Judge Ordered to Vacate Ruling on Bouvia

A state appeals court on Friday ordered the judge who refused quadriplegic Elizabeth Bouvia’s request to halt her forced-feeding to vacate his ruling or face the possibility that it will be overruled by the appellate panel.

The 2nd District Court of Appeal, acting at the request of American Civil Liberties Union lawyers who represent the 28-year-old cerebral palsy victim, ordered Superior Court Judge Warren Deering to set aside his Feb. 21 decision that rejected the ACLU’s request for the removal of the tube through which Bouvia is being fed.

Or, the court said, Deering--represented by the the county counsel’s office--could argue before the appellate justices why his ruling should be left standing. The appeals court, in its order, set March 24 to hear those arguments.

The appeals court writ made no comments on the merit of the case.

Deering could not be reached for comment, but attorneys for both the ACLU and the county counsel said they expected to be in the appeals court on that date to make their arguments.

Legal Battle to Continue

“I expect he’ll stand fast,” said Daniel Mikesell Jr., the senior deputy county counsel who has been representing the county-operated High Desert Hospital in Lancaster, where Bouvia is a patient.

Fred Okrand, legal director emeritus of the Southern California affiliate of the ACLU, said he, too, expected the legal battle to continue. The ACLU’s lead attorney in the case, Richard S. Scott, issued a short statement withholding comment on the ruling pending the March 24 hearing, but a spokeswoman for the affiliate termed the decision “a victory of sorts.”

Lawyers for the hospital argued before Deering last month that doctors there initiated forced-feeding to prevent a life-threatening situation, believing that Bouvia’s liquid diet intake of 500 to 700 calories a day was not sufficient to maintain her.

Lawyers for Bouvia said that, in the words of Scott at the time, “people have the right to refuse medical care. She’s not trying to starve herself to death. What we are trying to do is get the tube out of Elizabeth Bouvia’s nose and throat and stomach.”

‘Semantic Distinction’

Bouvia, who lost a legal battle in Riverside County two years ago to be allowed to starve herself to death, testified in Deering’s court in a videotaped deposition that although she still wanted to die, she no longer intends to starve to death.

Deering, in his ruling, called that a “semantic distinction” and said the tube-feeding procedure “was necessary and was the most feasible reasonable means of preventing a life-threatening situation.”

Mikesell said Friday that Bouvia is “doing well, and doctors tell me she seems to be feeling better.” He said her weight, which had fallen to 67 pounds, has climbed to 77 pounds under the tube-feeding regimen.