McGrath, you are ignoring the facts of what happens to the physical body when a person dies a natural death as a result of this sort of injury or illness, including when the person is fully conscious.

Do you call that "starving to death"? No, you don't. When a person voluntarily chooses to stop eating and drinking in order to allow their body to die, do you accuse them of committing suicide? No, you don't. Or when loved ones who assist the person in the process of dying don't force a feeding tube into them, do you call them "murderers"? No, you don't.

Yes, when food and hydration aren't given for long enough, the body dies. But the medical term for it isn't "starving to death". That is the Right to Life movement's term for it.

The medical profession refers to the state the body goes into while shutting down (when food and hydration isn't happening) as "ketosis" which is the same process the body undergoes when you diet to lose weight, when you fast for spiritual reasons, whatever.

So what does any of this have to do with "starving to death"? Dietary ketosis is a process whereby your body burns fat and turns it into a source of fuel called ketones. Ketones are produced whenever body fat is burned. When you burn a larger amount of fat than is immediately needed for energy, the excess ketones are discarded in the urine. When a person's body is shutting down because it is dying, the level of ketones simply builds up until the toxic level is reached, which causes the heart to stop. That is exactly what happened to this poor woman 15 years ago, when medical interventions began in an attempt to save her life.

No person in their right mind would say the medical interventions 15 years ago were wrong. The husband seems to be a stand up guy. Filed a malpractice lawsuit against the doctors who didn't catch that his wife's eating disorder was causing the damage to her body that it did, and the money being set aside to pay for her nursing home care. Had he been a shit, he could have just divorced her and walked away, leaving her a ward of the state. Instead, he went to bat for her, and has stuck by his guns that this is what SHE would have wanted him to do, every step of the way.

This case is being used as a political football by the Christian fundamentalists, and the politicians who rely upon them. There aren't even 50 people in Florida outside the nursing home right now, protesting the removal of the feeding tube, and according to the most recent polls, an overwhelming majority of Americans supports the removal of the feeding tube. The federal courts (all the way to the US Supreme Court--twice now) have refused to intervene in the case, and have consistently returned the case to the Florida courts, where it has been adjudicated as far as it can go.

This is being driven totally by Republican Christian fundamentalist politics. They see an opportunity to drive through federal legislation that will overturn two decades worth of living will and right to die legislation at the state levels, and are going for it.

The US Congress has NEVER intervened like this in the case of an individual. This is a violation of the separation of powers (ie the legislative branch is trying to overrule the judiciary). The precedent is being set that parents of adult children can intervene in medical cases like this, and the right of the spouse to act as legal guardian be overturned and thrown out.

This is a huge stinking mess, and it is a huge stinking mess because of politician and media whore scum who created an echo chamber beating the drums on the airwaves this week.

It is simply appalling.