"The situation went from bad to worse, Cooper-Dowda claimed, when several copies of a booklet she had written detailing the similarities between her experience and that of Terri Schindler Schiavo appeared on campus. At age 30, the teacher contracted a severe case of lupus that left her unable to speak and with very little control over her motor functions. She listened helplessly as doctors incorrectly diagnosed her as being in a Persistent Vegetative State, the same condition some physicians believe afflicts Terri, and described her chances for recovery as 'hopeless.'

'I could hear all that,' Cooper-Dowda recalled. 'It took a huge effort to finally communicate, 'I'm in here!' And I barely survived.'

Though she could not speak, Cooper-Dowda would use her finger to write the word 'no' in the air when doctors discussed removing her life support. Those same doctors diagnosed her attempts to communicate as 'seizure activity' and sedated her. According to Cooper-Dowda, the harder she tried to communicate with her caretakers, the more heavily she was sedated."

And the culture of death marches on.