The controversy over the death of Terri Schiavo five years ago, on March 31, 2005, rages on. Ms Schiavo had been in a persistent vegetative state since 1990. Her husband’s request to remove her basic nutrition and hydration was opposed by her family, igniting an epic legal battle. Eventually the courts allowed her to starve to death.

The latest instalment concerns an episode in the Fox Network’s popular animated comedy Family Guy which satirized her death – “Terri Schiavo: The Musical”. It depicted Ms Schiavo ludicrously hooked up to Rube Goldberg life support system and featured lines like “Michael Schiavo: She’s a vegetable! Chorus: We hate vegetables!” and “"There's only one solution, it's in the Constitution, we've got to pull the plug." The show outraged disability advocate Dr Mark Mostert, who complained in his blog Disability Matters that the message of such show was that “If you are disabled, you don’t matter as much as people who are not disabled.” ~ Tampabay.com, Mar 24