The Florida legislature empowered Bush to step into the fray. (MSNBC) The move emboldens the Christian fundamentalist right, which campaigned hard for this intervention. (New York Times). Pundits say the Florida law will be found unconstitutional (Dallas News). Terri Schiavo remains a ping pong ball (Reuters). As I have written before, some of the opposition to ending life support for Schiavo arises from a merciless misunderstanding of what a ‘persistent vegetative state’ is. This woman and others like her have no conscious awareness or possibility of regaining such. I have seen press coverage liken this to Nazi eugenics programs or raise the spectre of state-sanctioned killing of ‘defectives’, which is pitifully, contemptibly off the mark. Even if one grasps the PVS concept, mistrust of the medical profession leads to fears that mistakes could be made in diagnosing someone as irretrievable in this way. Finally, some of the opposition revolves around the notion that it is barbaric to starve someone to death, which is probably wrong on two counts. First, there is no sentient experience in PVS. Secondly, as has been recently reported here, death from starvation may not be an uncomfortable way to go, especially if someone is being kept comfortable in other ways. But withdrawing nutrition is the best that a medical profession that cannot take compassionate life-ending measures can do. Perhaps the fundamentalists should start to espouse the death-with-dignity cause?