Pontiff's Choice Was to Die Simply

What a hypocrite:

His openness to the end of life calls attention to profound issues faced by the severely ill.

By Sebastian Rotella and Jeffrey
Fleishman, Times Staff Writers

VATICAN CITY — Pope John Paul II died the way he wanted.

He spent his final hours in his Vatican apartment, surrounded by nine members of his mainly Polish inner circle. Three doctors were present, but no elaborate hospital technology to help prolong his life.

Just before the end, the pope's longtime secretary celebrated Mass and began to anoint the pope's hands with oil, according to one account. John Paul gripped his secretary's hand, an apparent farewell gesture to a faithful aide who helped the pontiff fulfill his wish to die unencumbered by tubes and machines. It was 9:37 p.m. Saturday.
...
His very public choice also highlighted profound moral questions within Catholicism about the balance of preserving life and accepting death.
...
When the pontiff left the hospital March 13 after doctors performed an operation to ease his breathing, he made it clear to his aides that he did not intend to return.

Like many gravely ill people, the pope preferred to face death at home, not in the
fluorescent glare of a hospital. His choice, according to a source close to papal aides, also reflected his keen awareness of church history and ritual: Popes die in the Vatican.

That determination and the ensuing medical choices were consistent with church teaching about not prolonging life at all costs, according to theologians.

"He just didn't want to go to the hospital for a third time," said Gerald O'Collins, a professor of theology at Gregorian University in Rome. "What would have happened if he had gone back? Aggressive treatment that might have kept him alive a few more weeks, but there's no moral obligation to accept this."

A Surprising Statement

Nonetheless, the pope himself appeared to complicate the issue last year when he declared that the feeding and hydration of critically ill patients was in fact a moral obligation. He said that such treatment constituted a "natural act" for patients such as Schiavo who were in vegetative states or comas.
...
Near the end, the pope slipped in and out of consciousness. He was gaunt, unable to speak, his breathing labored, his kidneys and heart shutting down. But he had fulfilled his wish that the final chapter of his life present public suffering as an affirmation of human dignity.