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 ALBANY---Jay Wolfson, appointed guardian ad litem by the Florida Legislature in October 2003 in the guardianship case of brain injured Terri Schiavo, will speak at Albany Law School on April 19. He is scheduled to address the issues of using science, medicine and “good law” to decide "right to die" cases.
Wolfson, professor of Public Health and Medicine at the University of Southern Florida, will deliver the 2006 Edward Sobota Memorial Lecture, focusing on the alleged lessons learned from the Schiavo case.
He is also a professor of medicine at Florida State University and a professor of law at Stetson University College of Law. He is also associate director of the National Patient Safety Center of Inquiry, Veterans Health Administration, VISN 8, and served as a trustee, vice chair of the board, and chair of finance of Tampa General Hospital for 12 years.
Wolfson was appointed to make a report and recommendations to Gov. Jeb Bush about Terri’s prognosis. He recommended that she receive additional swallowing tests and should undergo new examinations by independent medical experts to determine if there was any chance of recovery. However, Pinellas County probate court judge George Greer refused to allow any new tests.
In his December 2003 report for Gov. Bush, Wolfson noted, "Highly competent, scientifically based physicians using recognized measures and standards have deduced, within a high degree of medical certainty, that Theresa is in a persistent vegetative state. This evidence is compelling”.
Although Terri’s life was spared from Greer’s death order with the passage of Terri’s Law in October 2003, the law was later ruled unconstitutional. Despite efforts by Congress, Gov. Bush and his brother, President Bush, to keep her alive, Terri died of dehydration by judicial decree on March 31, 2005, following the removal of her feeding tube.
Last September, at a bioethics conference in Minneapolis, Minn., Wolfson was present and spoke with Brother Paul O’Donnell of St. Paul, a Roman Catholic Franciscan monk and spokesperson for the Schindler family, Terri’s parents and siblings.
Brother Paul said that Wolfson told him he still couldn’t believe that Terri had been murdered and Wolfson replied that he was “still conflicted about all of this”. 4-13-06
© 2006 North
Country Gazette
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