Posted on 03/21/2005 3:15:02 PM PST by annalex
Vatican City - The Roman Catholic Church condemned on Monday legal attempts in the United States to allow a brain-damaged woman to die after 15 years in a semi-vegetative state, saying "the agony of Terri (Schiavo) is the agony of humanity".
"Who can, and on what grounds, decide who should be allowed the 'privilege' of living?" the official Vatican paper L'Osservatore Romano asked rhetorically in a commentary on the case, which has become a political issue addressed personally by US President George W Bush.
"The slow and terrible agony of Terri is today an agony of the meaning of God ... the agony of the love shown by whoever is able to care for whoever is the most vulnerable. It is the agony of humanity," the paper added.
The fate of Schiavo, whose case has sparked an emotional debate over the right to die with dignity, was placed in the hands of a federal judge on Monday, after Bush signed controversial legislation to prolong her life.
Schiavo - who was "on the brink of death from hunger and thirst" - was being denied not just medicine, therapy or palliative treatment, but "for the most elementary reasons of humanism something which would not be refused to the most wretched individual", food and water, the paper said.
Schiavo has been incapacitated since a 1990 cardiac arrest that damaged her brain.
Her feeding tube was removed on Friday after a protracted legal battle that pits her husband Michael Schiavo against her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler. It had been removed and replaced twice before.
Schiavo insists his wife should be allowed to die because she told him prior to her cardiac arrest she would never want to be kept alive artificially.
The Schindlers do not believe him and have questioned his fitness to serve as his wife's guardian.
The case has provoked an emotional debate in the United States where right-to-die legislation is on the books in only one state, and where such issues are generally considered up to states or individuals to decide, not a federal court or national lawmakers.
It sure is...for those out here who still consider ourselves to be human beings.
Consider the irony of the Holy Father HIMSELF recently needing "artificial means" to stay alive........
Every thinking human being condemns Terri's agony.
that is quite a different matter.....does not apply in this case..stick with the facts of this case and you will do fine
No $hit, Sherlock. Did I say they were the same? No, I did not. Get over yourself.
You wanted Klinton to send Elian back also.
Silly Vatican!
wow.....you must have latent leanings to get that upset and say "get over myself".....like I exhibited any narcisstic behavior.........hmmmm......calm down
let me guess......you are generalizing from one post of mine to unrelated events......hmmmm........that is the same logic that DUmmies use......
It sounds to me that MamaLucci has MamaLostit.
I'm sure she is just emotional about the issue.....I forgive her.....
Terri Schiavo dead means a whole lot of green to a whole lot of people. I swear that is the ONLY reason Michael will not relent in this case.
Hollywood beckons.
Buzz off.
Her state does not matter. If the left succeeds in making it an argument over her medical condition, the war is lost, because then the assumption would be that at least some people are not worthy of life, -- we are just haggling over which people.
One thing that matters is absence of clear effective living will stating her wish to die in the circumstance such as this by the execution method such as this.
I totally agree with you.When he was ill the ghoulish press was all over about could he carry out his duties,would he resign and someone else step in? The Vatican specifically stated that one of the reasons amongst others that he was staying on despite all his sufferings was to bring dignity to all those like him saw their lives affected by disease,pain and handicaps.
I wasn't talking down to you at all.....simply relaying that your post alluded to the pope had a similar convenience. If not, I stand corrected and it is not a matter of taking it, I assure you that I can take alot more than you could ever deliver!!!!!!!!!
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