Terri Sciavo – the Post-Mortem

The hoopla over the release of Terri Sciavo's autopsy seems to be ignoring a couple of points that were made, pretty consistently, all along.

What is mostly overlooked is that not everyone who opposed the court-ordered death made those kind of conspiratorial arguments. Some made ethical or religious argument against ending Terri's life, while others argued that Terri's wishes were never truly known. In all of Wizbang's coverage of Terri Schiavo the main point addressed was the court's determination of Terri's intent. To me Terri's wishes were the beginning and end of the case. According to the Supreme Court Michael Schiavo had no right to end Terri's life unless by "clear and convincing evidence" her wishes not to be kept alive artificially were made known beforehand. The claims that Terri had expressed her desire not to be kept alive by machine were neither timely nor particularly convincing, and Michael was aided by much better counsel on this critical issue. The determination of Terri's intent was made by Judge Greer as a finding of fact which was never seriously reviewed any appellate court. Lot's of issues were reviewed, but a de novo review of Terri's wishes was never performed, even after Congress acted.