.- Under the headline, “Terri Schiavo: the ‘crime’ of being useless,” the Vatican’s newspaper L'Osservatore Romano published a harsh editorial criticizing the decision by Federal Judge James Whittemore not to order the reinsertion of a feeding tube in the Florida woman, who has been without food or water for over four days.
“She has no chance of ‘recovery’ or of living a ‘normal’ life. Therefore Terri Schiavo must die.” This is the “absurd and terrifying motive” behind the recent judicial ruling, the editorial states.
The article noted the intervention by the US Congress, but pointed out that Judge Whittemore has decided that “Terri’s life is not worth living and at the same time has condemned her to an atrocious death: death by hunger and thirst.”
“After all,” the editorial adds,”Terri's destiny appears not unlike that of many men and women who in the United States get capital punishment for their crimes. But Terri has committed no crimes, if not that of being 'useless' to the eyes of a society incapable of appreciating and defending the gift of life. Of any life," said the paper.
