The Schiavo case has been hugely misrepresented in the media, not least by the BBC, which has reported it under a 'Right to Die' caption. It is not about the right to die: it is about the right to kill. The weasel term 'persistent vegetative state' has been attached to Mrs Schiavo, although her husband has refused to have her tested to establish her clinical status. Terri Schiavo is not a vegetable; she is not on a life-support machine; she does not have any tubes attached to her body. She has received visitors, out of bed and fully dressed. Her feeding tube was not "removed", since it had never been a permanent attachment: doctors, constrained by court order, stopped connecting it to her at mealtimes.
The Schiavo family has put some startling videos on the internet which show Mrs Schiavo making eye contact with her mother, smiling and visibly reacting to her. There is strong evidence she is not in a so-called persistent vegetative state. Dr William Hammesfahr, a Nobel Prize-nominated neurologist who has an international reputation for treating brain-injured patients, said earlier this month: "We, and others I know, have treated many patients worse than Terri and have seen them regain independence and dignity."