It's called Assisted Suicide and it's illegal in this state. Greer is an idiot.
Article the seventh [Amendment V] No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
It strikes me that the "nor's" are relative to "any person" and not only to anyone charged in a criminal case.
You cannot be deprived of "life" without due process of law. To suggest that only the criminally charged have this right is to stand justice on its head. Does anyone really dare to suggest that governments can take entirely innocent life without due process, but is only restricted when it comes to those who are criminally charged? That would be interpretive insanity.
And then there's this:
Article the tenth [Amendment VIII] Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
The response to this will be, of course, that Terri Schiavo is not criminally charged so that her death is not a "punishment."
This again, however, relies on the preposterous assumption that the entirely innocent can be treated by government in a far more cruel manner than can be the criminally convicted. Again, that is insanity.
Since it is a judge who is ordering the excruciatingly painful starvation and dehydration of Terri Schiavo, then it is clearly a government imposed "cruel and unusual" procedure.
One almost feels compelled to argue that the judge must order lethal injection.
Shouldn't Schiavo get, at least, some kind of quick death that death penalty opponents still reject as cruel and unususal? We could maybe delude ourselves then that Judge Greer is attempting to demonstrate a bit of mercy.
I'd like to take him on a little fishing trip. Either that or a little hunting trip.