It seems like that Terri Schiavo case that gripped the nation and the world may be replayed in a matter of speaking.
This time it's involves Karen Weber. She is 57 and has has been periodically in a nursing home and a hospital in Okeechobee, FL since a December stroke.
Much like the Schiavo case, Weber's husband and mother cannot agree how alert she is and whether she should be kept alive by a feeding tube.
Weber does not have a living will and cannot talk. A judge issued an injunction, prohibiting the tube's removal, and has appointed a committee composed of a neurologist and two psychologists to determine her competency.
Weber's husband, Raymond, claims she is in a vegetative state. He sought earlier this year to have the tube removed and have his wife transferred to a hospice ward, where she would likely die. But Weber's mother and siblings are fighting to keep her alive, arguing she is alert and responsive.
Unlike the Schiavo case, Weber's husband and mother, Martha Tatro, have remained cordial, often visiting the woman together in the hospital.
Raymond Weber would only say: "I don't want this to become a media event." His attorney, Colin Cameron, said his client does not want this case "to turn into a Terri Schiavo-type circus."
Tatro's attorney, Joseph Rodowicz, said he visited the woman in March and April, and that she was responsive and aware. Using body language, she indicated she did not want the feeding tube removed, he said.
Weber's mother acknowledges she likely will never fully recover."She can live, though, if that's what you call recovery, and that's all that's important," Tatro said, crying. "She wants to live, and it's up to the good Lord what kind of life she has."
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