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GEORGIA---Less than two weeks after he filed a bill that would have made it a crime to remove individuals from a feeding tube if they had not left a living will or clearly stated their wishes to their loved ones, Sen. Chip Rogers (R-Woodstock) withdrew his legislation from consideration.
Georgia law does not currently address the issue and Rogers said he was trying to avoid another Terri Schiavo situation.
Terri Schindler-Schiavo died March 31 at age 41 after a Florida judge ordered that her feeding tube be removed because her husband in name only and guardian said she wouldn't want to be kept alive by artificial means. Her parents disagreed and battled Michael Schiavo in the courts for nearly a decade. Terri had mysteriously collapsed in February, 1990 and sustained serious brain damage after a period of oxygen deprivation. She left no living will and based solely on hearsay testimony of her conflicted husband, Judge George Greer refused to allow new testing, refused to allow swallowing tests, refused to allow her to be fed orally and despite state law prohibiting the withholding of food and water from an individual, did so from the disabled woman, causing her death by dehydration.
Under Rogers' bill, a family member or guardian would have needed a written directive from a loved one or been able to present "clear and convincing evidence" that the family member would prefer to die rather than be kept alive with a feeding tube.
He said he had filed the bill to address the concerns of Georgia's disabled community and to try and prevent any prolonged court battles such as occurred in the Schiavo case.
In withdrawing the bill, Rogers said that he realized there were problems with it and he had decided to see if he could address the concerns of the disabled community in another way.
Rogers has introduced similar measures in the past which have not been successful and said that because of the Schiavo case, he decided to resubmit his bill.
Rogers was quoted as saying that "at the end of the day, the government ought to take a position that a person would want to receive food or water if that was all that was needed to keep them alive". 12-30-05
© 2005 North
Country Gazette
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