CNS STORY: Vatican bioethicist says removing Schiavo's tube 'direct euthanasia'

The whole CNS
public Web site
headlines, briefs
stories, etc,
represents less
than one percent
of the daily news
report.

Get all the news!

If you would like
more information
about the
Catholic News
Service daily
news report,
please contact
CNS at one of
the following:
cns@
catholicnews.com
or
(202) 541-3250

Copyright:

This material
may not
be published,
broadcast,
rewritten or
otherwise
distributed.

Copyright
(c) 2005
Catholic News
Service/U.S.
Conference of
Catholic Bishops.

CNS Story:

SCHIAVO-SGRECCIA Mar-11-2005 (450 words) xxxi

Vatican bioethicist says removing Schiavo's tube 'direct euthanasia'

By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Removing the feeding tube from Terri Schindler Schiavo, a brain-damaged Florida woman, or other patients in a similar condition amounts to "direct euthanasia," a "cruel way of killing someone," said the Vatican's top bioethicist.

Bishop Elio Sgreccia, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, said the academy usually does not comment on specific cases before courts, but "silence in this case could be interpreted as approval."

The bishop told Vatican Radio March 11 that withdrawing Schiavo's gastric tube would not be a matter of allowing her to die, but would "inflict death."

Judge George W. Greer of Florida's Pinellas County Circuit Court ruled Feb. 25 that Michael Schiavo, Terri Schiavo's husband, could order doctors to remove the feeding tube March 18.

Her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, have opposed their son-in-law's efforts.

Bishop Sgreccia spoke to Vatican Radio the day after Greer ruled the state's Department of Children and Families could not intervene in the process.

Schiavo, 41, has been impaired for the past 15 years. She can breathe on her own but requires nutrition and hydration through a feeding tube.

Bishop Sgreccia told Vatican Radio, "Terri Schiavo must be considered a living human person, deprived of full consciousness, whose juridical rights must be recognized, respected and defended.

"The removal of the gastric tube used for nourishing her cannot be considered an 'extraordinary' measure or a therapeutic measure," he said. "It is an essential part of the way in which Mrs. Terri Schiavo is nourished and hydrated.

"As far as we are concerned, denying someone access to food and water is a cruel way of killing someone," he said.

Bishop Sgreccia said he did not want to get into questions about Schiavo's husband, parents or economic situation.

"Taking into account only medical and anthropological considerations," he said, "we feel an obligation to affirm that such a decision violates the rights of Terri Schiavo and, therefore, constitutes an abuse of judicial authority."

Bishop Sgreccia said he also was concerned about the precedent the court's decision could set in the United States, creating a situation in which euthanasia is seen "as a right."

"For these reasons we consider illicit the decision to remove Mrs. Terri Schiavo's gastric feeding tube," he said.

Bishop Sgreccia told Vatican Radio that the Catholic Church does not support keeping people alive at all costs, going to extraordinary and even painful means to postpone death.

However, he said, keeping a patient clean, warm, fed and hydrated is not the same thing as "therapeutic obstinacy" or the refusal to accept death.

Feeding and hydration are "signs of respect for the human person," whether young or old, healthy or sick, he said.

END

Copyright (c) 2005 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
CNS · 3211 Fourth St NE · Washington DC 20017 · 202.541.3250