ROME, May 18, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The parents of Terri Schiavo met with Pope Benedict XVI today and gave him a framed photo of their deceased daughter. Yesterday Bob and Mary Schindler met with Renato Cardinal Martino to thank him personally for his attempts to save the life of their cognitively disabled daughter in March.
Terri died of court-ordered dehydration after years of struggle by her parents to convince the courts to allow her to live out the natural course of her life. Over the final weeks of her life, the Vatican head of the congregation for Justice and Peace spoke out forcefully against what he called Terri’s judicially imposed murder.
The Schindlers gave a press conference after their 15-minute audience with the powerful Cardinal whom they said had helped them “spiritually” during the last phase of their fight. “Just knowing that he supported us gave us strength,” said Schiavo’s mother, Mary Schindler.
While the Schindlers fought for the life of their child, Pope John Paul II, himself ailing and nearing the end of his life, reiterated that it was the conclusion of the Natural Law that food and water should not be considered ‘medical treatment,’ but merely that to which everyone has a right. On March 7, Cardinal Martino, wrote that Terri “will die a horrible and cruel death. She will not simply die; she will have death inflicted upon her over a number of terrible days even weeks . . . how is it that this woman, who has done nothing wrong, will suffer a fate which society would never tolerate in the case of a convicted murderer or anyone else convicted of the most horrendous crimes?”
In a statement following his meeting with the Schindlers, Martino quoted Pope Benedict XVI saying, “Freedom to kill is not a true freedom but a tyranny that reduces the human being into slavery.”
“We can expect from Benedict a very great and convinced defense of life,” Martino said.
Though some Catholic bioethicists have denied or undermined the teaching, the Church says that unless the body is physically incapable of receiving nutrition and hydration, it must be administered as the basis for sustaining life. Terri’s condition was never properly diagnosed and the disabled rights community has expressed their misgivings about the direction that will be taken after this well-publicized case.