Breaking News: Vatican Says Vegetative patients have moral right to food, hydration
The Vatican has released a ruling today clarifying the Catholic position on food and hydration to patients in persistent vegetative states who are not expected to recover from their injuries.
The Vatican said that patients in a vegetative state, with few exceptions, have a moral right to artificial food and hydration. “In this way suffering and death by starvation and dehydration are prevented,” according to a statement released by the Vatican and approved by Pope Benedict XVI.Nutrition and hydration support are not obligatory when such care becomes “excessively burdensome” or when patients cannot assimilate food and liquids “so that their provision becomes altogether useless,” the Vatican’s Congregation of the Doctrine of Faith wrote in a statement.
At the basis of the ruling is the moral belief that tube-feeding those near death is an "ordinary" state, and that the basic human dignity of the patient means that care should not stop.
The clarification becomes important because although Catholic doctrine does oppose euthanasia, it allows for the cessation of heroic, futile (extraordinary, and potentially painful) efforts. At question, then, has been whether or not tube-nourishment constitutes extraordinary or heroic efforts that are therefore optional under Catholic doctrine.
Ultimately, this affects more than "just" Catholics - many hospitals around the world are run by Catholic organizations who will feel bound by the ruling, and will enforce the decisions stemming from it regardless of whether or not the patient themself is Catholic.
-Kelly Hills
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Good article. It seems though a contradiction (in my humble opinion) that the Catholic Church allows for the cessation of extraordinary efforts, but patients who aren't expected to recover are entitled to food and hydration.
Having coded and been on a vent for a week, spending months afterward in rehab, I know I never want to go through that again and have taken legal measures to make sure of it. I hope the wishes of me and my family will be respected should it come down to it.
I trust that care would be taken for patients in vegetative states to not be in pain, so that they would be comfortable until their time here is through.
Thanks again for sharing the article.
http://chiarian.blogspot.com
- by Zipperhead on Sep 17, 2007 at 2:35 PM | link
I have always felt uneasy about hospitals with a strong Catholic underpinning--to the point of taking out more expensive insurance and using a more distant provider (a substantial risk in case of emergency). But is there evidence that Catholic management effects the type of care provided?
- by emily on Sep 18, 2007 at 9:33 AM | link