"Grave sin" to remove feeding tubes, bishop says

"Grave sin" to remove feeding tubes, bishop says
Rome, Mar. 22
(CWNews.com)

The removal of a feeding tube from Terri Schiavo was an "illicit and grave act," according to the president of the Pontifical Academy for Life.

Bishop Elio Sgreccia told a Vatican Radio audience that the court-sanctioned decision to stop providing food and water to the brain-damaged Florida woman was "all the more serious because it seems that the decision as to who lives and who dies will now depend on a court." The Italian bishop remarked that he hoped "this decision will not be followed by other similar decisions," but repeated his absolute opposition to the court's ruling.

Bishop Sgreccia said that the Schiavo case "might be part of a larger movement that favors legitimizing so-called euthanasia in similar cases."

He added that the case of Terri Schiavo is not actually an instance of euthanasia, since she will be allowed to die of starvation and dehydration, slowly and painfully, rather than being put to death by medical means.

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