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Humanity cannot legitimize euthanasia or be "fooled" into justifying it "under the guise of human compassion", Pope Benedict said Sunday, speaking on the Italian Catholic Church's Day for Life.
Pope Benedict appealed to Catholics to reject euthanasia, saying that life was God-given and "cannot be negated by anyone, neither at the very young and indefensible unborn stage, nor when grave disabilities are present".
In Italy, euthanasia is illegal and carries a jail term of up to 15 years.
His comments came after an Italian doctor had removed the life support of a man paralyzed for years by muscular dystrophy who had asked to die. A medical panel cleared the doctor of criminal wrongdoing.
The Vatican and Roman Catholic officials made an appeal in the case of brain damaged Terri Schindler Schiavo in the weeks before her death on March 31, 2005.
Terri died at age 41 at Woodside Hospice in Pinellas Park, Fla., of starvation and dehydration 13 days after her feeding tube was removed by court order on petition of her husband and guardian, Michael Schiavo who had convinced a Pinellas County Court Judge George Greer that Terri would not want to be kept alive by such "artificial means", in essence euthanizing the disabled woman.
In statements on Vatican Radio, Cardinal Renato Martino, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, had said: "If Mr. Schiavo succeeds legally in causing the death of his wife, this not only would be tragic in itself, but would be a grave step toward the legal approval of euthanasia in the United States."
He added: "I would like to remind everyone in this connection, about all that the Holy Father has said in past days to the Pontifical Academy for Life, confirming that the quality of life is not interpreted as economic success, beauty and physical pleasure, but consists in the supreme dignity of the creature made in the image and likeness of God.
"No one can be the arbiter of life except God himself".
The late Pope John Paul II had said in 2004 that feeding and hydrating such patients is "morally obligatory" and that withdrawing feeding tubes constitutes "euthanasia by omission".
In March 2004, the late Pope told a large group of physicians.
"I should like particularly to underline how the administration of water and food, even when provided by artificial means, always represents a natural means of preserving life, not a medical act. Its use, furthermore, should be considered, in principle, ordinary and proportionate, and as such morally obligatory, insofar as and until it is seen to have attained its proper finality, which in the present case consists in providing nourishment to the patient and alleviation of his suffering.
"The obligation to provide the 'normal care due to the sick in such cases' includes, in fact, the use of nutrition and hydration. The evaluation of probabilities, founded on waning hopes for recovery when the vegetative state is prolonged beyond a year, cannot ethically justify the cessation or interruption of minimal care for the patient, including nutrition and hydration. Death by starvation or dehydration is, in fact, the only possible outcome as a result of their withdrawal. In this sense, it ends up becoming, if done knowingly and willingly, true and proper euthanasia by omission.
"In this regard, I recall what I wrote in the Encyclical Evangelium Vitae making it clear that "by euthanasia in the true and proper sense must be understood an action or omission which by its very nature and intention brings about death, with the purpose of eliminating all pain"; such an act is always "a serious violation of the law of God, since it is the deliberate and morally unacceptable killing of a human person" (n. 65). [Pope John Paul II, To the Congress on Life-Sustaining Treatments and Vegetative State, 20 March 2004.)
Following Terri's death, chief Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said that "the circumstances of the death of Mrs. Terri Schiavo have rightly shocked consciences. A life has been interrupted. A death was arbitrarily brought forward….There is no doubt there can be no exceptions to the principle of the scared nature of life from the moment of conception until it's natural end".
Cardinal Martino had recalled the late Pope's warning that "the freedom to kill is not a real freedom but a tyranny that reduces the human being to slavery".
Martino said that the death of the disabled woman was "one of the most inhuman and cruel form of killing since it was by hunger and thirst" and called it "an insult to human dignity". He condemned Terri's death as "arbitrarily hastened" and said the removal of her feeding tube was a violation of the principles of Christianity and civilization. 2-04-07
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© 2007 North
Country Gazette
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