Feeding-Tube Posturing Struck Down

Gov. Jeb Bush and the Florida Legislature were justly rebuked last week when the Florida Supreme Court declared unconstitutional their ghoulish efforts to require continued nutritional support for a severely brain-damaged woman who has been in a persistent vegetative state for more than a decade. The patient is Theresa Schiavo, who suffered a heart attack in 1990 that deprived her brain of oxygen. She has been kept alive with feeding and hydration tubes ever since.

There seems little doubt that Ms. Schiavo's medical prognosis is hopeless. A trial court found overwhelming evidence that her brain had deteriorated so severely that much of her cerebral cortex was gone.

The case is complicated because Ms. Schiavo left no written directive that spelled out her wishes should she be in a vegetative state. Her husband contends that she had orally expressed a desire not to be kept alive artificially, and the lower courts, finding clear and convincing evidence that she would want the life support stopped, had ordered the feeding tube removed.

But the Legislature, prodded by religious conservatives, quickly passed a law authorizing the governor to order the feeding resumed, and Governor Bush ordered that life support be reinstated. Those grandstanding maneuvers were properly struck down last week when the Florida Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the law was an unconstitutional encroachment on the judiciary's power.

Ms. Schiavo's parents cling to the hope that she may someday recover and plan to continue their legal fight to keep her alive. That is their right. But we hope that the politicians at least will now keep their hands off this tragic case.

NY Times