Terri's Law Struck Down
In the first of three related news items that occurred during the same week, the Florida Supreme Court unanimously struck down Terri's Law, the hastily-crafted legislation that allowed Gov. Jeb Bush to order severely brain-damaged Terri Schiavo's feeding tube to be reinserted. The rationale for the Sept. 23 ruling is that Terri's Law violates the separation of powers between the judicial, legislative and executive branches of government. Schiavo's husband, Michael, has won numerous court rulings allowing him to remove her feeding tube. The law was written to circumvent those rulings.

"We have been told that she must die in order to protect her right of privacy," said Terri Schiavo's parents in a statement to the press. "None of this makes any sense to us."

"I'm disappointed in the Supreme Court decision. But I'm very respectful of it," Gov. Bush told reporters. "The decision is final as it relates to state law." George Felos, Michael Schiavo's lawyer, did not return NM's phone calls by press time.

In a macabre, related story, the feeding tubes of six Philadelphia Nursing Home residents were cut in the city-owned facility on Sept. 22. "For somebody to do this kind of act is barbaric," Philadelphia Police Inspector William Colarulo told reporters. "For someone to even attempt to do this to another human being is beyond my comprehension." Joan Barnes, a 53-year-old nurse, has been arrested in connection with the case.

During this same week in Canada, Marielle Fariala, 59, was arrested for possibly assisting the Sept. 25 death of her son, Charles Fariala, 36. Charles Fariala, employed as a caregiver, had a relatively mild case of MS, but his death is being labeled an end-of-life decision by many. "I think it certainly highlights the need for appropriate end-of-life care," said Trudo Lemmens from the Centre for Bioethics at the University of Toronto. Depression is a common, treatable symptom of MS, and in the vast majority of cases, MS is not fatal.