That was excellent PR because he had nothing to loose - he knew full well that her parents would never agree to allow him to kill her, so that is all that was - good PR. You are very naive if you think it was anything more than that.
Call it what you will. He made the offer, in writing. He did not have to do that.
"he knew full well that her parents would never agree to allow him to kill her"
Hey! Guess what happenened anyways?
And let's not paint her parents as saints. After the January, 2000 hearing when they learned that Terri did not want to live that way, did they change their mind? No.
Promising in-home care to Terri, her parents knew they would be the sole recipients of that $700,000. Pretty tempting to a couple coming out of bankruptcy.