TERRI SCHIAVO: Kausfiles is acute.

Father Johansen is on the scene in Florida: “But then they added that they would physically prevent him from giving Terri communion. …

“(a) Terri is responsive to those around her, in distinctive ways (she responds to different people differently).

“(b) All three doctors testified definitively and convincingly that Terri is NOT in a Persistent Vegetative State or coma. They all but begged the reporters present to stop reporting her as “brain dead” or PVS.

“(c) Terri would almost certainly benefit from rehabilitative therapy, which therapy husband Michael has steadfastly denied for 10 years. …

[clipped]

Noli Irritare Leones is reflective–start here and scroll down: “I won’t call this a right to die; I don’t believe that I have absolute rights over my life. I won’t call it a right to die with dignity, because that, to me, makes it sound as if my dignity depends on my abilities and independence, and I don’t think it does. I’ll call it a right not to be tortured as I am dying, a right to choose the more merciful and less burdensome exit over the one which gives my life every possible moment of duration it could have.

“As it happens, the Catholic Church, as far as I can tell (see here particularly the links that Peter Nixon has posted), actually supports both of my intuitions. And so I could, consistent with Catholic teaching, avoid the treatment which perhaps prolongs my life, but at the cost of making my last days an ordeal, or receive pain medication when terminally ill, even to a degree which might shorten my life. All of this seems to me appropriate and merciful, and a reasonable balance between considerations of respecting life and those of easing the burden of the dying. But then, that still leaves the question of how these principles should actually be applied.”

And lots more worthwhile thoughts here.

I am basing many of my reactions on the interviews (on all sides) that I did in the course of writing this piece for the Register.