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Schiavo case judge speaks out

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published May 3, 2006

PHILADELPHIA - Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge George Greer, who presided over the Terri Schiavo case and allowed the brain-damaged woman's feeding tube to be removed, told a bioethics gathering Monday that legislators are ill-equipped to make right-to-die decisions.

Schiavo died March 31, 2005, in a Pinellas Park hospice, 13 days after the final removal of her feeding tube, ending a bitter seven-year legal fight between her husband and her parents.

In brief remarks before the University of Pennsylvania symposium, Greer said some 30 state and federal judges painstakingly reviewed the many volumes of testimony and evidence submitted in the divisive case.

The Florida Legislature, on the other hand, with what Greer said was "little or no debate" and "significant executive arm twisting," passed Terri's Law in 2003 that led to the reinsertion of the feeding tube.

The law was tossed out by the U.S. Supreme Court as unconstitutional. Days after Schiavo's tube was removed in March 2005, Congress approved a measure allowing it to be reconnected while a federal court reviewed the case. Despite the legislation, courts refused to intervene when asked by state lawmakers, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Congress and President Bush.

"Do you want that process ... or do you want a deliberative, court evidence-driven process where it can be reviewed?" Greer asked.

A spokesman for Gov. Bush said the 2003 Florida law went through two days of debate - more than any other bill during that legislative session.

"The Florida Legislature is an independent body and Terri's Law went through a very deliberative process," Russell Schweiss said Tuesday.

Greer first ruled in 2000 that Terri was in a persistent vegetative state and would not want to be kept alive artificially. In all, he ordered the removal of her feeding tube three times.

[Last modified May 3, 2006, 01:34:09]