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Right To Life

NOTE: This thread is NOT the same as the thread already present within the Community about the Terri Schiavo case. This is about the Catholic viewpoint concerning the matter and the case is used mainly as an example.

Pope Benedict Meets Terri Schiavo's Parents at The Vatican

The Vatican (LifeNews.com) -- The Pope held a meeting with Terri Schaivo's parents on Wednesday at the Vatican. He met with them at a general audience in St. Peter's Square and they presented him with a picture of their daughter, who died in late March after a painful 13 day starvation death. They presented Pope Benedict XVI with a framed picture of Terri featuring pictures of her both before and after her 1990 collapse. Pope Benedict takes a strong stand against euthanasia and assisted suicide. He's previously said the state should not "grant to some the power to violate others' fundamental right to life" because it "contradicts the democratic ideal to which it continues to appeal and undermines the very foundations on which it is built." "By allowing the rights of the weakest to be violated, the State also allows the law of force to prevail over the force of law," the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger said. Yesterday, the Schindler family met with Vatican Cardinal Renato Martino and thanked him and other Catholic officials for speaking out on Terri's behalf in the weeks leading up to her death. Martino decried the "woman's death as one of the most inhuman and cruel form of killing since it was by hunger and thirst."
Ref. https://m1e.net/c?36058188-LrR.Us8LIHQnk%40...3-iSGjL0E5fpGZQ

Life Right

Based on what I am reading here, its clear that the Pope is against allowing someone to die even by their wish. Does this view point remain the same in the Catholic church even if the person has a signed statement that they do not want to remain on life support or feeding tube? I'm in agreement with the Popes view, but he doesn't seem to leave any room for a person right to die in the matter.

Right To Life Catholicism Studies

Konquererz that is an important observation and I think that it has to do with the Catholic position on suicide and the outcome of the soul. It is my understanding that if someone wants to end their own life regardless of the circumstances then it is considered sin so in the case of Terri allowing her to die - if she wanted to would be like being an accomplice to someone wanting to commit a grievous sin.

Life Right

Based on what has been said so far, the wish of someone to die, as viewed by the Catholic church, would be considered suicide. The question then is whether suicide is viewed as a sin or not. I believe we already have a discussion on the topic of suicide, and I was surprised at the differing views about it. While I agree that euthanasia of humans is wrong, I wonder whether someone has the right to say "Let me die". In my opinion, that is up to God, and no one else, not even the person who is dying. I inherently believe suicide is a sin, and one that is unforgivable, because the person does not have the ability to ask for forgiveness, because they are already dead. I also don't like to see people suffer endlessly, and that is where I am torn on the issue.

Life Right

I am not fully up on what Pope Benedict XVI has to say, but I understood that the Catholic view was that it was okay for a person to refuse extraordinary measures to keep them alive. For example, if a person doesn't want to use a ventilator which forces their non-functional lungs to work, this would be a valid choice. However, food and water, as in Terri's case, is NOT extraordinary.

Right To Life

Regardless of Autopsy, Wrong to Kill Terri Schiavo Priest Says

Clearwater, FL (LifeNews.com) -- A Catholic monk who was by Terri's family's side in the weeks leading up to her starvation and dehydration death told LifeNews.com that the autopsy results have no bearing on the immorality of euthanizing her. Whatever led to Terri's collapse, "in the long run it doesn't matter," Brother Paul O'Donnell, a Franciscan monk who helped Bob and Mary Schindler, told LifeNews.com. "We still do not have the right to kill someone regardless of their physical or mental condition," he said. It concerned O'Donnell that the autopsy results placed so much emphasis on how Terri died. "I think it's a matter of semantics to say whether she died of dehydration of starvation. Both are cruel and we're still killing a human being," he told LifeNews.com. "It was bogus to say Terri didn't suffer." Commenting on the autopsy results released Wednesday by county medical examiner Dr. Jon Thogmartin, O'Donnell said he doesn't think they get rid of the concerns Terri's family had that Terri may have been physically abused by her estranged husband Michael, leading to her 1990 collapse. He disagreed with Thogmartin's assessment that medical officials looked into that possibility early on. "The homicide unit never did anything," O'Donnell said. "You just done have a 20-something year-old woman collapse for no reason and not investigate that."
Ref. https://m1e.net/c?36058188-yshRtvkouv3Lw%40...7-arknWVdRoFkcA

Right Life

Catholic Church Says Providing Patient Food and Nutrition is Obligatory

The Vatican (LifeNews.com) -- The Catholic Church has released a new policy document saying physicians have an obligation to provide comatose patients with food and water. The policy has a bearing on patients like Terri Schiavo, who was killed when courts granted her former husband the right to revoke her food and water. The Vatican policy group Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith released the document Friday in response to questions submitted to the Catholic bishops in the U.S. The CDF response, approved by Pope Benedict XVI, says providing food and water is "an ordinary and proportionate means of preserving life," and, as a result, "obligatory" in most circumstances. "In this way suffering and death by starvation and dehydration are prevented," the document adds. The Vatican policy also speaks to the personhood of minimally conscious patients like Schiavo and those who are supposedly in a "vegetative state." "A patient in a 'permanent vegetative state' is a person with fundamental human dignity and must, therefore, receive ordinary and proportionate care which includes, in principle, the administration of water and food even by artificial means," the Church said.
Ref. https://www.lifenews.com/bio2223.html