As Congress tries their options,:
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (Reuters) – Florida lawmakers are racing to block the removal of severely brain-damaged woman’s feeding tube, which has been keeping her alive but is due to be taken out on Friday after years of legal wrangling.
A state circuit judge has ruled that Terri Schiavo’s husband can remove the tube at any time after 1 p.m. EST on Friday.
Lawmakers hope to enact a new law before then that would prevent the husband, Michael Schiavo, and other guardians from withholding food and water from severely brain-damaged patients unless they left written directives or made verbal affirmations, acceptable to a court, that that they wanted to die.
A pair of similar measures were approved by committees in Florida’s House of Representatives and Senate on Tuesday, making them available for final consideration later this week.