[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 26 (Tuesday, March 8, 2005)]
[House]
[Pages H993-H994]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               INCAPACITATED PERSONS LEGAL PROTECTION ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House of 
January 4, 2005, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Weldon) is recognized 
during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. WELDON of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise to speak on the 
legislation I have just introduced, the Incapacitated Persons Legal 
Protection Act, enrolled as H.R. 1151. This legislation's immediate 
intent is to deal with the issues surrounding Terry Schiavo.
  I practiced medicine for 15 years prior to my election to the House 
of Representatives. I still see patients once a month, and I was 
involved in numerous cases involving situations like this.
  Terry has been described in the press as being in a vegetative state, 
and I believe that she is not, absolutely that she is not. The correct 
term to describe Terry Schiavo is brain-damaged, severely brain-
damaged, but you can see her on videos. Now the judge will not let 
people such as myself go in there to see her even though the family 
would like me to be able to examine her. But according to the family, 
she is the same way. She is responsive. She will look at you, attempt 
to vocalize. She will attempt to kiss her parents.
  The judge in the case, Judge Greer, has tried to dismiss these 
obvious behaviors indicating that she does have a higher level of 
functioning and she should not be described as vegetative, as primitive 
reflexes. And I would assert as a physician that it is extremely 
dangerous to walk down that kind of a path, where you have somebody 
with mental retardation, disability or any type of brain injury and you 
start ascribing obvious human-like behavior on the part of these 
individuals as being primitive reflexes and that these people are 
expendable.
  Terry is under a court order to withdraw food and water. This is 
unprecedented in our legal history. Previous cases that received 
national notoriety, like the Karen Ann Quinlan case, involved family 
and physicians mutually recognizing that this person did not have a 
chance of surviving and wanting to withdraw, in the case of the Quinlan 
case, a respirator, and the court going along with it because the 
clinicians involved did not want to be prosecuted for manslaughter or 
murder.
  In this case, there is a dispute. The husband wants to terminate food 
and water, and the family, in the form of the mother and father, 
vehemently being opposed to it.
  The judge has stepped in, and I think he has made some clinical 
judgments that are not really founded in good clinical science. I am 
certain if doctors put an EEG on her, we would see extensive brain 
waves indicating activity in the visual cortex and in the speech 
centers, and she should not be defined as vegetative,
  My bill, H.R. 1151, Incapacitated Persons Legal Protection Act, would 
simply extend to Terry Schiavo the same benefits currently afforded 
death row inmates, and she is under a death warrant, death by essential 
dehydration. It would allow her to receive legal representation, the 
same kind of legal representation that death row inmates receive. 
Currently, she does not have her own attorney. Her parents have an 
attorney. Her attorney has an attorney. Under this bill, she would get 
legal representation. It would allow for a more detailed review of the 
case.
  As a clinician, she has gotten, to my knowledge, according to the 
family I have spoken to, no therapy since 1993. I know from having 
worked with stroke victims and therapists, you can sometimes give these 
people thicken liquids, and they are able to swallow. Evidently, Terry, 
prior to the termination of her therapy, was working with a speech 
therapist and was able to say a

[[Page H994]]

few words. She may be able to survive without a tube.
  Another important point I want to make here, there was a $1.56 
million medical malpractice settlement that was provided for her care. 
Much of that has been spent on legal fees trying to end her life. This 
is not a case where the State is spending a lot of money. The resources 
are there to take care of her needs in the future. Her parents do not 
want to see her dying of starvation and thirst. I think it is fully 
appropriate for us to step in, for her to have a right, the same right 
a death row inmate gets, and to allow, hopefully, review in front of a 
Federal judge reviewing all of the facts in this case. When doctors 
really look at the facts, I think it is very, very hard to justify 
ending her life in such a way.
  So I would encourage all of my colleagues to sign on and support the 
bill and, most importantly, for our leadership on both sides of the 
aisle to allow expedited review. If not, her tube is scheduled to come 
out March 18.

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