Actually, this bill has been about two years in the making. Everyone knew it was going to be filed. There was an interim charge and hearings. The whole nine yards.

"No other hospital is going to take the case, and doctors and ethicists do not decide to stop treatment if there is a chance people will survive."

That is not true as evidenced by the fact that there are cases where hospitals accept patients after the decision to withdraw support has been made by another facility.

Oh, and I agree with you about the mom.

So who's paying to keep her mostly dead son alive? I'm guessing it isn't her insurance. And since she isn't Warren Buffet, I'm guessing it isn't coming out of her pocket, either. I'm just saying.

I believe in the right to die and did not support efforts to keep Schiavo alive. But that's a decision the patient or their family has to make. The current law lets hospitals make that decision and tell a family they have ten days to find someone to take them or its lights out. They can even overrule a patient's advanced directives. The doctors often treat the families in a condescending and arrogant manner. Most of these families aren't expecting miracles. They just want to make the decision when they're ready and not when they're told that they're ready.

The disability community is strongly behind this because they fear doctors making quality of life decisions on them. The ACLU supports this and Sens. Zaffirini and Van de Putte are co-authors along with several Democrats on the House version. Eleven states have it and they haven't faced a crisis as a result. Regardless of what one thinks of the Emilio case, legislation like this is long overdue.