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U.S. Bishops Move Towards Strengthening Stance on Artificial Nutrition/Hydration

By Tim Waggoner and John Jalsevac

ORLANDO, FL, June 12, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The U.S. bishops voted today to authorize the Committee on Doctrine to begin revising the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services, the document that guides the operations of Catholic hospitals around the country.

John L. Allen Jr. of the National Catholic Reporter, reports that while today's vote is only a first step, there are clear indications that the Committee on Doctrine intends to alter the document so as to better reflect directives that have come out of the Vatican in recent years in regards to the moral issues surrounding the provision of artificial nutrition and hydration. 

Currently the USCCB document states, "There should be a presumption in favor of providing nutrition and hydration to all patients, including patients who require medically assisted nutrition and hydration, as long as this is of sufficient benefit to outweigh the burdens involved to the patient."

The document, however, leaves open the question of whether or not it is morally obligatory to provide artificial nutrition and hydration to patients who are in severe states of debilitation but not necessarily in immediate danger of death, especially those who are suffering from a so-called "permanent vegetative state". The Ethical and Religious Directives explains only that, "The USCCB Committee on Pro-Life Activities' report…points out the necessary distinctions between questions already resolved by the magisterium and those requiring further reflection, as, for example, the morality of withdrawing medically assisted hydration and nutrition from a person who is in the condition that is recognized by physicians as the 'persistent vegetative state' (PVS)."

However, a 2004 document by Pope John Paul II and an August 2007 document from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith have made clear that supplying natural or artificial nutrition and hydration is "an ordinary and proportionate means of preserving life" and is therefore generally "obligatory." This has been interpreted as meaning that unless a patient simply cannot assimilate food and water, or if food and hydration will only briefly stave off imminent death, then nutrition and hydration should continue to be provided. This would, therefore, include patients in a PVS.

Should the U.S. bishops alter the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services to reflect better the Vatican-issued directives, it will be a welcome clarification, especially as Terri Schiavo-like cases where food and hydration are removed from patients not in immediate danger of death are daily increasing in number. Catholic hospitals have not been immune from such practices.

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