Profession
Florida Legislature once again confronting life-and-death issues
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted March 8, 2004
Despite pressure from the state's right-to-life movement, Florida state Senate President Jim King has vowed that a bill known as the "Starvation and Dehydration of Persons with Disabilities Prevention Act" will never get a hearing.
Inspired by the Terri Schiavo controversy, the bill would keep incapacitated people alive despite their family's wishes if there were no advance directives available directing health care professionals to do otherwise, the Gainesville Sun reported.
King, who considers the state's "right-to-die" laws, which allow dying patients to refuse further medical treatment, to be his legacy, told the Tampa Tribune that he doesn't "want anything on the floor in that Senate that is going to give platforms to people who want to roll back the hands of time."
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2004/03/08/prbf0308.htm.