Hospital’s pro-life stance applauded by Church in India

(December 30, 2009) Church leaders have applauded a hospital’s decision not to allow a patient, who has been comatose for the past 36 years, to die by withholding nutrition from her. Pro-euthanasia groups and others have demanded Aruna Shanbag, now 56, be allowed to die in view of her prolonged “vegetative state”. Shanbag, a nurse at Mumbai’s King Edward Memorial Hospital, was raped by a janitor in 1973. The dog chain he used to throttle her cut off the blood and oxygen supply to her brain. One of the patient’s friends, Pinki Verma, had approached the Supreme Court for permission to withdraw nutrition from Shanbag as her condition does not allow her to enjoy “quality of life.” The court on Dec. 16 dismissed the plea saying the country’s laws do not allow for such a measure. Applauding the ruling, Auxiliary Bishop Agnelo Gracias of Bombay said Shanbag “should definitely be allowed to live.” Depriving her of nutrition would amount to murder by starvation, said the prelate. He commended the Hospital for its willingness to care for Shanbag. “Just because she has been in her present state for a long time and hence, she might not enjoy life is certainly not a reason to kill her,” he stated. Father Caesar D’Mello, who teaches moral theology at the archdiocese’s St. Pius X Seminary, said allowing her to starve would amount to depriving her of what the Vatican has described as “proportionate means” of preserving life. Jeanette Pinto, who directs the Bombay Archdiocesan Human Life Committee, said the hospital has “shone like a beacon of light” in a society where “the culture of death prevails.”