@ #1293533
I have no idea how any of my views on the subject are right-wing, but if you want exposition:
When Michael Schiavo asked doctors not to treat a urinary tract infection in 1993 - three years after her collapse and the year following his successful lawsuit - his wife's $780,000 medical trust was still intact and sizable enough that the right-to die litigator he hired in 95 after the Schindler family first challenged his intentions petitioned the court to pay his fees from it. Michael Schiavo's decision blocking rehabilitative treatment were sensible enough and within his rights as caregiver, but the attempts to block antibiotics for a UT infection were illegal in Florida as it would have killed her. This caught attention and upon direct questioning he explicitly stated he hoped it would ultimately kill her to spare her life as a vegetable.
Before Schiavo's parents discovered and took him to task over the decision he had made no discussions of the right to die, or Terri's thoughts on the subject. It would seem he had hoped the quiet attempt to kill her and his involvement her death would go unnoticed by anyone else being ultimately written off as a complication in the hospital. I find that damning.
While Michael was not married to Jodi Centonze until 2007 he was purportedly dating again as early as 1991, was living with Jodi in 94, and officially announced his engagement in 97 just 17 months before he petitioned to have Terri's feeding tube removed. I will admit to misreading and subsequently misrepresenting the engagement, but the implications remain.
The tube was first removed in 2001, but the decision was appealed and the battle continued until 2005. The million dollar offer for him to waive guardianship to her parents in 2005 was actually legally impossible for him to accept after the February 2000 ruling and ongoing appeal. By the end of 2005 Michael still had $50,000 of the $300,000 he got from his lawsuit and his wife's medical trust was just starting to dry out. It appears, contrary to your claims, that he never paid for any of her treatments out of his own pocket and his legal fees were by far the biggest drain on her medical trust as opposed to any actual treatments. (Assuming my information is accurate.)
With all that in mind, I find the actions of Michael Schiavo overwhelmingly suspicious. When you get into the realm of allegations as to just how his wife wound up brain damaged it goes into the realm of fucking scary shit. While all evidence to that effect is circumstancial it sure doesn't help to alleviate my suspicions of his attitude. He seemed virtually unconcerned with ending any suffering in comparison to simply ending her life.
However, regardless of Michael Schiavo and the conflict of interest I believe existed in the ensuing debacle I support the right-to-die and I would argue with the Schindler family in favor of it. Just... not in the way it went down.
While staggeringly inconsistent, Terri did react occasionally to outside stimuli including familiar images and most importantly: Pain. Do you know what dying of thirst is like? It's agony. When delirium sets in you start grinning like a loon, lose touch with reality, and become about as responsive as someone in Schiavo's condition would already be so it's hard to tell by looking. Those who just barely survive dehydration never have nice things to say about it.
Whether or not she actually felt the pain or her nervous system was causing her to jerk as a reflex is unfortunately up in the air as certain circumstance prevented a conclusive diagnosis of a Persistent Vegetative State. Even confirmed cases will react to painful stimuli specifically with some consistency, so that still leaves room for worry. Either way, I'd really have rather erred on the side of caution and gone for a form of release that she wouldn't have felt or would at least have been over in an instant such as lethal injection or hell, even smothering with a pillow would have been preferable. I believe if Mikey gave a shit about his wife he'd have been pushing for one of those options to be legalized rather than looking for any loophole that would suffice to off her.
In my opinion my qualifying statements above (while they thoroughly gut your misaimed attempts to insult me) are actually pointless as the whole thing was a vicious clusterfuck that shouldn't be used as an example for, against, or even called euthanasia because of the methods used and questionable motivations of involved parties. It's media circus stank taints the broader issue. It's like using OJ Simpson as an example of the norm for court proceedings or WBC as a typical small town congregation.
The right-to-life and right-to-death movements should both back away from this shameful spectacle to examine cases where people had honest-to-God living wills prepared for the possibility and their desires aren't hotly contested hearsay between polarized parties with a fat stack of cash complicating matters.