Yesterday, as I was checking the links in my article, Terri's Law: A
Scientology Sham, I discovered that the link to the text of Terri's
Law led me to a page with this message: "The document was not
found." http://www.myfloridahouse.gov/loadDoc.aspx

The website that removed the Terri's Law document is
myfloridahouse.gov. I did find the Terri's Bill document (House Bill
No. 35-E) elsewhere and saved it here.
http://libertytothecaptives.net/terris_law.html


The fact that myfloridahouse.gov removed the Terri's Law document
and did not direct the visitor to a new location to view the
document caused me to wonder. I decided to reread Terri's Law. As I
reread this document, I noticed that not once is the phrase "feeding
tube" mentioned. Similar terms such as "artificially administered
feeding" or "medically assisted feeding and nutrition" are also not
found in this document. In fact, there is no mention of anything
having to do with medically administered nutrition and hydration
written into the law that was supposedly written for the purpose of
preventing the removal of Terri Schiavo's feeding/hydration tube!

Terri's Law is not about preventing the withholding of medically
administered nutrition and hydration (feeding tubes). Terri's Law is
about preventing the withholding of nutrition and hydration in
general. And it was overturned.

Before you say that there is no need to define the terms, "nutrition
and hydration" please understand that legal documents are precisely
written. If the Florida Legislature intended to limit the definition
of nutrition and hydration to medically assisted feeding, they would
have done so.

The National Right to Life attorneys made a point of limiting the
meaning of the word "nutrition" in their Model Starvation and
Dehydration of Persons With Disabilities Prevention Act. In this
proposed legislation, the word "nutrition" is narrowly defined as
follows:

D. "Nutrition" means sustenance administered by way of the
gastrointestinal tract.

Quote source: National Right to Life
http://www.nrlc.org/euthanasia/modelstatelaw.html

Nutrition and hydration means food and water in general. Terri's
Law, which was touted as the means by which Florida Governor Jeb
Bush was given the "authority" (which expired after 15 days) to
issue a one-time stay to prevent the withholding of nutrition and
hydration from Terri Schiavo (and any others who met the specific
criteria outlined in Terri's Law) was ruled unconstitutional by the
Florida Supreme Court! Note: Gov. Jeb Bush always had the authority
to sign an executive order to stop the dehydration of Terri Schiavo.
See:
http://www.libertytothecaptives.net/terris_law_bush_knew_it_was_sham.
html

The precedent set by the overturning of Terri's Law: In the event
that a judge orders the removal of "nutrition and hydration" (these
terms were not qualified!) from a person the court has found to be
in a persistent vegetative state, the highest official in the state
may not intervene. Since euthanasia is illegal in all fifty states,
the overturning of Terri's Law is an ominous euthanasia inroad
indeed.

The wording of Terri's Law combined with the overturning of this
legislation produced the highly sought after "withholding of regular
food and water" precedent the euthanasia movement has been waiting
for.

Gary and Lisa Ruby

1/23/05

http://libertytothecaptives.net/terris_law_euthanasia_inroad.html