[goldstategop]

If his wife was a burden, he could have divorced her and left her to her parents care and been happy living with his second wife. It wasn't that hard a choice. He could have a man about it instead of making her family look like the villains in what followed.

(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")

[AliVeritas]

Don't get me started, I read all the court documents and police reports... as well as hospice reports... it was a lot worse than anyone thinks.

[supercat]

If his wife was a burden, he could have divorced her and left her to her parents care and been happy living with his second wife. It wasn't that hard a choice. He could have a man about it instead of making her family look like the villains in what followed.

Early on, Michael would have stood to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars from doing so. Later, he had a different problem: if Terri were given to someone else and started thriving when given such bizarre treatments as sunshine and compassion, what would that have shown about Michael's care?

As long as Michael could argue that nothing he could do would improve Terri's condition, he could not very well be charged with neglect. But if even giving Terri ordinary care would have improved her condition, it would be hard to argue that Michael's willful failure to do so did not constitute criminal neglect.

Note that the threat isn't that Terri might recover enough to say how she collapsed--rather, the threat is that any significant recovery would expose Michael to criminal charges.