> Sorry...but we disagree and there are and were
> professional opinions on both side of the matter.
There are *always* "professional" opinions on "both" sides, if you define "professional" loosely enough.
Even the faintest shadow of doubt was removed by the autopsy. Only flagrant denial of reality allows people to maintain the complete and utter fiction that Ms Schiavo could ever have recovered.
Bringing her up every time someone, somewhere, in a completely different circumstance, recovers from a vegetative state does nothing but provide meat for Jon Stewart and Markos Moulitsas.
Cuts both ways...a real two-edged sword.
As to your contention that recovery was impossible...well, I learned a long time ago with medical matters, with personal experience, to never say never. Stranger things have happened that medical science cannot explain at this time.
The bottom line is, she was capable of living...of breathing and being fed. Her parents and specialists on that side of the equation indicated she was responisve and when you have the slightest indication, you err on the side of life IMHO.
Her parents loved her and wanted to care for her. As I said, in the citcumstances and absent any clear living will or derective from her...the only humane thing to do in those circusmatnces was to allow the parents to ovingly care for her IMHO...instead, the state killed her in what many (myself included) consider to be a very agonizing way.
If the determining factor in whether or not medical care becomes based on the value to society of the patient rather than to the patient herself, all your arguments will still inhere and no precedent will intervene in the final decision.