Ross and Schiavo ironic parallels

As terrifically covered at The Connecticut Law Blog (CLB), the legal wranglings in the Michael Ross case are perhaps entering a final chapter now that the Connectucut Supreme Court has ruled that Ross is competent to decide to waive his appeals and accept his death sentence.  (This Hartford Courant article reviews all the basics, and CLB has links and a summary of the ruling.)

The latest developments in the Ross case — particularly this news that courts have now turned back efforts by Ross’ sister and father to intervene, and this AP story reporting that four doctors have filled a complaint raising “medical and ethical questions surrounding the planned execution” of Ross — spotlights interesting parallels between the Ross case and the Terry Schiavo case.  In both, a lot of “outsiders” (in the form of family members and others) are expending a lot of time and energy to prevent a death that seems sought by the person who is to die (and who would not have such a fantastic life even if kept alive).

To his credit, Norm Pattis at Crime & Federalism, who says in this post the Ross case “has become a farce,” has been consistently critical the Ross wranglings and the Schiavo wranglings.  But I wonder if many others who supported or lamented all the legal histrionics the Schiavo case have the same reactions and feelings about the legal histrionics in the Ross case.