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A third party cannot seek an annulment in civic court. I think my husband and I would not be married if that was the case; both sides of the family would have teamed up to undo what is 21 years of marital, um, well, mostly he stands around reading over my shoulder....Okay. It's not bliss but it'll do. :-)

Seriously, the change in law that is most desperately needed is a way for concerned family members to have guardianship taken away from someone, even a spouse, who has serious conflict of interest and is not acting in the best interest of the patient. By denying Terry the therapy that might have restored her (to the point of being able to testify against him, maybe?) he clearly never was acting in her best interest.

There are assisted communication therapies that might have enabled Terri to communicate. She can move her eyes. That's all that is needed--she could have told everyone exactly what happened to her and exactly what she wanted. But he wouldn't let anyone near her who could give her that power.

Seriously, the change in law that is most desperately needed is a way for concerned family members to have guardianship taken away from someone, even a spouse, who has serious conflict of interest and is not acting in the best interest of the patient. By denying Terry the therapy that might have restored her (to the point of being able to testify against him, maybe?) he clearly never was acting in her best interest.

Such a law already exists. Whenever there is a potential conflict of interest between a guardian and his ward, the judge is required to appoint a guardian ad litem. Terri had a guardian ad litem who complained that Michael's actions were contrary to her best interest. Michael's lawyer dismissed her, and Judge Greer refused to appoint another, finding that there was no potential conflict of interest.

Judge Greer's actions there were grossly illegal, and should have been impeachable (too bad Terri's family didn't go after him then), but unfortunately because appeals courts cannot overturn trial courts' findings of fact, and Judge Greer found that there was no potential conflict of interest, there was no way for Terri's parents to make Judge Greer follow the law.

Perhaps one thing that should be included in new legislation bearing Terri's name (if, as at this point seems likely, Terris death makes haste less important than quality) would be a provision which requires a guardian ad litem not only when a "potential conflict of interest" exists, but spells out some specific conditions under which a judge would not be able to deny a conflict of interest.

For example:

If a ward has a trust fund exceeding a certain dollar amount, and the guardian seeks to spend money from that fund.
If a guardian seeks action to cause or promote the death of a ward.

Both of those conditions clearly applied in Terri's case, and even Judge Greer would have a very hard time making a finding that they did not apply while allowing Felos to loot her trust fund or while signing her death warrant.