Terri Schiavo
The right to die case surrounding American Terri Schiavo has dominated the international media for two weeks now. Schiavo has been in a vegatative state for 15 years, and her husband won a landmark case 13 days ago to have her feeding tube removed. Her parents have taken their fight for her life to every avenue of the American legal system, but have failed in their attempts to have the tube reinserted. American lawyer and civil rights activist Elaine Cassel says the issues surrounding the case have become far greater than the right to life for just one woman. The Wire also spoke to Sandra Kanck from the Australian Democrats about a trial program at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Adelaide, in which patients facing live threatening surgery fill out forms dictating exactly what they want to happen should they fall into a permanent vegatative state.