A Clear Defense of
Terri Schiavo
by Thomas A. Droleskey
Emphasizing his earlier defense of Mrs. Terri Schindler-Schiavo, given in an
interview on Vatican Radio on Thursday, February 24, 2005, Renato Cardinal
Martino, President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, has
issued a clear and strong statement of Mrs. Schiavo's absolute right to be
provided food and water. Cardinal Martino's new statement, which was issued
today, March 7, 2005, is a stunning rebuke to each and every one of the
contentions made by St. Petersburg Bishop Robert N. Lynch throughout the
course of the legal battle waged by Mrs. Schiavo's faithless husband to
starve and dehydrate her to death under terms of an unjust and immoral law
on the statute books in the State of Florida. Indeed, Cardinal Martino's new
statement contains a not-so-oblique condemnation of Lynch's statements and
actions. Although it has been clear to any Catholic who understands simple
Catholic moral theology that the removal of food and water is an act that
causes death as its first and only end and is thus always a violation of the
Fifth Commandment, some Catholics have been confused by Bishop Lynch's
distortions and misrepresentations of authentic Catholic teaching. Mrs.
Schiavo's right to food and water is absolute and unconditional. Cardinal
Martino has come once again to her aid from the Holy See while Bishop Lynch
prohibits his own priests from participating in the rally that will take
place in front of Woodspice Hospice on Saturday, March 12, 2005, to
demonstrate our prayerful support for her.
Here
is the text of Cardinal Martino's magnificent statement:
Statement of Cardinal Renato Martino,
President of the Pontifical Council for Justice
and Peace
Vatican City
7
March 2005
The courts have ruled again
and again. Unfortunately, the deadline for the removal of the tube
delivering food and water to Terri Schiavo is quickly approaching. I am
sorry to have to use the word “ deadline ” but this is the most
accurate way to describe what will happen. Without the tube which is
providing life-giving hydration and nutrition, Terri Schiavo will die
. But it is not that simple. She will die a horrible and cruel death. She
will not simply die, she will have death inflicted upon her over a number of
terrible days even weeks. How can anyone who claims to speak of the
promotion and protection of human rights-of human life- remain silent? Is
this not a question of the right to life? I believe that I must speak out
about this in the same way that I would speak of the protection of the
unborn and just as I would concerning any injustice .
Has due process in this case
been truly served? Have all options been employed? Where is love? Where
is human compassion? No one would ever wish to witness the suffering of
another, especially a loved one. And I am sure that no one could ever choose
to witness suffering or a cruel death being inflicted upon another,
especially one who is loved. How then have we come to this point?
If it is true that the
process has been fair and that all legal avenues have been exhausted, how is
it that this woman, who has done nothing wrong, will suffer a fate which
society would never tolerate in the case of a convicted murderer or
anyone else convicted of the most horrendous crimes? Again, it is an issue
of human rights. It is an issue of the right to life, and as I stated
earlier, no one can be the arbiter fo life except God himself!
The State of Florida has
many laws on its books which protect animals, whether they be household
pets, domesticated farm animals or animals destined for slaughter. ( And
please pardon me as I make this analogy. I am not comparing Terri to an
animal . I only want to show the protection that the courts afford to
animals in the State of Florida.) These laws “prohibit[s] anyone from
intentionally committing an act to any animal which results in
cruel death, or excessive or repeated infliction of unnecessary pain or
suffering ” (828.12). It is also unlawful to keep an animal in a place
while failing to supply “a sufficient quantity of good and wholesome food
and water ”(828.13).
Are these laws not
enforced by the same courts, are these not the same laws established by
lawmakers in order to protect other creatures of God ?
However, in just a few days,
[if her husband and the courts have their way, ]this is exactly what will
happen to Terri. She will be completely deprived of water and food. She
will have excessive suffering and pain inflicted upon her which will lead to
her cruel death . Yet we have come to the point of asking whether due
process been fully carried out and all options exhausted on behalf of Terri?
This is unbelievable! Is it not sufficient enough to say that there
are still questions that must be answered? We plead, we make the urgent
appeal for the life of a helpless human being ...a person with whom
we all share our God given human dignity. How can anyone say that her best
interests have been taken into consideration?
In his Message for the
Eleventh World Day of the Sick (11 February 2003) His Holiness Pope
John Paul II stated: “And while palliative treatment in the final stage of
life can be encouraged, avoiding a “treatment at all costs” mentality, it
will never be permissible to resort to actions or omissions which by
their nature or in the intention of the person acting are designed to bring
about death.”
Palliative care, by its
definition is the alleviation of suffering and relieving pain. In the last
stage of life, it is this care for which we all must hope because, if the
feeding tube is removed and Terri is forced to die this slow, terrible,
painful death, we must ask ourselves, “ And who will be next ?” Will
this open the door for a state to decide whether this or that incapacitated
person should die...not be allowed to die a dignified death but that they
should have death inflicted upon them?
It must stop here and now.
The courts, the judges and everyone involved with this must understand that
all of the questions involved in the case of Terri Schiavo have not yet
been answered . Society must realize that we can never inflict this sort
of death on a human being, on any other creature, without each and every one
of us and society as a whole suffering a terrible fate.
Clear.
Unmistakable. No nuance. No hedging. No statement that the "decision"
belongs to Michael Schiavo or that there are "discussions" to be had among
family members about the "medical treatment" to be provided to Mrs. Schiavo.
No consideration of psychological or emotional or financial burdens. Just a
clear reiteration of Catholic moral principles. It should do the heart of
any and every Roman Catholic well to see one of his shepherds speak so
clearly. Yes, sure, we should have this all of the time. Granted. Given the
unprecedented ecclesiastical circumstances in which we live, though,
Cardinal Martino's willingness to break ranks with episcopal collegiality to
speak firmly in defense of Catholic moral principles that have been denied
and obfuscated by Bishop Lynch and by the Florida Catholic Conference is
quite welcomed and an answer to the prayers of millions of people around the
world.
"How
can anyone who claims to speak of the promotion and protection of human
rights-of human life- remain silent? Is this not a question of the right to
life? I believe that I must speak out about this in the same way that I
would speak of the protection of the unborn and just as I would concerning
any injustice. . . . How can anyone say that her best interests have been
taken into consideration?" Indeed.
Although I have provided a
contrast between Bishop Robert Lynch's misrepresentations of Catholic moral
teaching with the statement made last year by Pope John Paul II, I want to
do so one more time so as to drive home the point to anyone who has any
lingering doubts about Bishop Lynch's relativist and utilitarian embrace of
the heresy of Proportionalism (which contends that a preponderence of "good"
motives and extenuating circumstances might make an objectively immoral act
licit to pursue in some cases). Consider this excerpt from Bishop Lynch's
March 12, 2003, statement on the matter of Mrs. Terri Schindler-Schiavo:
Our Catholic Church has traditionally viewed medical treatment as
excessively burdensome if it is ““too painful, too damaging to the patient's
bodily self and functioning, too psychologically repugnant to the patient,
too suppressive of the patient's mental life, or too expensive.”” [cf.
““Life, Death and Treatment of Dying Patients: Pastoral Statement of the
Catholic Bishops of Florida, 1989]
Contrast this with Pope John Paul II’s March 20, 2004, statement on the
subject of brain-damaged patients:
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).
Besides, the moral principle is well known, according to which even the
simple doubt of being in the presence of a living person already imposes the
obligation of full respect and of abstaining from any act that aims at
anticipating the person's death.
Considerations about the "quality of life", often actually dictated by
psychological, social and economic pressures, cannot take precedence over
general principles. First of all, no evaluation of costs can outweigh the
value of the fundamental good which we are trying to protect, that of human
life. Moreover, to admit that decisions regarding man's life can be based on
the external acknowledgment of its quality, is the same as acknowledging
that increasing and decreasing levels of quality of life, and therefore of
human dignity, can be attributed from an external perspective to any
subject, thus introducing into social relations a discriminatory and eugenic
principle.
Bishop Lynch has been defiant in the face of Pope John Paul II’s reiteration
of basic, fundamental tenets of Catholic moral theology. Will he now ignore
Cardinal Martino’s new plea for Mrs. Schiavo’s life as he did on February,
24, 2005? He will have to respond in some fashion. We await his admission of
error and his apologies to those trying to save the life of Mrs. Terri
Schindler-Schiavo. We await his admission that this has never been a matter
of "discussion" but a matter of fidelity to the Fifth Commandment and the
precepts of the Corporal Works of Mercy. We await a plea from Bishop Lynch
to Judge George Greer to spare Terri Schindler-Schiavo's life, basing his
plea on the simple fact that there is zero evidence anyone can provide that
Mrs. Schiavo would want to have defied a plea for her life issued by the
President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. Please e-mail
this commentary to him.
It is time for the Catholics
of the United States to thank Cardinal Martino, who used to offer the
Traditional Latin Mass at Saint Agnes Church in New York City very
frequently in the 1990s (and whose last public Mass in the United States, I
believe, before he assumed his current position in the Vatican in 2003 was a
Traditional Mass at Our Lady of Peace Church in Brooklyn, New York), for his
firm defense of Catholic moral teaching, applied in this instance quite
specifically and categorically without any equivocation or qualification to
Mrs. Terri Schindler-Schiavo's right to food and water and to all of the
love that is due a a human being made in the image and likeness of the
Blessed Trinity.
Our Lady, Help of
Christians, pray for Terri Schindler-Schiavo and those trying to save her
life.
Saint Thomas Aquinas, the
Angelic Doctor whose feast day this is, pray for Cardinal Martino as he
explicates Catholic teaching with clarity and courage.
