Terri Schiavo

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't her husband be completely within the law if he simply walked into the hospital, disconnected her from the medical devices, placed her in a wheelchair and took her home? We all have a right to refuse medical treatment, and we can't be held against our will absent a court order or some kind of due process. Since Terri can't act for herself, that authority rests with her husband exclusively, does it not?

How did the national conservative political consensus, to judge from conservative news outlets online and in the MSM, skip completely over the traditional, common-law conservative position that this is a family matter and the husband makes these decisions, and arrive at the profoundly radical view that the state has to intervene and if Florida lawmakers won't cooperate, then the Feds must get involved? If Terri had been at home all along and the state decided to intervene and remove her to a hospital and force these medical treatments on her over her husbands objections, conservatives would be apoplectic! What the hell is going on?