, after her feeding tube was removed.

[Last modified April 21, 2006, 01:41:14]