The thing is, even if it was uncertain that Schiavo was aware, the right thing would have been to err on the side of caution and not proceed with the barbaric two-week murder by starvation and dehydration.
I wonder how much pressure there was on the doctor who performed the autopsy to reach certain conclusions. Also, who determined who was going to perform the autopsy?
Amen. Had Terri been a snail darter or some other beast the court would have tried to stop the earth's rotation on her behalf.