Mr. Hughes rose to the challenges of raising his disabled son, and is blessed. Schiavo is just the opposite -- lazy, self-obsessed, greedy. He not only broke his oaths to God and shirked every duty to his wife, he killed her to be free of his "burden" and to steal her estate. There will be no happiness for him, ever. No satisfaction with life. No sense of accomplishment. His worldly goods are stolen. The one treasure in his life, he murdered. The demons will be with him day and night... unto eternity.
As Terri emerges as a symbol of innocence wronged, and as the son of Mr Hughes emerges as a symbol of hope, Mikey sinks as a symbol of evil intent and the wages of sin.
With his demons circling around him as the vultures circled around the hospice while Terri lay suffering, his image is worthy of a new creation of a modern Shakespeare. What a variety of apparitions he had and still entertains, some quite human, some just dark shadows.
It is wonderful for us all to be NOT Mikey. We have a New Year with a form of hope he cannot yet,if ever, understand.