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When I first read about the removal of the feeding tube from a woman who, as far as I knew, would be able to feel the agony of starvation, I was in a state of utter disbelief. How could something so barbaric be happening in the United States? But in a matter of a few days, my opinion changed completely as I saw that the battle over Terri Schiavo's life is less about the woman and more about people furthering personal interests.

Media coverage has repeatedly mentioned her husband's allegation that long before she fell into the vegetative state, Terri had stated that she wouldn't want drastic measures to keep her alive should she be involved in an accident. We may never know if this is true, and usually I would say that if there is any uncertainty one should err on the side of keeping her alive. But every case must be treated on an individual basis, and when it comes to Terri Schiavo, it is less an issue of disability rights than about who makes the decisions for someone who cannot communicate.

Widespread misinformation, coupled with massive media coverage, leads to trouble. There are many misconceptions regarding Terri Schiavo, and I fell prey to many of them. What finally changed my opinion was the discovery that she could not feel pain due to the fact that her cerebral cortex had been replaced with cerebrospinal fluid. This is where my opinion of whether this was a disability rights case changed.

There is a difference between having a disability like cerebral palsy or multiple sclerosis and having only basic brain stem functions remaining. Terri Schiavo blinks, she breathes, but she is not even aware of this. The video clips of her supposedly reacting to her parents are edited snippets from many hours of footage. Can we be one hundred per cent sure that she lacks all the faculties that made her human? No. But are those who make informed arguments based on scientific evidence really the enemy? Of course not.

If Terri Schiavo was merely disabled, this would be a different case. But she's not disabled. To reply to one group of protestors, she's "Not Dead Yet", but only if you define death as the cessation of breathing. Everything that made Terri Schiavo who she was is gone. Saying that this is the fight for the rights of a disabled woman is an insult to the people whose actual disability claims have gone unrecognized. Why don't the protestors focus on the people who can feel? As much as I used to worry that the case of Terri Schiavo might be a dangerous precedent in the removal of disabled people's rights, I think that the real threat is now coming from people who want to undermine the legal system so that her feeding tube can be reinserted. If any group of people can change the law on a single argument, then everyone is threatened.

Furthermore, what disturbs me is how a dispute between two caretakers has turned into an all-out slugfest for political groups. Many people protesting the removal of the feeding tube, including close allies of her parents, have militant anti-abortion agendas. Removing any woman's right to choose what to do with her body shows that it's not Terri's alleged wishes they care about - it's furthering their own agenda. The right of any woman to have an abortion has nothing to do with the interests of a woman who - right here and right now - is being exploited. Thanks to these groups, Terri is little more than a pawn and a publicity stunt, robbed of the one right she has left: the right to die with dignity.

When I was ten years old, my grandfather fell down a concrete staircase, cracked his head open, and spent the next three-and-a-half years in a coma before he died. He was the classic hopeless case - his eyes didn't even react to light. At a certain point, my mother signed a 'do not resuscitate' order, directing that if he contracted pneumonia for the umpteenth time and his heart stopped, the doctors wouldn't take any measures to save him. This did not make us "murderers"; it simply meant that we were able to recognise a point of no return. As difficult as it may sound, Terri's parents need to do likewise. A few months ago, when my grandfather's son - my uncle - found out that he had terminal cancer and that it had already spread throughout much of his body, he was able to make an informed decision, based on his own experience, on what should be done if he was too incapacitated to make decisions about his own care. In February this year, he died with as much dignity we could give him. Unfortunately, Terri's case has not been so easily resolved. If any of the protestors care about her at all, they will let her go.

Terri Schiavo's face has been plastered across all manner of news media. Undoubtedly she'll become one of the most clichéd and overused images of 2005. I can't attest as to whether Terri Schiavo would have wanted to be kept alive for the past fifteen years, but I think I can say with relative certainty that she wouldn't have wanted her last days to be exploited. I understand that her parents must be going through unfathomable grief, but they are not doing their daughter a favour by turning her into a pawn for various political organisations. To let her preserve her dignity, tell the protestors to go home so that Terri can be shown as a human being and not as a martyr.

I hope that by the time you read this article, the only thing left to say on the subject of Terri Schiavo will be "rest in peace".