Washington D.C., Mar 30, 2005 / 22:00 pm
The President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Cardinal Renato Martino, said Thursday shortly before learning of the death of Terri Schiavo that to do nothing “during Terri’s last hours is to be an accomplice in her death.”
Speaking on Vatican Radio, Cardinal Martino explained that Terri’s was a case of someone being “condemned to die,” and given the doubts about her condition, “it is a murder which one cannot take part in without become an accomplice.”
“The anguish and agony of Terri Schiavo, beyond the possibility that she has become a political instrument, requires that mankind take action to prevent this imminent tragedy from taking place,” he said.
Cardinal Martino said the withdrawal of food and water is “an unjust condemnation to death of an innocent person by one the most inhumane and cruel forms that exist, that of of starvation.”