Fight Over Florida Woman on Feeding Tube Echoes Schiavo Case

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. —  A Florida woman put on a feeding tube after she had a stroke is at the center of a court case that is similar to the lengthy legal dispute over the fate of Terri Schiavo.

Karen Weber, 57, has been periodically in a nursing home and a hospital in Okeechobee since her 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. Unlike it, the family has remained cordial.

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.