Religious thinkers grapple with ethics

The issues raised by the Terri Schiavo case have long been discussed by thinkers in the major religions and at first glance, they seem to agree.

Each faith emphasises preserving life, though there is no mandate for prolonging it at all costs.

The problem comes in implementing that idea.

“Is there an appropriate time to pull the plug? There certainly can be, but the devil is within the details,” said John Jefferson Davis, who teaches Christian ethics at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, an evangelical school in Hamilton, Massachusetts.

With the facts in Ms Schiavo’s case in dispute, determining what remains within ethical boundaries is difficult.

Court-appointed doctors say Ms Schiavo is in a persistent vegetative state, after her heart stopped beating temporarily 15 years ago, cutting off oxygen to her brain.

Her parents, who are observant Roman Catholics, deny that she is in a vegetative state. Video broadcast nationally has shown her appearing to interact with her family. But a doctor has said the reactions are merely reflexes.

Of the major faith traditions, the Catholic position on Ms Schiavo’s care is the most definitive. The Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, on Monday condemned the withdrawal of the feeding tube, saying only God can decide whether a person should live or die.

A year ago, Pope John Paul II said that feeding and hydrating a patient in a vegetative state was “morally obligatory.”

Dr Shahid Athar, head of medical ethics for the Islamic Medical Association of North America said Muslim teaching also required that Ms Schiavo continue to be fed although no extraordinary steps should be taken to keep her alive.

“You cannot deny hydration or nutrition in a vegetative state,” Dr Athar said.

In Jewish teaching, however, there is no consensus.

Rabbi Elliott Dorff, author of Matters of Life and Death: A Jewish Approach to Modern Medical Ethics, said it appeared there was no chance Ms Schiavo would recover, since she had spent more than a decade in a vegetative state, and concluded the feeding tube amounted to an extraordinary measure.