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Artificial Nutrition and Hydration and the Permanently Unconscious Patient: The Catholic Debate
Edited by Ronald P. Hamel and James J. Walter
304 pp, $29.95
Washington, DC, Georgetown University Press, 2007
ISBN-13: 978-1-5890-1178-6
JAMA. 2008;299(13):1610-1611.
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In March 2004, Pope John Paul II, speaking to a conference in Rome on "Life-Sustaining Treatments and Vegetative State: Scientific Advances and Ethical Dilemmas," made the following statement as part of his larger message:
I should like particularly to underline how the administration of water and food, even when provided by artificial means, always represents a natural means of preserving life, not a medical act. Its use, furthermore, should be considered, in principle, ordinary and proportionate, and as such morally obligatory, insofar as and until it is seen to have attained its proper finality, which in the present case consists in providing nourishment to the patient and alleviation of his suffering.1
Although it took a little time for the media to pick up on this papal message, it soon became the subject of controversy and heated discussion. Much of the controversy and discussion was remarkably void of grounding in . . . [Full Text of this Article]
Myles N. Sheehan, SJ, MD, Reviewer
Leischner Institute for Medical Education
Stritch School of Medicine
Loyola University Chicago
Maywood, Illinois
msheeh1@lumc.edu
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