That's what gets me. This is, indeed, an imagined "horror" and nothing but. People seem awfully afraid of being in her state. But nobody has any idea what her state is actually like, since people in her state cannot communicate in the first place. So where is the fear coming from? Why have people so easily convinced themselves that being in her state is, necessarily, a fate worse than death, and then projected that view onto her - i.e. she "would want" to die because of our imagined horror?
I think it's because of the way she looks. People look at her, think "Ick", and decide she's better off dead.
"This just shows the danger of basing decisions about life and death upon casual oral statements made years ago," he says.
Bingo. "Oh man, that looks bad", you say to the person next to you on the couch as you're watching an episode of Quincy, M.D.
30 years later, you find yourself incapacitated in some way and that person testifies in a court that you "would want" to be killed. And so you are.
It is totally absurd but that's exactly where we are.
"What is consistently clear across the board year after year is that a huge majority of Americans - including conservatives - want to be able to make these decisions for themselves," he says.
That's swell but Terri is not "making this decision for herself". To paint this picture is to mislead. And much of the public is horribly misled on this case.