I don't know anyone who would choose to die in pain if there were an alternative... even if that choice meant they would die sooner.
We're talking about terminal patients with no good outcome. It even applies to Terri's case, once the ruling had been made and death was the only outcome, who would choose lingering in avoidable pain for her? I hope the Terri-bot crowd will come, in time, to realize, that this issue is much more complex than just the one standard they wish to apply to all cases. I do not want them coming in and demonizing anyone in my family who makes the end of life decisions for me or my family.
I don't know of anyone who supported her right to life that believed there is a cookie cutter answer for all the complex situations that come up in life on earth.
There were so many problems in Terri's case that it probably "took the cake" for improprieties including the fact that she was placed in the hospice without a doctor's signature and was not recertified every six months as the law requires.
What should not be confused is that there is a difference between brain damage and terminal illness. The statute used as justification for pulling her tube was only supposed to apply to terminally ill patients. The legislators all know this.
You have no idea the shock among the people I've talked with when it was learned that food and nutrition delivered to a body in any method other than a fork/spoon is in the Florida Statutes as "life prolonging procedures". I know people who have a feeding tube for various reasons and are not sick and drive, work, etc every day. No one would know unless they shared that info.
Justice For Florida Seniors has a lot of useful info . There are articles about people who had advance directives that were ignored by medical personell, info how guardianships are bilked, etc. At the end of the day we can do all humanly possible to prepare for worst case scenario and it may not make a bit of difference.
Hospice Patients Alliance also has a lot of good info.