What happened to Terri is just as horrendous as abortion.
And from what I saw, I think Terri probably moved about like a new born or a couple of months old baby but I think that she was probably mentally at the 2-4 year old level at least. She just wasn't able to express at that level with words or running around.
She knew what dancing meant and she moved slightly with her arms in the air when the witnesses mentioned dancing.
I have not seen but a couple of the Schiavo tapes. But the ones that I saw, were ones that the family claimed showed her responding. Frankly, she did not appear to be as responsive as even a two month old baby, much less a two to four year old.
But the real point of my essay, and the real point that you choose to ignore is that we have a system of local justice in America--one of the principles fought for in the Revolution--and you refuse to accept the result, simply because it doesn't fit your spectator notion of what the result should have been. If you do not see how quickly this type of reasoning leads to absolute anarchy, where no body respects anyone else's legal rights--one of the ideas you claim to agree is important, at least by implication--you are simply too focused on your own immediate perceptions.
Again, I am not going to try to repeat the whole article, endlessly. My essay touches upon many of the things that you express concern over, and tries to put them into a broader context, both legal, historic, cultural and ethical. It won't, I am sure, convince you, when you can redefine words the way that you did at the beginning of your post, but it is at Terry Schiavo.
TERRI WANTED TO LIVE but Judge Whittemore who is a friend of strip king Joe Redner didn't want to bother with her. why would a judge who's friends are atheists want to save an innocent woman? Redner's friends, the Atheists of Florida and the ACLU which Redner is a member of also applauded Judge Whittemore for sticking it to the congress and to the president, to the Schindlers AND TO TERRI.
There is plenty of evil to go around in Florida. Judge Whittemore is just as GUILTY as Judge Greer. James D. Whittemore, not his honor, his weirdness is more like it.