Sorry, I meant to also provide a link to the Nancy Cruzan case, the now famous right to die case that was eventually decided by the US Supreme Court.

I'm pretty sure, if I am understanding the arguments being made by "legal experts" in the press on the news programs about this, that the Supremes likely turned down the Schiavo case because of the Florida SC decision, with this as the US Supreme Court's legal precedent in a right to die case.

The Nancy Cruzan case is the one most similar to the Schiavo case in terms of medical intervention. My understanding is Nancy Cruzan wasn't on a respirator, just a feeding tube. She died within a few days of having the feeding tube removed.