Laws are not written in stone. They are changed everyday . Many cases have gone to court which ended in a modification of such laws or implementation of existing ones which were done to fit the differences in situations. There are books out there on the subject. There are hundreds of laws that were stablished out of a judge's ruling which when first presented in court were at a debatable stage.
I don't understand some of the legalities of marriage in the United States. For example, in other countries if a husband and wife have been living separately for a certain amount of time, the marriage is no longer valid. Now specially in this case, where the spouse has been with somebody else for x amount of YEARS, I don't see how this should be recognized as a valid marriage still. I don't think that this man has any saying on her life at this point anymore. They are deciding the life or death of a human being based on her "husband's" statement which for one, has no other witness to back it up, two, allegedly took place 15 years ago and three, no longer considers her his wife. Now I don't know how you think, but my opinions 15 years ago on many subjects have changed. An old woman once told me on her dying bed that life was too sweet to let go. She realized it when she had no other chance of living. "Forcing " someone to live when they wanna die is better the killing someone who wants to live. Think about it.