Posted on 09/24/2007 3:11:29 PM PDT by presidio9
A new article by an Italian medical professor speculates the death of Pope John Paul the Second was caused by euthanasia. According to "TIME" magazine, an intensive care specialist says the Pope's death would be considered euthanasia by standards set by the Catholic Church. The doctor bases her conclusion on press reports and a book written by the Pope's physician. She says the decision not to insert a feeding tube until just a few days before his death accelerated the death of the ailing pontiff. Plus, the doctor believes the Pope himself made the decision not to insert the tube after consulting with medical professionals. He had been hospitalized twice before his 2005 death. Catholics are told to take any effort to prolong life. The article appears in an Italian magazine critical of the church's stance on medical ethics. The doctor says she decided to revisit the Pope's death after a recent ruling by the Catholic Church on euthanasia.
Trust in Him.
Can’t be ... if you’re Bible based.
Perhaps this man and I know for sure that my Grandmother were not afraid to die. My Grandmother left it up to God when her time was up. Death is nothing to fear ... if you know where you stand with God ... .
I just keep going around and around with this.
We are all on our way to death, every day.
If she were, say, 25, with a terminal illness, would it be permissible to stop eating? Or is there a crossover point in your life, where any years you gain will not be worth the efforts and indignities required? Did the Pope realize this as he approached his end?
Your reply of course is the only one, and I thank you.
If someone is dying of something else, that’s gonna kill him within a short amount of time, there is no requirement that he be kept alive by artifical means, if HE chooses not to be. I don’t remember anyone ever saying that the Pope was not able to eat for himself, or to take liquids. Maybe he just didn’t want the tube.
False reporting by Time Magazine.
This is the account of one (supposed) doctor who was not there when John Paul II died and did not view any medical records. It has all been debunked.
I don’t have a link, but would like to post something when I do find it.
Catholic Ping!
**I read not long ago that he died naturally.**
He did. This is a crazy Times Magazine story. Don’t believe the Dinosaur Media.
*8Either they withheld the feeding tube or they didn’t. Now was the cause of death starvation? Hmmm?**
He was getting sick on the feeding tube to they witheld it. He took it again three days later. So why would he take it if he wanted to be euthanized.
This story is a typical lamestream media story. Full of bunk. (My nice word for &))^*^)
I think Time magazine is dead. Could create some confusion on their part.
It is considered to be WRONG TREATMENT for anyone dying of cancer to continue to feed them. It prolongs their agony tremendously in the last few hours to have feeding continued.
**Somebody (the author) looking for his/her 10 minutes of fame so they write some hogwash and get it. See how much is written about this tomorrow. My bet is zero.**
Absolutely correct here.
This doctor/author never talked to any of Pope John Paul II’s REAL doctors.
He was fluent in all three languages. Probably he spoke in Latin since he chose to die at the Vatican.
Your mom was blessed with a peaceful quiet and dignified death. She chose her own path, after already having struggled through those strokes which severely lessened her capability of enjoying life. You should NOT feel guilty for going along with her wishes.
Within a year and a half’s time I had to make end of life decisions for my mother then my father.
On New Years Eve 1995, my mother was suddenly hospitalized with what the doctors at first thought was a mild heart attack. In less than 24 hours after her admittance, I got a call that she had stopped breathing and had to be put on a ventilator. I had been with her only a few hours earlier and she was alert and conscience but before I left for the evening, she took my hand and asked me to pray for her. I think she knew something was terribly wrong. It was. She had acute pancreatitis. The doctors and nurses and care givers at Johns Hopkins were amazing and would not give up hope and continued to give us, her family hope. They did everything humanly and medically possible and I give them great credit for their perseverance and the great compassion they showed to her and to us, her family.
After 2 weeks on full life support including dialysis, the doctors had a meeting with us. They told us that for reasons unknown to them, her pancreas had literally exploded and was pumping poison into her entire body, literally dissolving her internal organs and destroying her brain. She was now in a coma and all her organs had completely shut down. Despite all medical efforts, nothing was going to save her and we had to make a decision; continue futile life support or let her go. One doctor in particular impressed us so much; he held our hands and cried with us. I know he really didn’t want to give up but knew that there was no good outcome.
My father, my brother and I knew from discussion we had with my mother and knowing her and her great believe in God and her faith in Catholicism, that she would not want to be kept alive by artificial means and we told the doctors to disconnect the ventilator. She died very peacefully and mercifully within minutes and according to her wishes, she was buried with a High Catholic Mass.
My father soon filled out a Living Will and Advanced Directives and made me his medical power of attorney seeing how important it was. He was also a devout Catholic but also had strong beliefs about when to end life support and did not find that contrary to his very conservative religious beliefs.
A year and a half later, my father was admitted to the hospital with pneumonia. But it was no ordinary pneumonia. Several years earlier he survived a bout with bacterial meningitis. It was a medical miracle that he lived though it but it took a great toll on him physically. He was also a diabetic and very susceptible to infection. He had an antibiotic resistant strain of bacterial pneumonia. Before he lost consciousness, he tried several times to pull his own ventilator out and had to be restrained. Again the doctors at Johns Hopkins were not willing to give up. But he was on a ventilator and in a coma in ICU for eight weeks before the doctors would even discuss his wishes or Advance Directives with me.
I was at my father’s bedside every single day of those eight weeks. The doctors finally came to me and told me frankly that there was no more hope and I told them to disconnect his ventilator as I knew this was what he would want. It was hard but I stayed with him the entire time, holding his hand and stroking his head. In the end it was very peaceful and I believe it was as he wanted it to be – he was finally free of his pain and suffering and free to join my mother. While painful it was actually one of the most beautiful and meaningful experiences I’ve ever had, giving him my unconditional love and having the opportunity to say how much I loved him and seeing him off to the next realm. That was July 2nd, 1997.
I am at complete peace with both my parent’s passing and the decisions made on their behalf. I know that all reasonable medical and compassionate means were taken on their behalf but in the end, reason and most of all compassion told us all, medical professionals and family, that it was time to let go. Sometimes letting go goes against our selfish nature but sometimes it is the right and compassionate thing to do.
My ex-husband’s mother was not so compassionately cared for and languished for years, catatonic and on a feeding tube in a nursing home, several in fact because Medicare kept moving her from one abysmal nursing home to another. It was horrible and the conditions were indescribably bleak. She lied in a rigid fetal position for many years kept alive only by artificial means and a feeding tube with no sign of responsiveness or recognition. My ex and his sister constantly argued about what to do, but neither of them ever bothered to visit her. I was the only one who did. I was the one who cared for her before she went to the nursing home, changed her soiled clothes, bed sheets and tried in vain to get her to eat while all she told me about was how much she wanted was “to go home”.
She finally was allowed to go home but my ex and his sister are some 20 years later still arguing about whose responsibility it is to provide her a tombstone but neither of them has ever visited her grave or shown her any remembrance.
This is why it is so very important for everyone to put down in writing their express wishes for end of life care and file a Living Will and Advanced Directives and choose a Power of Attorney for Health Care. Do it now while you are healthy and can make rational decisions and not just leave it for your family to argue about and tear each other apart over later.
I don’t. They are just trying to wear us down.
Thanks for being on top of this, Salvation.
lol!
You surprised me with that one!
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