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Not true. In Missouri, we have statues that deal with guardianship of the person and custodianship of the property of the person. These cases are handled by the probate court.

In fact all guardianship matters end up as a decedents estate and are finally dispositioned in accordance with the terms of a valid Will or in accordance with the intestecy statue.

The difference here is simply that no valid Living Will was filed with the probate court in accordance with the state statute. This leaves the FL state statue and the findings of the probate court as the final legal authority on the disposition of the person and the property.

If Judge Greer followed the probate statues with respect to the guardianship and determination of the incapacitated persons wishes in regard to the decision to remove extraordinary life support (also most likely defined in the FL statutes). And if there are no procedural errors in respect to the facts or law (16 or 17 appelate courts have already ruled on this), then Judge Greers ruling should stand.

If there are issues of bad acts on the part of the husband or others, these issues should be taken up under the appropriate civil and criminal statues of the state.

At some point we have to allow the courts to do their job, as imperfectly as they do. If we have need of additional protections for persons like Terri after Cruzanne, then we need to make the change to the statues via legislation, NOT through Federal Court action.

The best method of preventing issues like this is to find your states statutory Living Will form, fill it out and make sure more than one person knows your wishes. Although I feel for Terri's family and all of us care deeply about them and Terri, we MUST use this opportunity to make sure our state statues reflect our desires, and that we as families take the time to make our wishes known.