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...there is a legal and moral distinction between "killing" and removing treatment from someone who does not want it.

Morality and all of its associated ideals are rooted entirely in the presupposition some higher power defines what is correct for human behavior.

Perhaps you can tell who does not want treatment by reading their mind? You are a psychic maybe?

There is no legal distinction for a judge to determine all by himself, without a jury, that someone's life should be ended by the action of the state. That is tyranny, fascism, or whatever the hell you want to call it...

As for the "moral" distinction, your problem is you just like to play "god" and I'm an atheist...

The mind-reading rules in this case were to haruspicate from the gurgling entrails of three people named Schiavo, ignore all other testimony, excuse a fatal error of fact by the bench followed by the bench falsifying the records of its error, and then stamp the findings "clear and convincing" evidence, because, see, the statutes say you should have clear and convincing evidence.

Let's roll :-)

Perhaps you can tell who does not want treatment by reading their mind? You are a psychic maybe?

When it comes to my wife, I don't need to read her mind (good thing, because she and I both know that I certainly can't). I have the legal right to infer what she would want in such circumstances, based on our private relationship.

The state should keep its grubby paws out of that relationship - they have no right to interfere with family medical decisions. If you don't want your spouse making such decisions on your behalf, that's easy enough to arrange.

Truth and principle should supersede politics. Terri was supported by left and right, atheists and believers. One of the best was Nat Hentoff of the Village Voice, dean of American civil rights writers, an atheist. He followed the case for years and knew the facts and fine print intimately. Here is one of his columns -- written while Terri was being executed.

TERRI SCHIAVO: JUDICIAL MURDER / Her crime was being disabled, voiceless, and at the disposal of our media

...we have watched as this woman, whose only crime is that she is disabled, is tortured to death by judges, all the way to the Supreme Court.

And keep in mind from the Ralph Nader-Wesley Smith report: "The courts . . . have [also] ordered that no attempts be made to provide her water or food by mouth. Terri swallows her own saliva. Spoon feeding is not medical treatment. This outrageous order proves that the courts are not merely permitting medical treatment to be withheld, they have ordered her to be made dead."

In this country, even condemned serial killers are not executed in this way.