The family has no standing. It is just that the court wanted to hear them as sort of an amicus curiae.
Good thing, too. I don't want the congress getting in the middle of my personal affairs
I don't want congress interfering with my personal affairs, but only to the point that I have reasonably directed those personal affairs.
Here's an example; My mother was diagnosed with cancer. She wanted to execute an Advance Directive. The net result was that a DNR or any other extraordinary measures would be taken to sustain her life.
Early in her treatment, she was in the hospital and her treatment was going well for the cancer, but she was struggling with lung infections. I walked into her hospital room and she was wearing a colored bracelet, which indicated DNR. I asked her to remove it, because if anything happened to her while recovering from a lung infection, they wouldn't do anything to save her; even though her experimental cancer treatment was doing well.
When she was diagnosed with cancer, we were told that she had 6 to 8 months. With her treatment, they extended her life to nearly 4 years, and her quality of life was good, right up until the day she died.
We changed her Advance Directive so that her children could make the determination to stop extraordinary measures to sustain her life, a responsibility we accepted, understanding that if her decline was a result of advancement of cancer, and not some other treatable problem, we would execute her advance directive.
Legal guardianship of Terri can come under legitimate question. Her husband has done a 180 on his approach to Terri's care, once the CIVIL SUIT money came through.
The challenging the effectiveness of a legal guarding happens every day with healthy people and in many cases those guardians are removed and for good reasons. The left-wing death culture lives on.
You may be heartened to know that there are judges who will meddle in your affairs, killing you on the basis of hearsay testimony as to your own wishes, and spare congress the trouble.