State bill follows Schiavo’s death

JEFFERSON CITY — Shortly after the death of Terri Schiavo on Thursday, a state representative filed a bill that would prohibit doctors in Missouri from removing feeding tubes from patients who lack living wills directing their removal.

Rep. Cynthia Davis, R-O’Fallon, is sponsoring the bill, which would require that doctors ignore any verbal request from a patient. That’s intended to address a situation similar to Schiavo’s, in which her husband, Michael, insisted she would not have wanted to be kept alive by artificial means. Davis’s bill says that without a patient’s written consent, even people legally authorized to make health-care decisions on his or her behalf would not be allowed to authorize the removal of feeding tubes.

“Unless you have your will in writing, we assume food and water are in the same category as being life-sustaining,” Davis said. “So the withholding of food and water was intended to create her death.”

The bill also would make it illegal to withdraw nutrition or hydration from a patient with the intent of causing death. If death or serious injury results from the removal of feeding tubes, the person responsible for doing so would be guilty of a Class D felony.

“We do not create acts of barbarism in this state and under the approval of government,” Davis said.

Rep. Wayne Cooper, R-Camdenton, agreed with Davis that the intent of her bill is to preserve the gift of life.

“I do not want to see our society begin to view human life on the basis of its quality rather than its existence,” Cooper said, referring to the debate over Terri Schiavo’s condition.

The bill does not address who would pay for keeping a patient alive with a feeding tube. Schiavo’s medical expenses for the past couple of years were covered by Florida’s Medicaid program.

Other lawmakers view the bill as an intrusion by government on the rights of families. Sen. Chuck Graham, D-Columbia, said that if someone in a vegetative state lacks a living will, the fate of the patient should be decided by the patient’s family.

“Now what they want to do is stick the government right into the middle of family decisions, and frankly they don’t belong there,” Graham said.