USA: Council of Catholic Bishops Veto Millions of Advance Directives

Description:

Compassion & Choices brings the news that the Conference of Catholic Bishops voted overwhelmingly for a directive that instructs Catholic health carers to force-feed unconscious patients, regardless of the instructions in any advance directives those patients may have. The directive, "Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services" (ERD), governs 565 Catholic hospitals, Catholic HMO's and health care plans and millions of nurses, doctors and hospital workers. The directive applies to "patients with severe advanced dementia, permanent unconsciousness and persistent vegetative state."

LifeNews.com summarized it this way: "The new rule incorporates a strong position maintaining that all patients in comatose or "vegetative" states receive food and water except those close to inevitable death from underlying conditions. The directives prohibit euthanasia and allow hospitals to follow Catholic pro-life teachings even if contrary to patient wishes."

[Note: Some other recent stories related to this topic are in the Links: section below.]

Links:

To read the full article click on one of these links, both of which go to the same destination. A short link is provided for the convenience of readers. Also, readers may search and browse past advisories on the web (see bottom.)

  • http://tinyurl.com/yayovy8

  • http://compassionandchoices.org/blog/?p=751

    Also see:

  • USA: Catholic Bishops Vote to Reaffirm Food and Water for Coma, "Vegetative" Patients [LifeNews.com]
    http://www.lifenews.com/bio3001.html

    "The new rule incorporates a strong position maintaining that all patients in comatose or "vegetative" states receive food and water except those "close to inevitable death" from underlying conditions. The directives prohibit euthanasia and allow hospitals to follow Catholic pro-life teachings even if contrary to patient wishes."

  • Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services, Fourth Edition [United States Conference of Catholic Bishops]
    http://www.usccb.org/bishops/directives.shtml

    This is the previous (2001) version.

Source:

"Council of Catholic Bishops Veto Millions of Advance Directives". Compassion & Choices. Wednesday, November 18th, 2009. <compassionandchoices.org/blog/?p=751>. Compassion & Choices, PO Box 101810, Denver, CO 80250-1810, U.S.A.

Tags:

Tags (or keywords) briefly indicate some major topics of the report.

  • advance directives

  • Catholic Church

  • Compassion & Choices

  • U.S.A.

ID:

The EuthaNEWSia ID for this advisory is: enid200911199947.
Mailed: Thursday, November 19, 2009 14:49:45 -0600
at Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

Etcetera:

EuthaNEWSia is a free Canadian news advisory service covering end-of-life issues such as right to die, assisted suicide, and euthanasia. EuthaNEWSia is produced by the Right to Die Society of Canada which works toward a good death for all, including open, regulated and equitable access to euthanasia and assisted suicide. The editor is Michael Dawson <editor@euthanewsia.ca>. 

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