Feeding is not a medical procedure

Giving a human being food and water is a moral act.

That basic, instinctive truth is now a hot, controversial topic up for debate in Italy after the death of Eluana Englaro, as it was in the U.S. during the ordeal of Terri Schiavo.

The Vatican clarifies:

The President of the Pontifical Academy for Life, Archbishop Rino Fisichella, said this week that there “must be a distinction between the medical act by which feeding tubes are inserted and food and hydration itself which we do not consider to fall under therapy.”

We have to split hairs now to define something so basic.

He pointed out that there are “hundreds and thousands of doctors and scientists who do not consider food and water to be therapy. These are elements essential for the lives of persons and we think they should always be guaranteed, because giving food and water to a person can never be considered extraordinary means.”

Commenting later about the law on the “end of life” currently being debated in the Italian congress, the archbishop noted that “in the Church there is always a reflection on the beginning, the development and the end of life” because “we should always keep alive the question about the meaning of life, of sickness and of suffering.”  In addition, he stated, “at certain historical moments,” this reflection “is more urgent.” In this case, the archbishop explained, “the Church is called to make a judgment, and her way of thinking should never be marginalized.”

The vulnerable and impaired should never be marginalized, which is why the mother of the young ‘Spanish Terri Schiavo’ has worked so quietly for seven years to care for her daughter at home, outside the public glare of scrutiny.

Patricia said, “Each morning I thank God for giving her to me one more day. It never occurs to me not to feed her, and I have stopped being afraid when she suffers a respiratory crisis or [of the thought] that she could die at any moment, since I continually put her in the hands of the Holy Spirit.”

There is so much for us to learn in that statement.