A look through the Florida Health Care Advanced Directives Statute (Ch. 765, Florida Statutes) provided me with some important insight into the Terri Schiavo case: An advance directive to physicians or living will might not have helped Terri Schiavo at all.

Why?

Because apparently the statute allowing their use was not enacted until 1992. Here’s the legislative history for Section 765.301 (”Short Title”):

s. 4, ch. 92-199; s. 24, ch. 99-331.

See the “92″ and the “99″? That would mean that the act was offered as a bill in 1992 and the act was amended by a bill offered in 1999.

According to the timeline at the Terri Schindler-Schiavo Foundation’s website, Terri Schiavo collapsed in 1990. That would be two years before the Act authorizing the use of living wills in the State of Florida.

What does this mean?

[Continue reading
my thoughts on the Terri Schiavo situation]