It is merely anecdotal, but I spoke with a conservative lady who grew up reflexively voting for Democrats but has voted Republican recently because, like Senator Miller, today's party was no longer the Democratic party she recognized.
She was livid with anger about the starvation of poor Mrs. Schiavo; I don't think the Democrats can reckon on getting another for vote from her for county dog-catcher after their performance in this case.
[In fairness, I should have pointed out that Republicans in the Florida senate were disappointing on this issue, but the larger point that nationally the Democrats were indeed in the pro-death camp and the Republicans were not makes that point only a note for the sake of completeness. Indeed, there were a number of Democrats who were not in the pro-death camp, including Florida Senator Al Lawson.]
My sister leans heavily Democrat, she almost cried talking to me on the phone about the wrongness of starving her to death.