Many of us I would guess have experienced a sick or old pet discontinuing food and water, and further, have gone through their pet trying to remove themselves from people in order to die. I suppose that not being disturbed in the process makes it easier or less traumatic for them.

I believe that the process takes several days - I know that it may not take place overnight - while the body shuts down. In my experience, it appears that the dog goes into almost a trancelike state. In being "rescued", the dog seems almost reproachful.

I'm not sure what relevance this has when it comes to human beings- we tend to be a lot less fatalistic when faced with the inevitable -but our 'primitive' brain may have quite a lot in common with other mammals.

On the other hand, when the question is 'How Terri Schiavo will die,' it appears the likely answer is: 'From old age.'

I don't understand why that is, but humans are full of contradiction. Remember a few years back when three whales in Alaska became trapped in a small body of water by a wall of ice? Even the Inuit who routinely hunt whales for sustenance helped the white culture free the whales and herd them back to the open ocean. It took days and lots of money. The logical thing would have been to consider them a windfall and harvest them.