"Schiavo was the severely brain damaged woman who died March 31 after spending 15 years connected to a feeding tube. It finally was disconnected, after a bitter right-to-die dispute between her husband and her parents. The case went all the way to the White House and Congress."
Grrr... doncha hate the incessent media misinformation? This was not a 'right-to-die' case, this was a case where her husband and a judge decided to kill her. right-to-kill, euthanasia, or murder, whatever - but not 'right-to-die'. Terri's rights were ignored.
The media is so blatant because he public lets them get away with such. The whole notion of a 'right to die,' is a logical absurdity as we are all, in a physical sense, destined to die sooner or later. The 'right to die' is akin to 'the right to obey the law of gravity.' I'm not aware of anyone who has ever been damned to immortality because they were denied the 'right to die' (okay, barring the arguable Biblical interpretation of Genesis regarding Cain). The media uses this wordplay to sugar coat the realities which are the right to life, the right to kill and the right to refuse treatment.
The right to life is a given in our founding document and I would argue that anyone who does not embrace it is un-American. Likewise, society retains the right to deprive life within the constraints of due process and the prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. Under no other circumstances may one be deprived of life without violating the Natural Law that must be accepted by any person who accepts the tenets of the Declaration of Independence. The right to refuse medical treatment falls under the pursuit of happiness and as such, is something I firmly believe in, and there are in fact due process considerations to treatment given against one's will, particularly in regards to the involuntary commitment of substance abusers and extreme psychological disorders. In regards to the Schiavo case it is my opinion that Terri's declination of treatment was never adequately established as it would have been given a living will or even corroborating witnesses to her alleged oral statements. It is also my humble opinion that had the case unfolded in 1776, Greer, Felos and M.Schiavo would have been tarred and feathered or worse...