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« Bush and his budget | Main | An Easter Perspective »

March 28, 2005
Terri Schiavo: Where The Right Is Inconsistent

As Terri Schiavo approaches death, the right is galvanizing itself to make this tragic case fodder for intensifying the culture and religious war they have instigated. A sober assessment is required. Terri and her family are Catholics. Traditional Catholic theology has always held that "extraordinary means" are not required to sustain life. Clearly a feeding tube inserted in a woman who has been in a persistent vegetative state for 15 years is "extraordinary means."

Despite a statement last year by Pope John Paul II to the contrary, traditional Catholic teaching remains. Tim Rutten reports on this controversy. So from a clearly conservative Catholic perspective, the removal of the feeding tube is a morally legitimate option. Her husband has a right to make this decision without moral opprobrium.

Tom DeLay, who fomented much of the controversy, faced a similar sitution in the death of his own father and was involved in making a similar decision

Clearly, the agenda here is to agitate the religious right as a political base. But there is a huge inconsistency: apparently these supposedly and sincere Christian people have missed the meaning of Easter. Do they not share the hope of a blessed resurrection with Christ--the foundational belief of Christianity? How did they miss the meaning of Easter? Can they not let Terri, who has no possibility of even a shred of cognitive life, enter into that state where, as Scripture reminds us "we shall fully even as we are known?" Are our right-wing politicians capable of blindness even on this fundamental Christian perspective?

Posted by Bill at March 28, 2005 09:25 AM
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