What Mark Kleiman says...

My revulsion at the fascists right's behavior surrounding Terri Schiavo keeps me from speaking in reasonable terms, so I provide Mark's excellent summation on situation morality:

In war and politics, take the high ground

The key political fact about the Schiavo case so far is that it's being reported as "morality v. pragmatism." The notion that it might be immoral to tell lies about Terri Schiavo's condition and prognosis, or to keep the body alive when the self is gone, or to make a public circus out of a private tragedy, or to make up and spread horrible rumors about Michael Schiavo's actions and nasty insinuations about his motives, or to slander Judge Greer, seem to be too complicated for the typical reporter to understand.

As long as the right wing is seen as standing up for moral values, they're going to continue to win elections.