"NO matter what the condition of her brain or how it got that way - you don't deliberately kill someone so inhumanely.
We treat our animals better than that."
You Schiavo supporters keep using that line, that animals are treated more humanely. If a dog or cat or pig or cow was lying somewhere with it's brain gone, it would be immediately taken to the pound and euthanized. How many braindead dogs and cats do you see lying around in the general population. Any?
You have answered your own question but fail to realize it.
Animals are not humans. Our legal system recognizes humans as legal entities with rights derived from a long legal evolution based upon a Judaeo Christian Greco Roman tradition.
In fact Ms Schiavo had legal living relatives who wanted to care for her. If I had a dog who was brain dead and I wanted to take care of my dog, I cannot imagine any judge coming in and forcing me to kill it.
Question for you, what's the difference between snuffing someone with a pillow and simply dehydrating them?
There's a link here I seem to be missing. Maybe you can illuminate things.