Three years after Terri Schiavo was starved to death, a Florida woman is once again at the center of a legal dispute over whether a feeding tube stays or goes.
Karen Weber, 57, has been periodically in a nursing home and a hospital in Okeechobee, Fla., since her December stroke. Her husband, Raymond, claims she is in a vegetative state. He sought earlier this year to have her feeding tube removed, The Associated Press reported.
But Weber's mother and siblings are fighting to keep her alive, arguing she is alert and responsive.
A judge has prohibited the tube's removal, and has appointed a committee to determine her competency.
Weber communicates by blinking her eyes and using hand signals. Alliance Defense Fund attorney Joseph Rodowicz said Weber even waves goodbye as he leaves her room.
“The Constitution of this country gives people the right to life, and it gives people the right to make those decisions," Rodowicz said.
Tom Lothamer, executive director of Baptists for Life, said the sanctity of life is the real issue.
“Somehow, we’ve come to determine that we can determine who will live and who will die," he said. “In reality, it’s God who is the sovereign Lord of all of this. We keep pushing God away and saying we want to do it our way.”
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