Vatican Calls Terri's Death 'Murder'

A spokesman for Pope John Paul II called Terri Schiavo's death Thursday morning a "murder."

In quotes picked up by the Associated Press, top Vatican official Cardinal Renato Martino said:

"When you deprive somebody of food and water, what else is it? Nothing else but murder."

Martino said that he was speaking on the case "according to the teaching of the pope," who was informed of Schiavo's death shortly after it happened.

The cardinal made a direct comparison between the pope's frail health and Terri Schiavo's condition. The "comparison is easy," Martino said, while noting one important difference:

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