Quit being mealy-mouthed and get on with it, for heaven's sake.
If people are having their feeding tubes pulled across this country without their consent than I will think of the Schiavo case as Brown v. The Board of Education or Rosa Parks or any other civil rights injustice that came to be associated with one name.
If a person decides to have their feeding tube pulled so they may die that is a different case.
If a person can not communicate and a guardian decides, after all hope is gone, that a feeding tube is to be pulled that is a different case.
Terri could have communicated her wishes- she was not allowed to. Her Guardian had a conflict of interest and would benefit from her death. There are numerous questions about how Terri got into that condition in the first place AND her parents wanted to care for her.
Thanks to the internet- and a large group of bloggers and Freepers Terri's case became familiar to us over the last four or so years. The case is so clearly a right to kill case and many people have issues with that. That is what makes her different.