"the 30 years of case law will still exist, people will still have feeding tubes removed, and other patients like Schiavo will died. And I don't see any passion over that fact."
Would it be fair to say:
-people will still have feeding tubes removed in quiet, with no fanfare when the family consents to it.
-it is a very personal decision made by family members and not usually subject to public scrutiny.
-unless someone with "standing" objects, we wont know about it, and there will be no controversy litigated in the courts.
The cases we know about arose when there was a dispute about it, and the result of those cases is fact dependent. This case is dirty, and hence, more passion about it.
What you say is quite fair. However, the point is this: Terri Schiavo is going to die very soon in all likelihood. Then what? Does everyone just walk away? Do they lash out in willy nilly in all directions, blaming anyone and everyone from the husband all the way up to the POTUS? Was this really just about the Terri Schiavo soap opera, or about the legal and medical issues highlighted by this case? Were people really worked up about principles? If so, the principles far transcend this one case.