Duffy ([info]jduffy1535) wrote,
@ 2005-03-24 16:56:00
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A few thoughts on the Schiavo situation.
The part of me that doesn't believe in coincidence sees meaning in the fact that the Holy Week news cycle has been dominated by a woman, unable to communicate or swallow, slowly starving to death.

I feel that we are making too much of Terry Schiavo's life, but perhaps America needs to take moral lessons where it finds them. This is a situation where the law seems to be (I can only assume, as the various judges seem to be unanimous) clear, but at odds with our (at least my) instinct for mercy. Terry's husband has been trying to rid himself of his wife for the last 15 years. His interpretation of his wife's will is based on the thinnest of pretexts. But the law is not written in such a way as to discriminate between a good husband and an evil one. Much as almost 2000 years ago the law did not discriminate between a thief and the Man whose death at the hands of the state we will celebrate tomorrow.

Whoever comes to Him will not hunger, whoever believes in Him will not thirst. Terry will soon be beyond our power to help. Perhaps we will now look as a nation at the morality of allowing anyone to be starved to death, to put them out of our misery. We have been moving slowly toward the acceptance of euthanasia, maybe this will help us move away from it.



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[info]meghatronn
2005-03-25 05:17 pm UTC (link)
Joe, from all I've read on this issue, I find your words the wisest.

As I am skeptical of trusting any article of commentary, I just went straight to the source:

"Discontinuing medical procedures that are burdensome, dangerous, extraordinary, or disproportionate to the expected outcome can be legitimate; it is the refusal of "over-zealous" treatment. Here one does not will to cause death; one's inability to impede it is merely accepted. The decisions should be made by the patient if he is competent and able or, if not, by those legally entitled to act for the patient, whose reasonable will and legitimate interests must always be respected."

--2278, Catechism of the Catholic Church

Now I would say that feeding someone, even though a tube, does not count as a "medical procedure." Nor would I classify it as "burdensome," as cooking for healthy children and balancing their food groups is a great deal more work, according to my experience. And as most of us, I question whether her husband's will is "reasonable" and his interests "legitimate".

Although I don't like or promote suffering, I think that there is a mystical value in it that we cannot always understand...our souls cleansed for the next challenge we face. Today is one of the Church's two remaining days of fasting. How appropriate as Terry ends her first week. Perhaps our opinions would carry more empathy if we all had to starve a little.

They all said, "Let him be crucified!" But [Pilate] said, "Why? What evil has he done?" They only shouted the louder, "Let him be crucified!" When Pilate saw that he was not succeeding at all, but that a riot was breaking out instead, he took water and washed his hands in the sight of the crowd, saying, I am innocent of this man's blood. Look to it yourselves." And the whole people said in reply, "His blood be upon us and upon our children." Then he released Barabbas to them...

I don't know if it's true, but I heard once that someone who dies during the Easter season is taken immediately into heaven.

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[info]fuzzyamy
2005-03-25 06:04 pm UTC (link)
Do you know if the Catholic Church has any official statement on non-pulmonary death (i.e. brain death)? My intuition says that it must, because I remember reading in my Human Bodies and Parts as Property course that the Church approves of organ donation from living or dead donor, and dead donors would require some form of brain-death.

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[info]meghatronn
2005-03-27 06:18 am UTC (link)
I, too, am fairly certain that the Church does approve of that. However, I am hesitant to say until I find an official supportive document. I'll let you know if I do, as I plan to keep searching.

I have been surfing the Vatican website for answers and did find this interesting link regarding the persistent vegetative state:

http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_academies/acdlife/documents/rc_pont-acd_life_doc_20040320_joint-statement-veget-state_en.html

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[info]lschiere
2005-03-27 05:31 pm UTC (link)
I have not seen anything more official than
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/speeches/2004/march/documents/hf_jp-ii_spe_20040320_congress-fiamc_en.html

but as he is not speaking infallibly there, it is not *necessarily* more authoritative than the link that meghatronn found. It is certainly less detailed, but, I think, if anything, stronger in tone.

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[info]lschiere
2005-03-25 06:24 pm UTC (link)
Your reading of the Catechism corresponds well with mine, and it seems that the Vatican news paper's reading is on the same lines.[1] You also managed to express things far better than I did, going more straightly to the point, and staying more focused.

[1]http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0501622.htm among others mention it, the http://www.vatican.va/news_services/or/home_eng.html does not seem to have archives online.

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