Inadvertently, you have swerved into the crux of the matter. The courts have said it, but there is question that Terri herself said it. The courts, using conflicted personnel, based their rulings on hearsay evidence, something not normally done when a person's life is at stake. Show me a legally binding, unaltered document that specifies Terri's wishes, signed by Terri herself, appropriately notarized and documented, then I'll believe it (and even then, I don't believe she, or any rational person, would wish to be starved to death). Until then, you're basing your judgment on hearsay, much of it offered by a person whose interests are obviously conflicted. Condemning an innocent person to die on the basis of such evidence is legally questionable, not to mention morally reprehensible and ethically indefensible.
"The courts have said it, but there is question that Terri herself said it. The courts, using conflicted personnel, based their rulings on hearsay evidence, something not normally done when a person's life is at stake. Show me a legally binding, unaltered document that specifies Terri's wishes, signed by Terri herself, appropriately notarized and documented, then I'll believe it (and even then, I don't believe she, or any rational person, would wish to be starved to death). Until then, you're basing your judgment on hearsay, much of it offered by a person whose interests are obviously conflicted. Condemning an innocent person to die on the basis of such evidence is legally questionable, not to mention morally reprehensible and ethically indefensible."
Well put. Mind if I plagiarize?
Someone said it well yesterday:
As 'mildly pro-right-to-die' blogger Ace of Spades noted, 'You need a written contract for any lease of land that lasts more than one year; it seems very odd to me indeed that the taking of a human life requres only one hearsay statement from one interested party.'
In 1677, the Statute of Frauds required that certain contracts be put in writing to be enforceable. It begins
"FOR prevention of many Fraudulent Practices which are commonly endeavoured to be upheld by Perjury and Subornation of Perjury Bee it enacted by the Kings most excellent Majestie..."