Selective sympathy

Reading the continuing coverage of Mother Sheehan and her now-absent vigil I am struck by the pick-and-choose nature of the left's sympathy. Noemie Emery has written a good piece about it this morning. But something else is at work as well. Why, if the Sheehan voice must be heeded, were we not to hear the anguished pleas of Teri Schiavo's family that her life be spared?