Lima, Peru, Jul 25, 2005 / 22:00 pm
The President of the Pontifical Council for Heath Care, Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan, recalled the Terry Schiavo case this week and said “they killed her” by denying her food and hydration.
According to the cardinal, “Food and hydration are never considered medicine.” “To remove them means euthanasia, it means killing, and so this woman was killed by hunger and starvation. Let’s stop with the euphemisms—they killed her,” he stated.
“Law consists of a rational ordering that seeks the common good and not the common evil,” Cardinal Lozano noted, “but many times there are laws that are called laws but are nothing more than arbitrary norms. In fact, the President of the United States was against this court decision because he had enough sense to realize it was incorrect.”
In today’s world, he stated, there is an abundance of euphemisms to disguise euthanasia. “The dignity of death means that this person has the capacity to reach the fullness of maturity so that upon crossing the threshold he or she does so in full consciousness, blossoming forth completely in the Lord,” the cardinal added.
He also called for advances in palliative care in order to “resolve the problems of pain and so that individuals can be more aware and more united to Christ on the cross, and thus be more conscious of the beginning of the resurrection.”
Likewise, the cardinal pointed out that “a doctor who is not a believer is always a frustrated doctor. The most advanced techniques, the most advanced medicines, are always met at the exit by the ironic laughter of death; on the other hand, the believer says no to death,” he said.