[WS:] Not true. Student loans can be forgiven under certain circumstances (http://www.finaid.org/loans/forgiveness.phtml) or deferred. "Cannot be cancelled by death" is absurd on its face - how is a dead person supposed to pay off his/her debt? I think you are confusing it with responsibilities of co-signers who are liable if the original borrower defaults - but that holds for all kinds of loans with co-signers. For more details see http://www.studentloanborrowerassistance.org/loan-cancellation/disability-and-death/
Having said that, student loans are not dischargeable by bankruptcy - and this was the case even before the bankruptcy laws were tightened by the Bush administration. But then nothing will happen if you do not have income or property to pay your student debt. The US has no debtor prisons. In other words, US legal creditors can go after your property if you have it (typically within certain limits, they cannot garnish all your wages for example) but they cannot go after your person. Of course this does not apply to illegal creditors, such as gangsters or drug dealers, who typically go after your person.
-- Wojtek
"Modern conservatism is just a neoliberal gloss on medieval domination."