January 15, 2007 07:20 AM
CORRECTION TO THE FIFTH EDITION OF HEALTH CARE ETHICS
"Care of Permanently Unconscious Patients"
The fifth edition of Health Care Ethics, by Benedict Ashley, O.P., Jean DeBlois, C.S.J., and Kevin D. O'Rourke, O.P., has recently appeared. This work has long been recognized as an important resource for Catholic health care professionals.
In section 6.8, titled "Care of Permanently Unconscious Patients," the authors suggest that the ethicists of The National Catholic Bioethics Center would view the removal of nutrition and hydration from a patient in the persistent vegetative state (PVS) as a morally appropriate form of action. This does not reflect the position of the Center.
While recognizing a number of exceptions to the presumptive moral obligation to provide nutrition and hydration to patients who cannot receive food and water orally---exceptions which may extend even to patients in the PVS---the Center holds that a diagnosis of the PVS (however carefully done) is not by itself a valid justification for making such an exception. Patients in the PVS have the same right to basic care as do all other patients.
We republish here our statement on the case of Terri Schiavo of March 18, 2005, which expresses our position on this matter.
THE CASE OF TERRI SCHIAVO
March 18, 2005
In view of the continuing controversy over the case of Terri Schiavo, the ethicists of The National Catholic Bioethics Center would like to reiterate their firm conviction that food and water should be provided for all patients who suffer PVS unless it fails to sustain life or causes suffering. We make this judgment based on the Catholic moral tradition, on the 1992 statement of the Pro-Life Secretariat of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops dealing with hydration and nutrition for patients in PVS, on years of consideration of comparable cases, and in view of Pope John Paul II's March 2004 allocution on life sustaining measures for patients in a persistent vegetative state.
In general, the provision of nutrition and hydration to the patient in PVS is proportionate and morally obligatory. Removal of food and water is permissible only when they no longer attain the ends for which they are provided, namely, providing nourishment and alleviating suffering.
