Nadie sabe cómo acabará la pobre Terri Schiavo, una vez que se ha convertido en un "caso". Aunque no es ningún "caso", ni legal, nu humanitario: es sencillamente una persona humana viva.
Sus padres, Bob y Mary Schindler piden que no se la mate de hambre y sed. Su marido, Michael Schiavo, que la ha abandonado y vive con una señora o señorita que ya le ha dado dos hijos, según leo, se empeña (prefiero no pensar en sus motivos) en "desconectarla", eufemismo para decir eutanasiarla en el sentido puro y duro de "matarla". Es decir, dejarla morir de hambre y sed, no en el sentido de evitar sufrimientos que provengan de algún "ensañamiento terapéutico".
Es curioso observar que quienes han cuidado y tratado de cerca a Terri Schiavo en estos años, con lo que supone de entrega y esfuerzo personal, pidan que se la deje seguir viviendo.
Quienes no la han tratado de cerca (marido legal, jueces, políticos), con honrosas excepciones, quieren que desaparezca del horizonte de sus vidas privadas. Y que desaperzca de la vida pública esa imagen que tanto les molesta.
Es curioso que la ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union), se oponga a la vida de Terri Schiavo. Es curioso que la N.O.W. (National Organization of Women) siga sin decir una sola palabra al respecto, cuando de ordinario anda clamando defensas para mujeres desatendidas.
Una vez que las diversas "batallas" en defensa de la vida en instancias políticas, legales, médicas y humanitarias, parecen haber llegado a un punto insoportable, ahora lleno de tecnicismos legales, es normal que la vista se dirija hacia horizontes religiosos. Y desde estos horizontes (en los que habitualmente se atiende y cuida a cientos de personas como Terri Schiavo), dotados de principios estables, llegan palabras netas, claras, rotundas:
La Iglesia Católica ha hecho una declaración (ver en CNA):
"Javier Lozano, a member of the Pontifical Council for Health said that the act “is euthanasia”, and amounts to nothing more than a ruthless way to kill a person.
He added that, "The end of life is a question only in the hands of God. This is our belief. It is not something that must be in the hands of politicians or in the hands of physicians... but in the hands of God only."While the Catholic Church is not in favor of keeping a person alive at all costs—using medical intervention, which could prolong the person’s agony-- the Vatican is quick to point out that Schiavo is not on life support, but merely requires food and water.
One year ago, Pope John Paul II wrote that, "The administration of water and food, even when provided by artificial means, always represents a natural way of preserving life... not a medical procedure."
Dice el Rabino Aryeh Spero, en Jewish World Review (texto completo):
We can't stand by and watch her starve to death
A heart, for example, that beats not on its own but only through an artificial respirator is surviving outside the pale of physiology — its maintenance is artificial. There is nothing artificial, however, in people being fed by others. Babies do not feed themselves, nor do the frail and very sick — for example, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's patients. While we do not breathe for others, we certainly feed others. It makes no difference if the person is fed from without or within, conventionally or by machine.
While medicating is a conditional decision, not so feeding. Feeding is not a medical question, it is the most basic human need whose purview is not the doctor's or judge's but inalienable. Not to feed one starving in front of you is: "Standing by While the Blood of Your Brother is Spilt."
Terri Schiavo's heart and brain are not being kept alive by a machine. She breathes on her own and her brain-stem and other strategic parts of her mind continue to function. Terri Schaivo is not an "artificial" person. "Pulling the plug" is a misnomer being used by those who want her dead and out of the picture, i.e., no longer a moral and ethical challenge. (...)
The procedure of death-inducing starvation is, as Rep. Delay says, "barbaric," and what appears to be the use of the system by an unloving husband to finish-off his wife a travesty and an upending of justice. It is an outcome most Americans can not stomach. (...)Curiously, the most silent group has been those on the Left always in the forefront demanding "lifestyle" rights. It should be obvious from their silence that when they speak of rights it really means license — society being forced to extend approbation, the concept of rights, to what really is licentiousness. Others who have lectured us for decades about the need for "compassion" have suddenly become "legalists" with hearts of stone.
Esto dice hoy L'Osservatore Romano (via Zenit):
"There is a woman in a Miami hospital who is about to die of hunger and thirst," insists the Holy See newspaper.
"A person -- not a 'vegetable' -- is slowly dying while the world watches impotently through television and newspapers," it said. "Her real drama, instead of inspiring a wave of generalized mercy and solidarity, is suffocated by the indecent quest to arrogate to oneself the right to decide on the life and death of a human creature."
"To what chilling eugenic mentality belongs the principle, according to which, life -- even if it is diminished and suffering -- depends on a judgment of quality expressed by other people?" asks the article written by Francesco Valiante.
Y el autor del artículo se pegunta por quién se arroga esa prerrogativa sobre la sacralidad de la vida humana: «¿Los médicos cuya deontología profesional nunca como en este caso debería sacar del cajón de los recuerdos el conocido principio: “to cure if possible, always to care" "curar si es posible, pero prestar asistencia siempre"? ¿Los padres, que dieron la vida a Terri hace 41 años? ¿O el marido, que un día le prometió "amarte y honrarte siempre, en la salud y en la enfermedad" y que hoy se ha convertido en su más frío y despiadado verdugo?».
«La lenta y desgarradora agonía de Terri es hoy la agonía del sentido de Dios, Señor de la vida. Es la agonía del amor que sabe inclinarse ante quien es frágil y necesitado. Es la agonía de la humanidad», concluye.
Así están las cosas hoy en día, en este nuestro mundo tan lleno de promesas de respeto por la dignidad humana, como de incumplimiento de esas promesas. Asusta tanta incapacidad de mantener la propia palabra. Asusta tanta falta de principios estables. Asusta tanta indefensión personal, ante tanta indiferencia y tanto egoísmo institucional, y desde luego personal.
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