As I read the situation, there are four fundamental tensions temporarily pushing against each other over Mrs. Schiavo's hospital bed: Honor, Circumstance, Intention, and Dignity.
1> Michael Schiavo is playing the part of Honor. His duty is to his wife; he only wants to let her expire in peace and then move on; he sees nothing else for her honor and for his.
2> The wingnuts, with their inane and misconstructed "Culture Of Life" paradigm, plays the part of Circumstance. They send their blondest and most blue-eyed children into the waiting police line, then call the highest official they can find to do anything, anything at all. No one can reason with Circumstance; they do not truly see a bigger picture. They are agents of the random and their presence no more or less supports a culture of life than a colony of bacteria, but their force spreads out fastest at the edge. Circumstance drags itself down.
3> The Republican Party here is Intention. They placed themselves with full knowledge into a position of being the buffer between Honor and Circumstance. They believed that they would be seen as the saviors of Honor...but the wingnuts cannot have Honor as long as they follow Circumstance only, so Circumstance has turned against Intention for only being an inadequate substitute for the Honor.
4> The rest of America, that cares not for Schiavo, not for wingnuts, and not for the centralization of political power under the guise of false freedom (I don't think I need to provide any links for THAT), plays Dignity. Dignity has been greatly reserved up to now under a barrage of propaganda, profit, national pain and uncertainty, and economic and military strife. But Dignity exists on its own and can't been repressed; that only makes it stronger in the end.
How, now, must the situation be resolved? With the eventual death, as it appears to be fated, of Mrs. Schiavo? No; she is only the center of the circle of acting elements and they will maintain their fundamental relationships after she has moved on.
For everyone to be happy, Mrs. Schiavo must undergo a deathbed conversion to Islam.
Honor objects not; Mr. Schiavo will keep his promise this way.
Circumstance finds itself muted, for even the torture of Muslims is outside the scope of wingut morality.
Intention will be frustrated and embarassed, but the Republican Party will appreciate the opportunity to lick its wounds, slink away, and tell their friends that they did everything they could -- everything.
And Dignity will, once more, have its perceptions cleared. America will see Honor, Circumstance, and Intention for what they are: a mix of right and wrong, to be sorted out with curiosity and patience and sanity.