Florida remains the only state in the country that denies families the right to pursue a medical malpractice claim when an adult dies with no spouse and no children. Under the “Free Kill” law, if the person was 25 or older and unmarried, their life is treated as if it has no legal value. It does not matter how clear the negligence was. It does not matter whether every expert agrees the death was preventable. The courthouse doors stay shut, and families are left without answers.
Last year more than 90 percent of Florida lawmakers, Republicans and Democrats alike, voted to repeal this law. Families who lost parents, siblings, and adult children wrote thousands of letters urging the Governor to let them seek accountability. The Governor vetoed the bill anyway.
The Legislature should correct that mistake. It should pass the repeal again and, if necessary, override the veto. Florida families deserve a system that recognizes the worth of every life.
The Governor often describes himself as pro-life. But valuing life cannot stop at birth. A consistent respect for life means valuing every Floridian regardless of marital status or family size. It means recognizing the worth of the widowed grandmother who anchors her family, the young entrepreneur building a future, and the adult son or daughter whose life mattered deeply to the people around them. Their deaths are not worth less simply because the law does not categorize their loved ones as “survivors.”
Opponents defend the current law by claiming malpractice cases amount to “jackpot justice.” The Governor used that phrase at a recent press event. Comparing the death of a human being to winning the lottery is inhumane. Families are not seeking a windfall. They are seeking accountability. In our civil justice system, the only tool available to measure responsibility is monetary damages. This is not because money replaces a life. It is because without a financial remedy, there is no enforceable way to hold a negligent provider accountable or to bring transparency to what happened. Families pursue these cases to uncover the truth and to prevent the same mistakes from harming someone else.
Florida’s malpractice system already includes some of the strongest guardrails in the country. Before a claim can be filed, families must complete a detailed pre-suit investigation, secure sworn expert opinions, and show conduct so far outside reasonable care that no similarly trained provider would have acted the same way. The law does not punish doctors for human error. It allows accountability only when conduct is truly egregious. These safeguards exist because we know medical care involves risk, and we know mistakes can occur. But when the conduct is so far below the standard of care that a preventable death occurs, families deserve the right to seek justice.
Despite this, the Governor’s veto message argued that families have other options. Anyone familiar with these cases knows that is not true for those affected by the Free Kill statute. Under current law, these families are limited to recovering only medical bills and funeral costs, and those medical bills often include charges from the very provider whose negligence caused the death. No grieving family spends years in litigation to dispute burial expenses. Regulatory agencies are overwhelmed and lack the resources, authority, and incentive to conduct more than a cursory review. Their findings rarely lead to meaningful consequences. Civil actions remain the only pathway that forces transparency, creates deterrence, and provides accountability.
The Governor has also expressed interest in placing caps on malpractice damages. That is another way of assigning a government approved price to the value of a human life. You cannot claim to be pro-life while simultaneously limiting the value of a Floridian’s life after death. If life has value, the law should treat every life as worthy of full protection.
Repealing the Free Kill law is not about punishing doctors. It is about preventing dangerous conduct from being hidden and ensuring families are not silenced by a technicality that exists nowhere else in the country. Families are not seeking special treatment. They are seeking the same basic right every other American has: the right to pursue accountability when negligence takes someone they love.
Last year the Legislature showed courage by passing this repeal with overwhelming bipartisan support. This year it must finish the job. Pass the bill again. And if the Governor refuses to recognize the value of every life, override the veto.
Florida families deserve to know their loved ones mattered. As we enter a new year, let us begin it with the moral clarity to protect life, protect accountability, and finally fix this law.
