On the other hand, this was a baby whose dying was unconscionably prolonged. He suffered horribly, to the extent that he was capable of feeling pain - since his lungs were undeveloped and his nervous system had shut down. He had been blind and deaf since birth, and once the nervous system shut down he was completely brain dead. He had no reflexes at all (no respiration, no eye responses, and only the faintest response to pain.) In addition to a respirator he required horrendously painful and invasive procedures (catheters, treatment for severe constipation, collapsing lungs, etc.)
This is essentially keeping a corpse alive. Like I said, it's a bad, bad test case.
I'm afraid that cases where the parents are not facing reality (like this - where the mother claimed the baby was responding to her even though it was clear he wasn't) require intervention. A superior court judge would be a better bet than a hospital board with a financial interest in the case (then again, that didn't help much in Schiavo's case).
However, the crux of Emilio’s case was that it pitted a TOTALLY UNITED FAMILY against the state.