Actually, I don't think they have lost in the court of public opinion. Here, we're informed. "Out there", the people that have actually heard of this case still believe (and will continue to believe) that Terri was on "life support" and that her "husband" should have the decision and that the evil Republicans were just trying to control everyone's personal life and.... yadda yadda yadda. Besides, it's not like it's Nazi Germany or anything. That stuff can't happen here. (/sarcasm)
I don't think so. That may have been true a few days ago, but most people expected that she would die when life support was removed. The fact that she has held on for 8 days without food or water is beginning to worry a lot of people. This isn't what they thought it would be.