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Originally Posted by Prudence
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Thanks for the link on that. I had read a couple weeks ago that they parents were acting with "the Vatican's support" but a quick perusal on my part of vatican.va didn't turn up any offical letters or exhortations written by the Pope on the subject.
The
Catechism of the Catholic Church states that it is ok to discontinue extraordinary measures. Heck, a very well respected priest at the local seminary just recently died after refusing "extraordinary measures." (Luckily he had an Advanced Directive.) I guess Monsignor Elio Sgreccia doesn't consider a feeding tube to be extraordinary measures. There are many Theologians who have spoken out in support of removing Terri's feeding tube and letting her die peacefully including priests from Georgetown, Loyola, and a priest from Terri's own diocese (I'm assuming) of St. Petersburg.
Also, the Catechism states that the decision to terminate extraordinary measures should be made by the family member legally entitled to act for the patient, so the Vatican should actually be supporting Michael Schiavo, not Terri's parents, but the Vatican does countless things every week that baffle me.