Derb counters Prof. George with the claim that it “is Mr. Schiavo’s decision and presumption, in custom and in law,” whether his wife’s life is worth living and whether she would be better off dead. A good portion of George’s comments in the interview are devoted to establishing that, in truth, the law does not grant anyone the right to decide that someone else’s life is worth living. He claims that the law merely recognizes a right to refuse burdensome treatment for someone else who lacks the capacity to exercise that right herself. The law contemplates situations in which someone will turn down a treatment in order to bring about death, and does not always punish people who have done that, but it does not do so because it recognizes a right to do that. (Note that Mr. Schiavo is not claiming that the treatment places a burden on Mrs. Schiavo; he is claiming rather that it is keeping her from dying, which he regards as a problem.)