By Matt Manochio, Daily Record
04/01/05 - Posted from the Daily Record newsroom
The death of Terri Schiavo on Thursday could prompt Congress and state lawmakers to revisit end-of-life legislation, as well as lead to renewed interest in living wills, according to legal experts in New Jersey.
"I think that the right-to-life movement will push for legislation in state legislatures," Norman Cantor, a law professor at Rutgers Law School in Newark, said Thursday.
Schiavo died Thursday morning - 13 days after the brain-damaged woman's feeding tube was removed at a Florida hospice.
"They've already begun to do that in Florida," Cantor said. "There are two pending bills in Florida: One speaks to artificial nutrition and hydration, the other speaks broadly to end-of-life treatment.
"In each case, they demand that there be clear, prior instructions from the now-incompetent patient," he said. "I think there's going to be a push in that direction in a fair number of states. I don't think it will surface in New Jersey. It could be successful in some other jurisdictions."
Cradled by her husband, Schiavo died a "calm, peaceful and gentle death" about 9 a.m. Thursday, a stuffed animal under her arm, flowers arranged around her hospice room.
The 41-year-old woman was the center of arguably the longest, most bitter and most heavily litigated right-to-die case in the nation's history. Her husband, Michael Schiavo, has long maintained that her wish was not to be kept alive in a vegetative state.
Terri Schiavo suffered brain damage in 1990 and fell into what court-appointed doctors called a persistent vegetative state, with no real consciousness or chance of recovery, after a chemical imbalance caused her heart to stop.
She left no written instructions, but her husband argued that his wife told him long ago she would not want to be kept alive by artificial means. Her parents disputed that, saying that would have gone against her Roman Catholic faith, and they contended her condition could improve with treatment. They said she laughed, cried, responded to them and tried to talk.
"I think the first thing we need to do is define food and water as basic human needs, and to make sure this never happens again, to make sure that a person who is not terminally ill cannot be denied basic human needs such as food and water," said Marie Tasy, executive director of New Jersey Right to Life in Cranford.
"I also think that they need to look at possibly introducing legislation that removes a guardian from making life-altering decisions when the guardian is no longer (acting in that capacity)," she said referring to Michael Schiavo, who started a family with another woman, fathering two children.
"In a situation where (a person) is no longer honoring their wedding vows, a husband or wife ? there should be a mechanism to allow guardianship to be turned over to the parents," she said.
Tasy said she also advocates a governor being given the ability to intervene when it comes to life-and-death decisions when there is a family dispute over a loved one who is on some means of life support.
"When all avenues have been exhausted, I think the governor should have the ability to issue an executive order when there's a dispute like this," she said.
New Jersey has experienced high-profile right-to-die cases.
Most notable was the case of Karen Ann Quinlan, a Roxbury woman who spent nearly 10 years in a persistent vegetative state until her death in 1985. Her parents, Joseph and Julia Quinlan, fought to remove their daughter from her respirator.
Julia Quinlan, out of respect for the Schiavo and Schindler families, declined comment Thursday.
Another case centered on Nancy Ellen Jobes, a Parsippany woman who was 25 years old when a surgical complication left her in a vegetative state. After a court battle with her nursing home, Jobes' husband and family in 1987 won the right to remove her feeding tube and allow her to die.
Her husband, John Jobes, 50, of Boonton, on Thursday said he also believes states will re-examine end-of-life laws, but cautioned against it due to the private nature of such circumstances.
"I just think that it's probably going to be state by state, maybe county by county," he said, adding, "every case is going to be an individual case. Hopefully, everyone will have a living will after this is published.
"It's just so private," he said. "I feel so sorry for them, and hopefully they will be able to get on with their lives now."
Unlike the Schiavo case, John Jobes and his late wife's parents all were in agreement on removing Nancy Ellen from life support, and have remained close to this day.
Jobes said he understood the mindset of Terri Schiavo's parents but still cautioned against government intervention.
"Now that I have children, and love them so dearly, I can understand ? their side," he said. "I also just believe that (Michael Schiavo) was trying to do what was right for Terri, and what she wanted."
Cantor, the law professor who has been involved in right-to-die cases, said he believes legislation would be unwise and unnecessary.
"Very few people, particularly younger people, but even older people, provide instructions, either oral or written," he said. "People are very reluctant to face their mortality or plan out their dying processes. Anyone who has not left such instructions - that's a great bulk of people - who are going to be preserved in their dying process long beyond the point that they would want, the point of indignity ? they would have to be kept alive under such a law.
"Very few people want to be kept alive until the last possible breath," Cantor said, referring to "a fair amount of survey literature that supports that conclusion."
State Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll, R-Morris, said legislation might not be the answer.
"The problems arise when you have someone who has not made their wishes clear," Carroll said. "I think most people these days, if they don't have a living will, will be reminded about the necessity for it. I don't know if any more legislation is necessary, just people waking up to the possibility of what could happen if they don't take this thing seriously."
L. Allison Garde, who practices trust and estate law in Morristown, said she wouldn't be "surprised at all if there were some political pressure at the federal and state level to deal with these issues."
Garde said New Jersey adopted a living will law in the early 1990s.
"New Jersey allows people to craft their own forms and appoint someone to make the decision (if they) do not want this kind of treatment," she said. A person can literally type up their own form, but must have two witnesses sign the document, with certain specifications, or take the draft to have it notarized.
"You could write whatever you want," she said. "Let's not forget, some people who want to can say in there 'keep me going.'"
Garde said she believes more people are examining the unpleasant scenarios surrounding end-of-life decisions.
"I think that ? the rumor on the street is that a lot more people are talking about this and expressing views on this, and that can only be a good thing," she said, adding that she has seen no influx of new clients requesting living wills, but has had a few current clients consult her about those documents.
Copyright 2005 Daily Record
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