Yesterday I published the first part of an email exchange with Fr. David Trosch on the case of Eluana Englaro, the Terri Schiavo of Italy. Today let's... Go deeper into the Twilight Zone - How Would You Like To Wear a Diaper?
Mary Ann,
Nutrition or hydration given via tube or intravenously, particularly over an extended period of time, is not required by moral law. Such is unnatural. If you believe that if you were aware of everything that is going on around you and would want to live in that unnatural condition, then try it some time. Get in bed, do not move, have a tube stuck in your throat and otherwise do not eat or drink while having the bed changed for you, diapers changed, given sponge baths, etc. and see if this is a condition you would want to live in.
Abortion is murder and the souls of the aborted do not go automatically to Heaven. They must pass through tests, trials and tribulations in an altered state of existence. An abortionist discussed this topic with me on the Geraldo Show many years back. I too have sidewalk counseled, picketed, and operated a pregnancy counseling center for about eight years. Three nearby abortion clinics were closed down. There is now only one operating in Mobile, AL, Planed Parenthood.
Withdrawal of nutrition or hydration is neither murder nor suicide. It is allowing a natural occurrence to take place.
You are playing God by keeping a person alive when God has called them from this life. Dehydration is at best uncomfortable for a short period of time. After that there is no pain or suffering related to it. Many people die in this manner sooner or later. One can also suffer from third degree burns, auto accidents, etc. and then die. The concept of suffering before death is not uncommon and many times calls for a person to evaluate their lives and repent. Many who do not suffer will have much greater eternal suffering in the next.
Your concept of faith and morals is greatly misplaced.
Sincerely in Jesus Christ,
Fr. David
Dear Father,
Following your suggestion to me, if you think dehydration and starvation is so easy try it. I wouldn't recommend going without water for more than 24 hours -- but why don't you give up food for a week and see how you feel. I did it for three days when Terri was being murdered. The first day was relatively easy since I was drinking plenty of fluids. By the third day I wasn't feeling very well and was glad I hadn't made the commitment to go longer. To go without food AND WATER as Terri did for TWO WEEKS I can't even imagine. If it's so easy why do we arrest people for cruelty who starve their animals? Your rhetoric is the same as those who speak for the culture of death.
You say that my "concept of faith and morals is greatly misplaced." But my position is in accord with the Vatican's that nutrition and hydration cannot be removed from a patient in vegetative state, that they are "an ordinary and proportionate means of preserving life," and "obligatory" in most circumstances.
There are rare exceptions, for example when the patient's body cannot absorb nutrition and "in very remote places or in situations of extreme poverty, [where] the artificial provision of food and water may be physically impossible." But when a healthy individual who is brain damaged is denied food and water because of her handicap -- that is the ultimate playing God. How long would you last without food and water, Father? What makes your life more valuable than Eluana's or Terri? Your mentality is what cleared out the mental hospitals in Germany under the Nazis' T4 program.
A baby bottle is a feeding tube. The parent who deprives the infant because he is handicapped is playing God. So is the doctor or parent who deliberately neglects the brain damaged adult. Your rationale would equally apply to starving and dehydrating a newborn with severe Downs Syndrome. But perhaps you support that as well?
I applaud your defense of the healthy unborn. It's unfortunate you are willing to see the elderly and mentally incapacitated hurried into eternity even if they are physically healthy as Eluana was. Even her doctor testitfied to that fact. Your claim that they are dying is wrong. Eluana's doctor said she was in perfect physical health. Terri Schiavo was in good health as well. Both had to be murdered because they WEREN'T DYING and someone wanted them dead - NOW.
With all due respect, Father, I think you are the one who has a "misplaced conept of faith and morals" and is willing to "play God." I say that based, not on my own judgment alone, but on the authority of the Church. I feel in good company since the Pope and Vatican were working to save Eluana. Who is your authority?
By the way, are you a priest in good standing? If so what diocese?
Sincerely,
Mary Ann Kreitzer
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