As a person with a disability myself as well as someone who works with the disability rights movement I just want to say thank you to those of you who posted comments concerning the value of life and the slippery slope this type of situation starts down.
I respect people's right to disagree with me but the "better dead than disabled" attitude that some people have sometimes is quite frustrating.
Terri's situation is very complicated and I don't begin to know all the answers but as has been pointed out...while she is admittedly very low function, she recognizes family and friends, shows some emotions and is not in a great deal of pain, at least from the reports that I've seen. The complication of a fueding family and the lack of a living will makes this very hard.
She is not on life support other than a feeding tube...should she starve to death simply because her stroke no longer allows her to feed herself.
I'm not sure of the answer in Terri's case but I think the overall attitude that a less than normal life is somehow less of a life altogether and therefore easier to eliminate scares me. As someone said earlier...who next...the mentally ill, the elderly....Me ?
Again, thanks to those others who raised those points, I post them here all the time but coming from me, someone who is disabled and therefore biased, some people think it is just being overly sensitive or too militant.