The same language from the judge's ORDER was posted even earlier than that, in post #243, by Spiff:
ORDERED AND ADJUDGED that absent a stay from the appellate courts, the guardian, MIACHAEL SCHIAVO, shall cause the removal of nutrition and hydration from the ward, THERESA SCHIAVO, at 1:00 p.m. on Friday, March 18, 2005. [color emphasis mine]
Since Spiff has already said it so well before, I'll quote him again (post #275)...
Read my lips, she did not die because medical treatment was removed.Got it? One more time, she died because the judge ordered that her guardian shall remove all hydration and nutrition.
...and also jwalsh07 in post #247:
Shall is the key word Spiff, not MAY but SHALL. State ordered death.
Perhaps you don't understand that with this order -- even if Michael Schiavo had changed his mind, or suddenly had another change of "memory", the decision to kill Terri was then out of Michael Schiavo's hands, and in the hands of the court.
And don't forget that Judge Greer not only ordered the removal of Terri's feeding tube, but he also ordered that no food or water be given to Terri by any other means.
It WAS the state that ordered Terri's death.
Sorry Spiff and jwalsh07, I forgot the rule about pinging other posters to a post where their names are mentioned (even though they're favorable mentions)... see post 294.
Actually, and it was robertpaulsen who helped me understand this, the judge did not order the removal of the feeding tube. He ordered the "discontinuance of said artificial life support". A feeding tube is no more "artificial life support" than a soda straw to sip Ensure through. Realizing his error and to make sure that Terri would be good and dead, the judge later ordered that all nutrition and hydration be removed. You know, just to clarify things and to make sure that the end result was a corpse.