“Who can judge the dignity and sacredness of the life of a human being, made in the image and likeness of God?”; “Who can decide to pull the plug as if we were talking about a broken appliance?” so wrote L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper referring to the debate around the case of Terry Schiavo.
Now the Pope is close to death, his breathing shallow and his heart and kidneys failing, we are told. And yet he is not in hospital.
The Pope has decided not to go back to Rome’s Gemelli hospital in order that he can die at home, in the Vatican. How do we know that his health wouldn’t be turned around, once more, if admitted to the hospital?
How is this different from Terry Schiavo’s wish, not to be artificially kept alive, being honoured?
It is good to see that the Vatican have finally come around to an enlightened view on euthanasia.
hea tom,
I really don’t think that the Vatican has changed their views on euthanasia. Not for one minute.
But, after seeing how they handled the Pope’s decision on not going to the Gemelli, maybe they will. But I seriously doubt it.
The only thing you can say is that, I am sure he had the best of medical assistance with him in his apartment. Alot more that could be said for Terry Shiavo, if she had been able to decide on staying at home or not.
I don’t think its as clear cut. The two people are completely different, not alone fiancially.
I think the Pope made the correct decision with regards him staying at home. And I think Terry Shiavo’s husband also made the right decision.
b
Hmmm, I had the same thought when the news was announced that the Pope had decided to not go to the hospital. I too like Bernard thought that the ability of the Pope to apparently make the decision himself might had made a difference. However, thinking about this some more it would seem that thought might be wrong because the church seems to make rules that are fairly cut and dry (like non-support of abortion and such). Note, I say “seems” because I am not Catholic and really do not keep track of the rules of the Catholic Church.
I feel quite lucky in that before my first wife passed away she was concious and very much a part in the decision of going into home hospice care and what kind of medical support she wanted. She also helped in giving her mother closure and preventing her mother from assigning the guilt of her death onto me.
What I went through was nightmarish but I cannot imagine what Terry Shaivo’s husband has gone through. The whole story and my experience really does support the idea of people really needing a living will.
–td