Home // September 17th-21st 2007 > No excuses for not feeding people

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No excuses for not feeding people

Published: September 17, 2007

The Holy See has issued a statement reiterating that the removal of feeding tubes from people in vegetative states is immoral.

The Associated Press reports that the Vatican issued the statement in response to questions from bishops in the US in July 2005. This was just months after the case of an American woman Terri Schiavo made world headlines.

She died in a Florida hospice in March 2005, 13 days after her feeding tube was removed.


The Vatican statement said: "A patient in a 'permanent vegetative state' is a person with fundamental human dignity and must, therefore, receive ordinary and proportionate care which includes, in principle, the administration of water and food even by artificial means,"

At the time, the Vatican condemned Schiavo's death as "arbitrarily hastened". It called the removal of her feeding tube a violation of the principles of Christianity and civilization.

Friday's statement said the Vatican was asked whether the administration of food and water to a patient in a vegetative state was morally obligatory except when they cannot be assimilated by the patient's body or administered without causing significant physical discomfort. The answer was yes.

The statement said exceptional cases, such as the inability of a patient to cope with feeding or food shortages in poverty-stricken or remote areas, "take nothing away from the general ethical criterion."

The Vatican noted that Pope John Paul II told a 2004 medical conference on ethical dilemmas that providing food and water to people in vegetative states should be considered natural, ordinary and proportional care.

Bishop William E. Lori of Bridgeport, Connecticut, chairman of the U.S. bishops Committee for Doctrine, said the American bishops hoped the Vatican's explanations would provide guidance to pastors, ethicists, doctors, nurses and families involved in the issue.


SOURCE
Vatican says food, water must be provided to vegetative patients (Catholic News, 14//07)
Vatican reiterates that it considers removal of feeding tubes immoral (International Herald Tribune, 14/9/07)

LINKS (not necessarily endorsed by Church Resources)
Vatican Text, 14/9/07)
Cmmentary on text
Terri Schiavo

ARCHIVE
Cardinal says Schiavo death raises questions for society (CathNews, 23/4/05)
Bishop says Schiavo case may influence Australian laws (CathNews, 31/3/05)

 

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