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I fully agree with your entire post. I was outside the US for the past two weeks and returned only yesterday, and the only English speaking TV channel to which I had access was the British Sky-news which was preoccupied with the Michael Jackson trial when it was not extolling virtues of capitalism (btw, who owns that electronic rag? Murdoch? It is as bad as Fox) - so I luckily missed much of this brouhaha.
I say "luckily" because this affair is quite depressing. It sets the new low of how barbaric the ruling class and a sizeable chunk of this country have become. Foolish idolatry coupled with ruthless profiteering , both economic and political, nicely summarizes the crux of the Schiavo debacle and more generally the state of the US society - which bifurcates into increasingly infantile masses and an army of professional profiteers who prey on (and cultivate) that infantilism.
The fact that the US hospital industry handsomely profits from maintaining bodily functions of brain dead corpses is nothing new, to be sure. The new development is that the political machine got into the mix and demands its slice of the pie. Politicos will inevitably gain a handsome windfall profit from the Schiavo affair by either shedding crocodile tears or fear mongering.
That is a new low of US barbarism, because it cynically exploits the misfortune of a dying person and her family - which is a cultural taboo in more civilized parts of the world. While this is perfectly in line with televised exhibitionism that seems to be a hot commodity among sizeable chunks of the US society, until now it was of limits to political establishments which was supposed to uphold higher standards. Not anymore.
The Schiavo case seems to attract attention not only because of its reality-show-like drama, but because it lends itself to another trope that is dear to sizeable chunks of the US population - patriarchy. It is about the god-given right of the patriarch to decide the fate of his chattel, including women and children, which seems to be denied by secular humanists and elite liberals. If the patriarchy loses the Schiavo case, as it seems to be certain at this time, the Christian creeps will have a new martyrdom story - ready to be cultivated and exploited by political entrepreneurs. But if it wins by some unexpected twist, the fundies will construe it as a "miracle," which again will be skillfully exploited by political entrepreneurs. What a nauseatingly disgusting prospect.
PS. My wife and I have an agreement that if either one of us becomes terminally ill and incapacitated, the other one will procure proper euthanasia, preferably in the Netherlands which as of now provides a relatively solid guarantee of the right to die in dignity. It is probably the toughest choice one can possibly face, but running away from it and escaping into foolish rituals that only prolong the misery is a sure sign of infantilism cum cowardice.
Wojtek