The publicity from the Terri Schiavo case has apparently saved its first life. Apparently an ill elderly woman was consigned to dehydration by her grandchildren despite having an advance directive stating that she only wanted no feeding tube if she were in a persistent vegetative state. She wasn’t in such a state and had a treatable heart condition. Yet, a hospice agreed to dehydrate her and she went without food or water for a week. Other relatives intervened and she is apparently safe, for now. But look at how easy some now find it to deprive the cognitively disabled and frail elderly of all food and water.