MEDICAL VOCABULARY:
Proper Catholic vocabulary vs Common Medical terminology:
UNRESPONSIVENESS:
“Vegetative State” is to be referred to as “Unresponsive.”
“Unconsciousness” = refers to a state where a person is unable to respond to stimulii. is a broader term that encompasses the absense of any reponse to external stimulii whether they are conscious or not . (protrainings.com)
NUTRITION/HYDRATION:
Proper Nutrition and hydration is to be protected – If the patient is not imminently dying, Nutrition and hydration do not constitute medical therapy but are obligatory care. Even if Feeding Tube is necessary. death by STARVATION is a moral evil is EUTHENASIA by omission.
FEEDING TUBES:
There comes a time when food and water cannot be assimilated by a dying patient. As death approaches, the body begins to shut down, organ systems begin to fail, the digestive system no longer works properly, and food is not digested and absorbed. placing or keeping a feeding tube, would in that case, provide no benefit and would be appropriate to remove. Page #23 of To Die Well.
patient is in the stage of inevitable death and the patient becomes unable to eat or drink anything, death is very near there is no obligation to place feeding tube and the patient dies of their illness.
Some circumstances may arise to discontinue a feeding tube, such a s a comatose patient who regurgitates the tube feedings and suffer aspiration. This would cause the patient more pain and suffering. Or a patient who has extreme agitation and may repeatedly try to pull out the feeding tube, reinsertion may become progressively more difficult and excessively burdonsome.
Those few exceptions aside we have a duty to provide shelter and food to someone in need of it. A comotose patient should NOT be left to die, nor should he be starved to death. The inherit value of human life at all stages, and in all degrees of capacity must be protected. = PULL QUOTE.
WITHDRAWING CARE:
Pope Pius XII, 1957 – page 27:
(To Die Well, by Steven E. Doran MD.)