Hypocrisy and Terri Schiavo

After nine days without food or water, Terri Schiavo's condition is rapidly worsening. Drudge links to a Reuters report that the end is near:

Schiavo, 41, passed her ninth day without nourishment and Gibbs [lawyer for the Shindler family-jgc] said she was declining rapidly. "They've begun to give her morphine drip for the pain. And at this point, we would say Terri has passed the point of no return," he told CBS' "Face the Nation."

What the... ???!!! I thought that the courts had determined to a medical certainty that Terri Schiavo was incapable of feeling pain! If Terri is in a Persistent Vegetative State as defined by Florida state law, then morphine should not be necessary.

Doesn't the fact that medical doctors have felt it necessary to prescribe morphine make it evident that Terri Schiavo can feel pain? And, therefore, isn't that very fact primae facie evidence that Terri is actually not in a Persistent Vegetative State? That her brain does indeed register pain? That she therefore does retain a minimal level of consciousness? Feeling pain is a higher-level activity, so the reports of her cerebral cortex being gone are clearly incorrect.

This is why Congress passed the Terri Schiavo Law: so that Judge Greer's decisions could be set aside and an objective look at Terri's condition could be taken. Judge Whittmoore, the federal judge who refused to look at the case, clearly misinterpreted the law in order to support his former colleagues on the Florida judiciary.

Why on Earth does a Florida state probate judge get to play God and decree that Terri Schiavo must be starved to death? Can someone tell me where in the Constitution does it give the government the authority not only to withdraw a feeding tube but to withhold all food and water by any and all means from someone who has not committed any crime or done anyone any harm on her husband-who-has-a-family-with-another-woman's say-so?

This whole thing sickens me. Michael Schiavo sickens me. His lawyer George Felos sickens me. Judge Greer's arrogance sickens me. And Judge Whittmoore sickens me with his moral cowardice. Maybe the only good thing that will come of this innocent woman's death is that we'll change our laws so this disgusting situation never happens again.

Michael Schiavo has shown the same disregard for people protesting his treatment of his wife when they showed up at his house:

A small group of protesters went to Michael Schiavo's home to lay symbolic dying
roses on his lawn. Someone inside turned on the lawn sprinklers, drenching the
demonstrators.

How ironic that a man who won't let anyone give his suffering wife a sip of water is all too willing to turn the tap on for anyone calling him what he is... a murderer.

Update: I'm not the only one asking why Terri needs pain relief when she can't feel pain and when the manner of her death is supposedly painless.