An E-Mail Exchange from the Twilight Zone

Over the past few days I've been engaged in an email exchange with Fr. David Trosch about my posts defending Eluana Englaro's right to life. You may remember Fr. Trosch. He's the priest who, a few years ago, argued in favor of killing abortionists. That should have been a tipoff.

I would have bet that anyone who claims to be pro-life would share my view that starving and dehydrating the helpless to death is seriously immoral. Well, I would have been wrong, wrong, wrong in the case of Father Trosch. Over the next few days I'll present our email debate. Think of it as a soap opera...FROM THE TWILIGHT ZONE

Episode 1 -- Entering the Twilight Zone - Dying of dehydration can be fun

Mary Ann Kreitzer,

I know a woman who can still speak who is being dehydrated and starved to death as I write. She has gone from 180 pounds to under 120 pounds. She is 5' 6" tall. She cannot eat or drink. Medications are no longer of help. She believes it would be pointless to be fed intravenously as it would just extend the suffering she is going through on a daily basis. She has many things wrong with her and even if something could be repaired other things would kill her, probably even the operations themselves. Her hospice care doctor has told her she should call her mother and tell her that if she wants to see her daughter while still alive to come quickly.

This woman is 46 years of age. She believes in God like most could not possibly appreciate. These last few weeks Jesus has been present to her most of the time. She says He is beautiful and want s to be with Him very much.
How much do you love Jesus? Why is it that you want anyone to stay in this life if they can be happy with Jesus in the next? My own father died when he was almost 87 years old. His mouth was so dry that he could not take even a small part of a consecrated Host without great difficulty. If given the precious Blood it had to be only a drop or two otherwise his tongue would react and it would be difficult for him to receive.

Why should the government (the people through taxation) have to pay to prolong the lives of a few when the same sums could be used to feed thousands. The purpose and goal of this life is not temporal happiness or a long life here and now, but to have a long and happy life with Jesus in the next. Passing from this life should be seen as a happy event that should be understood to be joy. It is not to be thought of with sadness, although I agree that there is a sense separateness that is cause for the momentary departure of a brother or sister of Christ.

Demons thrive on the torture inflicted upon living humans. They hope to have many humans join them in their suffering in Hell. Unreasonably prolonging someone's life serves Satan, not God.

To keep a person unnaturally alive is to sin against the will of God who has already determined the destination of the one passing from this life. All forms of unnaturally keeping a person alive, particularly without reasonable hope of recovery to a useful life, is against the will of God. Keeping an unconscious person alive on feeding tubes, etc. is unconscionable and unreasonable. If God wants a person to live, that person will live. Let God be the determiner of when a person is to die.

Wether we die at an early age or at 120 is up to God. Living a long life is no guarantee that one will be in Heaven. To play God by keeping someone alive who in the natural course of events would die is a condemning sin. Those of you who have joined in the fight to have kept Terri Shiavo alive, or this 36 year old woman, Eluana Englaro, from the rewards of death will not have a part in rewards of God's kingdom unless you repent. Vatican officials who have joined the fight to keep Eluana alive will have the most severe condemnation.

Jesus made it clear when He said: "For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel will save it. [Mk 8:35] -- He gave one description of Hell as follows: "where 'their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.' " [Mk 9:48] -- Saint Paul said: "If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are the most pitiable people of all." [1Co 15:19]

Perhaps a thousand preborn persons could be kept alive with the amount of money that is spent upon someone who gains no merit in Heaven for having an extended life they cannot benefit from. There are millions of people who are starving to death that would otherwise live if the money spent on trying save the life of a person, who will probably die anyway, were spent on them.

By TANALEE SMITH, Associated Press Writer Tanalee Smith, Associated Press Writer – Sun Feb 8, 7:59 am ET
HEALESVILLE, Australia – Towering flames razed entire towns in southeastern Australia and burned fleeing residents in their cars as the death toll rose to 84 on Sunday, making it the country's deadliest fire disaster.

Can you imagine a worse way to die? I can, knowing that after I die in such a fashion I could spend eternity in Hell for keeping a person from passing from this life to be in Heaven or where judges the person will be (sic).

Sincerely in Jesus Christ,

Fr. David


Dear Father,

I visit a nursing home every Sunday. Some of the people have terminal diseases and are dying. Most, however, are not. They are in different stages of dementia, or have limited awareness, or they are frail and unable to care for themselves. Does the fact they are more or less helpless mean we should withdraw their food and water and let them be dehydrated to death?

Eluana is not dying like your friend with the multiple problems apparently is.

She is brain damaged and has "diminished consciousness." Terri Schiavo also was not dying. She was brain damaged. The media speak about Terri (and now Eluana) as "comotose." She isn't. Pictures and videos of Terri showed her responding to her mom and tracking a balloon with her eyes, laughing at her dad's jokes, etc. How aware is Eluana? I can't say because she's been carefully hidden from view.

Some of your email is very disturbing.

Why should the government (the people through taxation) have to pay to prolong the lives of a few when the same sums could be used to feed thousands.... Passing from this life should be seen as a happy event that should be understood to be joy.

What are you saying here, Father? Are the handicapped and brain-damaged "useless eaters?" Should we do a cost benefit analysis on them and use that to determine whether we let them live or die? It's been done before. I sidewalk counseled for years at an abortion mill where a pro-abort escort argued that abortion "sends the little souls to Jesus." Your statements sound chillingly like his. They also sound like the philosophy of the gnostics who believed suicide could free one from the body.

I was with my dad, my mom, and my father-in-law when they died. I had cancer myself when I was 39. I've stared death in the face and walked up to its door with loved ones. But there is an ocean of difference between a person who is actively dying and whose body is shutting down and a handicapped person whose body is perfectly fine and able to absorb nutrition. In the first case nutrition is useless and may even increase the person's suffering. In the second nutrition is essential. Terri wasn't dying until she was deliberately dehydrated. The same is true of Eluana. She is not "unconscious" any more than a severely retarded child is unconscious. They have limited capacity. From the perspective of those who want their death, the problem isn't that they are dying, it's that they aren't. Eluana's dad wants her to die and neglect doesn't look quite as evil as the lethal injection. But actually, for Eluana, the suffering will be worse which will ultimately lead to the argument for the "more compassionate" and quick needle in the veins -- like putting an animal to sleep.

You say, Whether we die at an early age or at 120 is up to God. Exactly! But these people are taking that decision away from God and usurping His authority by indirectly killing the person by neglect. Dehydration is a hellish way to die. Read the description about it on my blog entry.

You said...Can you imagine a worse way to die? I can, knowing that after I die in such a fashion I could spend eternity in Hell for keeping a person from passing from this life to be in Heaven or where judges the person will be.

Are you serious? None of us can keep a person from "passing from this life." I can't stop death and neither can you. What we can do, that is seriously sinful (as the Church teaches), is hasten people into eternal life by directly or indirectly killing them. That's what happened to Terri, Nancy Cruzan, Hugh Finn, and is now happening to Eluana. It is a moral evil that doesn't just impact the family who does it but the entire culture. And we've seen in history where it leads. Study the T-4 program in Nazi Germany.

I'll pray for you, Father. The murder of the helpless and sick through euthanasia (whether active or passive) is the diabolical twin of abortion.

To hear a Catholic priest argue for this breaks my heart.

Sincerely in Christ,

Mary Ann