So when a woman is essentially sentenced to death because she is an inconvenience and an obstacle to wealth (only the naive doubt the REAL reasons surrounding this case, give me a break) I will most definitely make it my “business” to stand up for her rights, the same rights we afford criminals and dogs.

That is easy to say when it’s not happening to you. What happens when due to 15 years of medical expenses, you lose your house, car, savings? Basically have to file bankruptcy to potentially protect yourself from losing those things?

Insurance only goes so far. Then there is the fact that you probably don’t have a job due to spending most of that time in the hospital staying with him/her.

And before you go off saying that wouldn’t happen, dear friends of mine had something almost exactly like that happen to them. The wife had a baby, got very sick during the birth/after, found out she had Preeclampsia. Her liver shutdown, she got a new liver, her kidney’s failed for a time. She never recovered. Her husband was by her side for the entire 5 1/2 months of the ordeal. He took a leave of absense from work (they still paid him 50% anyway, I’m not sure they had to, but we worked at a great online game company at the time). He didn’t lose his home or job, but if the hospital stay had gone on for 15 years, I’m sure the situation would have changed. We all loved his wife, she was a great human being, but if she had gone 15 years in a state similar to Terri, I just can’t imagine that my friend would have been able to afford it. Even both family’s would have been run dry, plus there would have been the child to think of.

Sure, we all would like it if we could take care of every sick individual, but there are limits.

This husband was awarded over $1 million to pay for Terri’s rehabilitation - which was happening. She was rehabilitating - she was not PVS - that is perpetual misinformation. And then all of a sudden after 5-6 years, he changed his mind and suddenly claims that she had said she wanted to die. Why didn’t he do that from the moment she collapsed? Why did he get a nursing degree so that he could help with her rehabilitation? But then all of a sudden, he took it all away and stuck her in a hospice. Why??? She wasn’t dying - everything was working - even her swallowing relfex, she didn’t drool and had been eating jello and soups, etc. But then the judge ruled that no one could feed her like that anymore. And then the judge ruled that her feeding tube be taken away. Why??? And if he was just tired of her need for care and his heart had moved on to another, why didn’t he just divorce her and give her to her parents? Why kill her???

Dave, there may be a time when we have to “let a person go” because they are beyond what medicine can do for them - but Terri just wasn’t. She was simply a healthy, not sick, not dying, disabled person. That is the problem in Terri’s case. It was a gross act of injustice, not mercy.

Patsy, if what you say is true, then there needs to be one amazingly in-depth investigation to determine if all the correct steps were followed by one and all. I haven’t put the time in this story as others have since I really felt it was none of my business. However, if all the above is true, then I would have to agree with you and would hope that an investigation would shed some light on Mr. Schiavo’s behavior.