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Your post and NBC-15's story are misleading. The bishop didn't make a blanket statement that all living wills are mortal sins. He said that when a living will gets in the way of a medical procedure that prevent death, then it's a sin.

I'm not really sure what differentiates a mortal sin from a regular sin for the RC church, but I think the bishop makes a good point.

The real issue in the Terri Schiavo case wasn't whether she had a living will or had made her wishes clearly known. Instead, it centered on the "right" of a human to decide on his death. From my perspective, and apparently the bishop's, no human has that right. In fact, it's no right at all. Terri Schiavo had no right to die, no matter what she communicated to her husband and parents.

Schiavo's value as a human doesn't come from her ability to communicate or interact with the world. It has nothing to do with her utility in society. It has everything to do with her creation by God and in his image. The act of creation imbued Terri Schiavo with her value and no one has the right to take that away.

Jason, I did oversimplify the bishop's position in my link, and I apologize. I was trying to keep the post brief, since few of my posts are.

That said, after reading your comment, I'm not sure what's "misleading" about the report I linked to. You both say pretty much the same thing, the difference being that NBC-15 makes explicit that civil law differs from the theological position you and the bishop espouse, both with respect to living wills in particular and the so-called "right to die" in general.

Or -- and this is always possible -- am I missing something?

You're right. The NBC story itself isn't misleading, but I think the headline, "Are Living Wills A 'Mortal Sin'?" is. It's a little bit sensational. A better headline would've been, "Bishop clarifies church's stance on living wills."

Headline writing is tough. If it were easy, I could do it.

You're right. I wasn't being flippant about the headline or headling-writing. I wrote my fair share for the News & Record, and I learned how hard it can be.