Over at Vox Nova, a blogger somehow manages to de-clarify the clear teaching of the Pope as it relates to the nutrition and hydration of of those in a persistent vegetative state (such as was Terry Schiavo).

The Pope's statement on this can be read here, and it is worth looking at how the blog posting manages to make such a clear statement somehow less clear:

Pope John Paul II weighed in on this issue in May 2004. In a short allocution, he argued that…

The Pope was teaching, not arguing.

But this statement should be interpreted not as some new innovation…

But it doesn't really matter if it was an innovation — it isn't something at odds with previous teaching, and it provided great clarity in a potentially confusing area.

One implication of the pope's statement is that the case for withdrawing tubes from patients in persistent vegetative states may be less clear than for other cases…

On reading the Pope's statement, the exact opposite is the case: for patients in a persistent vegetative state, it is perfectly clear that removal of nutrition/hydration is not permissible.

Note also the two conditions listed by the pope: providing nourishment, and alleviation of suffering. It could be argued that Terry Schiavo was not suffering.

I cannot for the life of me see that the Pope was intending to state that both conditions had to be fulfilled for food and water to be allowable. Food and water are provided so as to keep the body alive, and to prevent suffering due to lack of food and water. Both are needs. (And if Schiavo were not suffering, this would be even less reason to remove food and water.)

As I noted, the area suffers from a grave lack of clarity.

As described by the blogger, surely so. But not if the Pope's statement is read as teaching.

Or could it [nutrition and hydration] have been seen as extraordinary treatment, given that she was suffering from severe brain damage and was not cognizant of her surroundings?

Anyone reading the whole of the Pope's teaching statement could not realistically be left in doubt about the answer to that question.