Certainly some conservative politicians tried to make a cause of this. But on the other side, some liberal politicians saw this as a way to count a major coup on Bush and the conservatives. Neither side is blameless in the "politicizing" arena.

As far as your comments, you did no worse on this than anyone else did here. That it affects you deeply is obvious, and I suspected some personal background issue. Many people dealing with this have had to do so through the filter of a painful personal experience, and this has been true across the internet. Some have come forward. Others have not, which is their right.

It's obvious that this incident caused serious philosophical conflicts in a lot of people. God knows I had trouble finding my feet on it, and still have problems. Many conservatives besides myself--and it doesn't take a lot of blog checking to show this--were upset by the Federal government weighing in and the precedent set. I was, too. The state government? Not as cut and dried, but still...

I have never subscribed to the "murder" theory, or any of the more ridiculous scenarios. I resented being lumped automatically with those who did. I do believe that Michael is not exactly a disinterested party in this, but I personally ascribe that more to his desire to settle down with his new mate, put Terri out of the picture, and end the legal back-and-forth. In this light, I still have doubts about his relating Terri's "wishes." I would have felt a lot better if one of the witnesses to her statements on this subject had been a personal friend, a waitress, or somebody outside of the family stew.

I still think the best solution, all courts and legal crap aside, would have been to simply let the parents take over, sign away responsibility (and liability,) and everyone get on with their lives. Obviously, PVS or not, the parents would have happily cared for her for the rest of her life, and if she was truly mindless and in no pain, I didn't see any down side. But there it is.