Catholic World News News Feature

Florida high court overturns Terri's Law September 23, 2004

The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday struck down Terri's Law as unconstitutional. The law was passed last year to allow Gov. Jeb Bush to order the reinsertion of food-and-water tubes for Terri Schiavo, who has been stricken with brain damage.

Terri's husband Michael has fought for years to have his wife disconnected from tubes that provide nutrition and hydration while Terri's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, have fought to save their daughter from being starved to death.

Last October, a Florida court granted permission to have the tubes removed, which they were for six days, until the Florida Legislature, at the prompting of Gov. Bush, passed the law known as Terri's Law. The bill allows for a stay in cases of withholding nutrition and hydration from patients in situations similar to that of Schiavo. The law gives the governor 5 days to order the reinstatement of a feeding tube if someone was in a so-called vegetative state, the patient has no living will, and a family member had challenged the removal of a feeding tube.

While acknowledging the tragic circumstances of the case, the state Supreme Court said the law violates the constitutional separation of powers. The court said that if the legislative and executive branches were allowed to retroactively overturn court rulings, no judgment would ever be final and "vested rights could be stripped away based on popular clamor."

The judges said the while understand the heartbreak of Terri's family, they must make rulings based on the law and not emotion. "Our hearts can fully comprehend the grief so fully demonstrated by Theresa's family members on this record. But our hearts are not the law," they wrote.