Fla. Gov. To Restore Feeding Tube?

(AP)  Moving in just hours, Florida's legislature has passed a bill aimed at keeping a brain-damaged woman alive, in one of the nation's longest and most bitter right-to-die battles.

Florida Governor Jeb Bush says he will sign the bill immediately, and will use it to order that feeding tubes be reinserted into Terri Schiavo later today.

Her husband's lawyer planned to ask a court to block enforcement of the new law. George Felos says the law is a "power grab" that violates the state constitution.

But a Florida judge is denying a motion to stop the governor from keeping Schiavo alive.

Pinellas Circuit Court Judge George Greer cited technical grounds in denying the husband's motion, but the request to block the new measure can be refiled.

After years of court rulings, the tubes were removed from Schiavo last week. Her husband, Michael Schiavo, says she never wanted to be kept alive artificially, but her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, say it's wrong to starve her to death. Court-appointed doctors say Schiavo is in a vegetative state.

Her husband's lawyer planned to ask a court to block enforcement of the new law. George Felos says the law is a "power grab" that violates the state constitution.

Felos says he'll go to court to keep Bush from ordering the tube to be re-inserted into Schiavo, who has been brain damaged for years.

Schiavo's feeding tube was removed last Wednesday. Doctors have said the 39-year-old woman will die within a week to 10 days without food and water.

Lawmakers were already called to the Capitol for a special session on economic development when they decided to intervene in the case.

Bush said he did not think lawmakers were motivated by politics.

"This is a response to a tragic situation." Bush said. "People are responding to cries for help and I think it's legitimate."

Sen. Tom Lee said Schiavo would "essentially starve ... to death" without intervention from lawmakers and the governor.

"It's a pretty awful way to go," Lee said.

Opponents said government was stepping in where it had no business being.

"I do not believe the governor of Florida should be making a decision of life and death rather than the next of kin," said Sen. Steven Geller.

The House approved the bill 73-24 after the Senate passed it 23-15.

George Felos, a lawyer for the woman's husband, asked a judge to stop Bush even before he received the bill. A hearing was scheduled for Tuesday.

Earlier in Tampa, U.S. District Judge Steven Merryday denied a request by an advocacy group that Schiavo be kept alive so it could investigate whether removal of the tube was abusive.

Merryday wrote that federal courts — other than the U.S. Supreme Court — are forbidden from interjecting themselves into matters already decided by state courts. He also said the group failed to provide enough evidence to support its request.

The bill sent to Bush was designed to be as narrow as possible. It is limited to cases in which the patient left no living will, is in a persistent vegetative state, has had nutrition and hydration tubes removed and where a family member has challenged the removal.

Court-appointed doctors have described Schiavo as being in a vegetative state, caused when her heart stopped in 1990 from a suspected chemical imbalance.

Bush last week promised the woman's parents that he would help them if he could find a way.

The Florida Supreme Court has twice refused to hear the case, and it also has been rejected for review by the U.S. Supreme Court. Last week, a Florida appeals court again refused to block removal of the tube.

Felos said he thinks the legislation would be unconstitutional. It is Terri Schiavo's right under the Florida Constitution to not be kept alive artificially, and the courts have affirmed that, he said.

Pat Anderson, the attorney for the parents, said she was "dumbfounded" by the Legislature's action, although the Schindlers had hoped for such help in the wake of continued court defeats.

During a two-hour debate in the House, several Democrats argued that the Constitution does not let the Legislature give the governor the power to overrule the courts.

"This bill so oversteps our role it ... turns democracy on its head," said Rep. Dan Gelber, a Democrat.

But many Republicans and some Democrats said they need to be involved in dire cases where judges might be wrong.

"The Constitution is supposed to protect the people of this state," said Rep. Sandy Murman, a Republican from Tampa. "Who is protecting this girl?"