<html> <body> <pre>>What significance is there to the difference between dying from dehydration >and dying from starvation? Was there a reason why that was important? Best guess; from a medical examiners perspective there's probably a completeness issue, and knowing exactly what the cause of death was for the record. The actual immediate cause was probably massive organ and system failure followed by toxemia due to an electrolyte imbalance brought on from dehydration. Oddly I suspect her death certificate and the Pope's read much the same. From a human perspective I understand that you'd rather die of thirst that starve; less painful, your system doesn't start feeding on itself and you're rendered unconscious much sooner due to your system being unable to purge toxins. You will live much longer without food than you will without water. Given what the ME said I don't think any of that mattered to Terry Schiavo, she was gone years ago. PC </pre><x-sigsep></x-sigsep> N Paul Childs 5967-157 Avenue Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T5Y 2P3 e-fax 413-683-9725 _______________________________________________________ 'Gee thanks, your validation means oh, so much to me'. -Art 'Bones' MacDesalavo</body> </html>