OK Bishop Lynch, Now How Do You Justify Being Silent About Terri Schiavo?

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith recently released a reply to a couple of questions sumbitted By Bishop William S. Skylstad in the name of the USCCB about the nutrition and hydration of patients in the condition commonly called a "vegetative state". The questions were submitted in a letter dated 11 July 2005. The response, dated 1 August 2007, was released last week after being approved by Papa Benedetto. (Why it took so long to reply is a part of the mystery of how the Vatican bureaucracy operates.) They also issued a commentary on the questions expanding on those answers with the reasoning behind them.

As Thomas Peters at American Papist pointed out, the request by Bishop Skylstad is probably as a result of the many "Catholic" hospitals that are still ignoring the directive of Pope John Paul II on this subject. I suspect that the fact that some bishops like Terri Schiavo's didn't speak up for her also played a part in this request.

CONGREGATION FOR THE DOCTRINE OF THE FAITH
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, August 1, 2007.

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

The answers & commentary leave no doubt that what happenned to Terri Schiavo was wrong, no surprize. But it will be interesting to see how those "Catholic" hospitals, Bishops & politicians who don't agree try to squirm out of this 1.