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Politics : GOPwinger Lies/Distortions/Omissions/Perversions of Truth -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jttmab who wrote (39534)	3/22/2005 7:13:21 AM
From: jttmab	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 173976

Vatican says pulling Schaivo's tube would be 'pitiless' Associated Press Posted March 11 2005, 2:57 PM EST VATICAN CITY -- Removing the feeding tube from a brain-damaged woman in Florida would be ``a pitiless way to kill,'' a prominent Holy See official said Friday, breaking with what he called the Vatican's usual practice of not weighing in on individual cases. The fate of Terri Schiavo, who doctors say is in a persistent vegetative state, has galvanized many in the United States as it has in her family. Her husband contends his wife has said she wouldn't want to be kept alive artificially, while her parents have battled their son-in-law's efforts to have the tube removed. The Vatican's point man on bioethical issues, Monsignor Elio Sgreccia, said on Vatican Radio that the Holy See's Pontifical Academy for Life generally doesn't intervene in specific cases. ``Still, the case of Mrs. Terri Schiavo goes beyond the individual situation because of its exemplary character and of the importance that the media have rightly given it,'' Sgreccia said. ``Silence in this case would be able to be interpreted as approval, with consequences that would go widely beyond the given case,'' Sgreccia said. ``By any decent count, Mrs. Terri Schiavo can be considered a living human being, deprived of full conscience, whose legal rights must be recognized, respected and defended. The removal of the feeding tube from this person, in these conditions, can be considered direct euthanasia,'' the Vatican official said. ``As far as we're concerned, impeding someone access to food and water represents a pitiless way to kill that person,'' Sgreccia said. Vatican teaching holds that ``extraordinary'' means of care are not required but that ``ordinary means,'' including providing nutrition and aiding respiration, must be provided. Sgreccia said that Schiavo's feeding tube ``can't be considered extraordinary means,'' and ``not even a therapeutic means. It is an integral part of the means in which Mrs. Terri Schiavo can be fed and hydrated.'' Last month, Cardinal Renato Martino, who heads the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, appealed for Schiavo to remain on life support. Schiavo suffered brain damage in 1990 after her heart stopped because of a chemical imbalance believed to have been brought on by an eating disorder. sun-sentinel.com