IslamOnline's report concerning USSC refusal to hear the appeal was factual and accurate. The following from US Supreme Court Rejects Shiavo Appeal may be of interest:
Dr. Muzammil H. Siddiqi, President of the Fiqh Council of North American, told IslamOnline.net that all religion, particularly Islam, “are deeply concerned about the preservation of the dignity and honor of human life.”
He stressed that “only the Creator of life has the ultimate decision about life and death.”
However, the scholar said if a number of medical experts determine that a patient is in a terminal condition, then it could be permissible for them, through a collective decision, to stop the medication.
He added that if the patient is on life support, it may be permissible, with due consultation and care, to decide to switch off the life support machine and let the nature take its own time.
Dr. Salah Soltan, President of the American Center for Islamic Research, Columbus, Ohio, agreed.
He said if doctors agree beyond any shred of doubt that a patient is clinically dead and that the brain is declared dead, then it is allowed in this case to take off the life support.
This is the view of the European Council for Fatwa and Research, other Fiqh councils and the majority of contemporary scholars, Soltan told IOL.
He stressed that there is no provision in Islam for killing oneself or another person to reduce his/her physical or emotional pain or suffering from sickness or disease.
Mercy killing is forbidden in Islam as it encompasses a positive role on the part of the physician to end the life of the patient and hasten his/her death via lethal injection, electric shock, a sharp weapon or any other way.
There is no question that the world is watching the country who is supposed to be a beacon of humanity.
Some justices of the SC like to take foreing law into account, when it suits their own political agenda, but in this case, those same ones are strangely unmoved by foreign law. They are at best inconsistent, at worst, hypocrytical.
I am against the use of foreign law, just thought it was interesting to note.
A feeding tube is not - lfe support.
It is what disabled people, handicapped people, and the incapacited - (Not terminal people) get to help them survive.