The court-ordered removal of a feeding tube from a woman in a vegetative state upholds the wishes of her husband and legal guardian, pitted against her parents and siblings who insist that she wishes to live in a bitter and heart-wrenching battle. (Note to self: execute living will.)

The debate centers around the opacity of the so-called ‘persistent vegetative state’, unanswered questions about how much cognition and awareness, if any, people experience when in that state, and how irreversible it is. I have previously written about studies visualizing brain activity in such states and the promise they have of addressing these questions. In the meanwhile, what we’ll have to settle for is the vivid imagination of family members clustered around her whose wishful thinking expresses itself as reading intention and meaning into her spontaneous moans and reflexive gestures. And the grandstanding of a former Operation Rescue anti-abortion luminary who promises that her presence will attract media attention with comments like, “This is someone who’s cognitive, folks…”

Mrs. Schiavo’s situation is not nearly as cut and dried as some other right-to-die cases, because she is not elderly, comatose or hooked up to a respirator. And most of the facts are in dispute. Mr. Schiavo says his wife once told him that she would never want her life prolonged artificially; he believes doctors who have testified that Mrs. Schiavo is in a persistent vegetative state, unable to think or swallow food. A doctor appointed by the court supported this finding, as did those hired by Mr. Schiavo.

But other doctors have testified that with intensive therapy, their daughter could eat and perhaps even speak.

…Dr. Goodman said that disputes as intractable as the one between Mrs. Schiavo’s husband and parents were extremely rare, and that the animosity was turning the situation into the “ugliest end-of-life case ever.”

The Schindlers use the word “hate” to describe their feelings toward their son-in-law. They even theorize that Mr. Schiavo strangled their daughter that night in 1990, pointing to at least one doctor’s finding that she had a rigid neck when she arrived at the hospital. Shortly before her brain damage, Mrs. Schiavo, who her family described as shy and insecure, told them she wanted a divorce.

The Schindlers also question why Mr. Schiavo did not spend the $1 million he won in a medical malpractice suit on rehabilitative therapy for his wife.

Mr. Schiavo’s lawyers have suggested that the Schindlers wanted custody of their daughter just to get some of the malpractice money. On Tuesday, George Felos, Mr. Schiavo’s lawyer, repeated what his client had said all along: that he loves his wife and is simply carrying out her wishes. —New York Times