---

Canadian Bishop Clarifies Catholic Position on Nutrition and Hydration - Main issue in Schiavo Case

By John-Henry Westen

LONDON, ON, April 20, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) -  London Ontario Bishop Ronald Fabbro has issued a statement clarifying the teaching of the Catholic Church on the provision of artificial nutrition and hydration.   The issue has been contentious, even in Catholic hospitals, and was raised to international attention with the starvation death of Terri Schiavo in 2005.

"In an address which he delivered on March 20, 2004, Pope John Paul II referred to a particular medical condition called persistent 'vegetative' state (PVS), or post-coma unresponsiveness," said Bishop Fabbro.  "In reference to this condition, the pope stated that artificial nutrition and hydration (ANH) 'should be considered, in principle, ordinary and proportionate and as such morally obligatory insofar as and until it is seen to have attained its proper finality.'"

Explained the Bishop, "In the case of a PVS patient, then, nutrition and hydration are required as basic care.  A PVS patient is not terminally ill, and denying ANH would be an act of killing the patient by dehydration and starvation."

Commenting on the Bishop's statement, Alex Schadenberg of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition told LifeSiteNews.com that his group "is pleased with the clarification by Bishop Fabbro on issues related to hydration and nutrition."

"The question is," said Schadenberg, "when will Catholic hospitals and Catholic physicians begin to follow their Church's official position on this question?" Schadenberg added, "The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition continues to be challenged not only by secular physicians but also Catholic physicians on the fact that we correctly recognize that euthanasia by omission does exist and in fact usually refers to euthanasia by dehydration. This is often called "slow euthanasia".

Bishop Fabbro also noted in his clarification that "It would be wrong, however, to conclude from the pope's speech that there is an absolute obligation to provide nutrition and hydration to all patients, regardless of their state."

"Providing nutrition and hydration is a general obligation," he said, "but Catholic teaching recognizes that there are circumstances where nutrition and hydration are no longer required and could, in fact, be harmful to the patient."  The teaching, he said, is reflected in the ethics guidelines of the Catholic Health Association of Canada.  "There are instances, for example, of terminally ill patients for whom death is imminent from an advanced progressive and progressing disease, where ANH is harmful to the patient and may be removed," said the Bishop.  "In these cases, the cause of death is not the removal of nutrition and hydration but the disease."

Schadenberg concluded, "When a person, who was not otherwise dying, is intentionally dehydrated to death, this is euthanasia by omission. When a person who is dying and experiencing organ failure or other body 'shut-down' symptoms, that to remove all hydration and nutrition with the intention of preventing further pain and suffering is not euthanasia but rather accepting the limits of life."

 Back to Top

---

MORE NEWS: LifeSiteNews.com Home Page  Last 10 Days   Archives   Special Reports

Copyright © LifeSiteNews.com. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License. You may republish this article or portions of it without request provided the content is not altered and it is clearly attributed to "LifeSiteNews.com". Any website publishing of complete or large portions of original LifeSiteNews articles MUST additionally include a live link to www.LifeSiteNews.com. The link is not required for excerpts. Republishing of articles on LifeSiteNews.com from other sources as noted is subject to the conditions of those sources.