CNN-TV says there are “conflicting reports among Italian media about Pope’s condition.”

Drudge still has the headline “REPORT: POPE DIES IN ROME,” but he also has the report: “ITALY’S SKY ITALIA QUOTING VATICAN SOURCES SAYS POPE’S BRAIN, HEART STILL FUNCTIONING.”

But CNN-TV is now saying that the proper translation of the Sky Italia report is that the Pope is braindead, but his heart is still functioning. (His EEG shows no brain activity, but his EKG still shows heart activity.)

Miles O’Brien just made the inevitable Terri Schiavo analogy.

CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta says that, if the Italian report is correct, the Pope must be on a respirator.

UPDATE: The AP casts doubt on the braindeath report:

The Italian news agency ADNKronos, without citing sources, reported that a brain monitor hooked to the pope had gone flat. But a senior Vatican official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press that the pope was still alive and that there was no such monitoring device in his apartment.

Drudge is reporting that Pope JP II is dead.

CNN reports:

Pope John Paul II’s condition was “very grave” after he suffered cardiocirculatory collapse and septic shock, a Vatican spokesman said Friday.

It was the first time the Vatican had used such language to describe the pontiff’s latest health crisis.

The deputy to the Vatican spokesman denied media reports that the pope had fallen into a possible coma. …

Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls denied media reports the ailing pontiff had suffered a heart attack.

He described the pope as lucid and serene and said the pontiff was being treated in the Vatican because it was his desire to remain in his residence and not return to the hospital. …

A Vatican official said earlier that the pope appeared to be responding well to antibiotic treatment for a urinary tract infection that caused him to develop a fever.

Accroding to CNN, the Pope has suffered a “cardio-circulatory collapse.”

The Sacrament of the Sick, or “last rites,” have been administered to Pope John Paul II, according to CNN.

Earlier today, when I learned that Terri Schiavo had died, I privately thought to myself, “What will the news media do if the Pope dies on the same day?” Heaven forbid, but that looks less far-fetched right now.

UPDATE: Story here.

UPDATE 2: CNN is also reporting that there are no plans to take the Pope from the Vatican back to the hospital.

“So basically, we’re bracing, God forbid, for the worst.” –Wolf Blitzer

Pope John Paul II has reportedly taken a turn for the worse.

UPDATE: The Vatican now confirms, according to a BBC breaking news e-mail: “Pope John Paul II’s condition has worsened, and he has a high fever caused by a urinary tract infection, a Vatican spokesman says.”

Riddle me this. The Catholic Church is against miraculous medical intervention to either save or end a life. Yet, the Pope feels perfectly justified in getting a tracheotomy to prolong his life through an illness that would typically kill him.

Why? Why is the Pope afraid to die? I’m not suggesting any hypocrisy, but rather that it seems unfair to talk about God’s will and then to intervene in your own mortality when it’s convenient.

I’m not saying that we should never take medicine or partake of the fruits of medical advancements. But if I can’t take a little pill to prevent the conception of a teratologist’s wet dream, then it doesn’t seem quite fair to let the Pope have a hole in his neck.

The Pope is back in the hospital.

The Pope was reportedly minutes from death last week.