What is euthanasia?  Euthanasia in the strict sense is understood to be an act or omission which of itself and by intention causes death, with the purpose of eliminating all suffering.  “Euthanasia’s terms of reference, therefore, are to be found in the intention of the will and in the methods used.”  It is the deliberate and morally unacceptable killing of a human person. 

Consider two contrasting cases that riveted the world in recent history.  The first is Terri Schiavo. Terri Schiavo suffered severe brain damage in 1990 following a heart attack. The brain damage left her unable to care for herself so for the last 13 years she had had a feeding tube in her for nutrients and fluids.On March 31, 2005 at approximately 9.05am, Terri Schindler-Schiavo lost her nearly 14 day struggle against starvation and dehydration and died at the Hospice Woodside in Pinellas Park, Florida.  Her parents valiantly exhausted all efforts, calling on Governor Jeb Bush, the US Supreme Court, and finally President George Bush in a bid for their daughter’s life, against her husband Michael. 

Michael and those siding with the “right to die” side have disregarded what Pope John Paul II wrote in 1998, "the omission of nutrition and hydration intended to cause a patient's death must be rejected."   They contend that in her “persistent vegetative state” she has lost the basic human dignity.  The Florida courts decided in favor of Michael, as Terri’s husband and legal guardian, in the absence of a living will from Terri. 

However, they are wrong in many accounts.  Our human dignity is not determined by our state nor our health, but is something we never lose since it is given to us by God.  They forget that starvation was precisely one of the means that the Nazis, Russia under Stalin, Cambodia under Pol Pot, and other despots used to kills millions in the history of the world.  A living will is a dangerous document, as it could be misconstrued as a permission to end one’s life.  We have no “right to die” per se, as this rejects God’s  absolute sovereignty over life and death.

Our beloved Pope John Paul II’s life and death witnessed to the dignity of life.  Defying his ailing, feeble body, he continued shepherding the Catholic Church, and the whole world, until his last days.  He once remarked that he would only step down from his papacy when Jesus has stepped down from his cross.  He showed the world that pain and suffering are not to feared, but rather to be embraced as the way to Christ.