Vatican on Nutrition to Patients in Vegetative State

Contrary to the prior statements of multiple disenting theologians, nutrition and hydration is obligatory for patients who are medically stable and in whom a diagnosis of Persistent Vegetative State (PVS) has been made. See my article at LULU. com entitled "Fr. Richard Mc Brien and others Mislead Catholic Public: Allege Schiavo Feeding Tube Removal OK". For further details See here
--Dr. J. P. Hubert

"A Person With Fundamental Human Dignity"

VATICAN CITY, SEPT. 14, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Here is the note published today by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith entitled "Responses to Certain Questions of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Concerning Artificial Nutrition and Hydration."* *

*First question: Is the administration of food and water (whether by natural or artificial means) to a patient in a "vegetative state" morally obligatory except when they cannot be assimilated by the patient's body or cannot be administered to the patient without causing significant physical discomfort?

Response: Yes.

The administration of food and water even by artificial means is, in principle, an ordinary and proportionate means of preserving life. It is therefore obligatory to the extent to which, and for as long as, it is shown to accomplish its proper finality, which is the hydration and nourishment of the patient. In this way suffering and death by starvation and dehydration are prevented.

Second question: When nutrition and hydration are being supplied by artificial means to a patient in a "permanent vegetative state," may they be discontinued when competent physicians judge with moral certainty that the patient will never recover consciousness?

Response: No.

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.

* * *
The Supreme Pontiff Benedict XVI, at the audience granted to the undersigned cardinal prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, approved these responses, adopted in the Ordinary Session of the Congregation, and ordered their publication.

Rome, from the Offices of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Aug. 1, 2007.

William Cardinal Levada, Prefect
Angelo Amato, S.D.B. Titular Archbishop of Sila, Secretary