EricCKS:
Around Terry Chiovo’s death, I over heard a coworker say “she did not understand why the Catholic church was working so hard to keep her alive”.
How would you answer? I gave my pat answer but I would really like to find something I could print off and give to her explaining our position. She is the kind of person that will not get upset if I give her something like this.
Thanks
Eric
Human life deserves, without qualification, dignity and respect. We may never do harm to innocent life. A person who is disabled should be given food, water, shelter, and hygenic care (clean bedding, bathing, etc). This is all normal care due to us as human beings. While discontinuing a treatment that is merely prolonging life of a failing body is allowed (like ventillators) giving the basic and ordinary care due to all people is not.
Why is food or water ordinary and not extraordinary? Because NO ONE can live without food or water. Babies, people who bedridden (conscious or not), and people with limited mental capacity cannot procure these basic needs for themselves. It is our duty to provide them, by whatever means is available.
What did Terri die of? Starvation and dehydration. Starving someone to death is direct murder, euthanasia. It is NOT allowing an already dying person to die.
If you left a baby or a mentally retarded person in a room for 14 days they would die too. You would then be facing capital murder.
Whether she was conscious or not is irrelevant. No one has the ability to decide whether a human life is “worth” living. The moment you do, you are in the world of moral relativism. That means someone-- the government maybe-- has the right to say who lives and who dies… and that is contrary to the dignity and absolute right of the human person. Nazi Germany had laws requiring the euthanizing of those whose lives were considered “not worth living” and I think that the people who were gassed would disagree with Hitler’s assessment of their lives. NO ONE can be judge of another’s life-- YOU could be next. Hitler didn’t just exterminate jews-- but anyone with physical deformities, mentally challenged, Gypsies, Catholics, and political dissenters. No one can have that power over life.
