Michael Schiavo claimed that early in their marriage, Terri Schiavo expressed that she would never want to be kept on life support. That’s the basis for Ms. Schiavo’s “wish” to have her feeding tube withdrawn.

We’ve also been lectured (often) that that nutrition delivered via a ‘feeding tube’ is recognized in Section 765 of the Florida Statutes as a ‘life prolonging procedure’. This is true.

But Section 765 did NOT include ‘Artificially provided sustenance and hydration’ as a life prolonging procedure until April 1999, when Florida House Bill 2131 was introduced in the legislature by the Florida Elder Affairs & Long-Term Care Committee (it became law on Oct. 1, 1999). That’s nearly 9.5 years after Terri Schiavo’s collapse. So how can the tube pullers be so certain that Terri would want to starve to death?