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St. Thomas Law Review

First Page

13

Document Type

Article

Abstract

One of the hottest topics on the minds and lips of many Floridians is end-of-life care. This is understandable since the state of Florida contains the largest percentage of elderly individuals, the third highest amount of people afflicted with the AIDS virus, and the fourth largest number of deaths per year from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and heart disease in the nation. The Florida Legislature realizes that the state is extremely diverse in the areas of ethnicity, race, cultural customs, and religious beliefs, and believes that a person's experience with death, the process of dying, and their choices pertaining to end-of-life care are rooted in these diverse areas The Legislature feels that health, social, and educational practitioners need to be prepared to understand the emotional and spiritual needs of the individuals within the various groups.4 In 1997, the Florida Legislature created the "Panel for the Study of End-of-Life Care" to address issues such as these and various others which have been advanced by proponents of the elderly and the State Department of Elder Affairs.5 Part II of this comment will discuss the Panel for the Study of End-of-Life Care and the findings and recommendations which were made by them. Part IH will discuss the major change the panel originally intended to propose for legislation, and why they sought to do this. Part IV will discuss the strong stance that was taken against these proposed changes by catholic lobbyists. Part V will discuss the version of the panel's proposal that was actually made into law as a result of the objections made by catholic lobbyists. Part VI will discuss the specific alterations the new bill made to existing law. Part VII will analyze the viewpoints of the catholic lobbyists and suggest a contradiction of these beliefs with the stance taken against the panel's recommendations. Part VIII will conclude the comment.

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