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?