What Terri has been sentenced to

Catholics in the Public Square is doing an especially fine job of covering the murder of Terri Schaivo- including a clinical description of what this aware human being will be made to endure in the coming days, based on a dissenting opinion written by a judge in the case of Paul Brophy, the first person to be starved to death by judicial order in the United States, back in 1986:

* Her mouth will dry out and become caked or coated with thick material.
* Her lips will become parched and cracked.
* Her tongue will swell, and might crack.
* Her eyes will recede back into their orbits and her cheeks would become hollow.
* The lining of her nose might crack and cause her nose to bleed.
* Her skin will hang loose on her body and become dry and scaly.
* Her urine will become highly concentrated, leading to burning of the bladder.
* The lining of her stomach will dry out and she will experience dry heaves and vomiting.
* Her body temperature will become very high.
* Her brain cells will dry out, causing convulsions.
* Her respiratory tract will dry out, and the thick secretions that would result could plug her lungs and cause death.
* At some point within five days to three weeks her major organs, including her lungs, heart, and brain, will give out and she will die.

This is an act of mercy, you see.