The US Conference of Catholic Bishops released an “Ethical and Religious Directive” this month that would ban any Catholic hospital, nursing home or hospice program from removing feeding tubes or ending palliative procedures of any kind, even when the individual has an advance directive to guide their end-of-life care. The Bishops’ directive even notes that patient suffering is redemptive and brings the individual closer to Christ.
The bit about redemptive suffering FOR OTHER PEOPLE infuriates me. Jesus asks each of us to take up the cross, but he never told us to lay crosses on the shoulders of others. You powers in the RCC, do your own redemptive suffering, but stop laying heavy burdens on others. What you teach strays from the Gospel message.
The “Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services” put out by the Catholic bishops would build upon a Papal allocution given in the wake of the controversial Terri Schiavo case, where the US Congress stepped in to keep Schiavo alive despite her persistent vegetative state and the wishes of her husband to end care. The papal elocution did state that the permanently unconscious should always have access to a feeding tube, but it did not have the force of doctrinal law behind it. “There was always some wiggle room” for Catholic care facilities, said Coombs Lee. Catholics were allowed to use something called a “benefit/burden balance” to determine the ethical, moral and compassionate result in any individual case.
Now, that wiggle room is gone. In the new directive, the bishops state that it is unethical and immoral to withhold or withdraw a feeding tube from patients, whether in cases of permanent unconsciousness, comas, or even cases of advanced dementia when the patient is unable to feed themselves.
If you or a loved one is in a critical or end of life state, and you want compassionate care, then don't go to a RC hospital.
This substitutes the wishes of the bishops for the stated wishes of families and the patients themselves, said Coombs Lee.
....
Coombs Lee believes that this could create “300,000 Terri Schiavo cases,” the number being equal to the number of feeding tubes inserted in the United States each year.
When I attended Loyola University 50 years ago and in the intervening years until the Terry Schiavo case, this was not position of the RCC. The church seems determined to continue its backward movement toward the halcyon days of the past. How far back will their journey take them?
Thanks to Ann at Facebook for the link.
This is very, very disturbing.
ReplyDeleteThe hospital my insurance requires me to go to happens to be a Roman Catholic hospital. The first time I had to have a procedure that required a general anesthesia was back in the late 90s and it was the hospital itself that handed me a living will to fill out first -- with organ doner information and when to pull the plug and all that. I guess that will now change. I don't know if it's possible for me to get assigned to another hospital but I think I'll try.
Ellie, you prove my point that the position of the RCC has changed drastically. What are they thinking? The RC laity already ignore a good many of the church's pronouncements, and this will drive others to do the same and avoid RCC hospitals. But the directive will serve to confuse and burden already stressed patients and family members who wish to obey the rules. I'm truly angry.
ReplyDeleteI hope that you can be assigned to another hospital.
I am sick = do not take me to the hospital please.
ReplyDeleteThis is horrifying.
Oh Fran! What is happening? In light of the church's response to the Terry Schiavo case, I suppose that we should not be surprised, but I am.
ReplyDeleteThis is very distressing news. When my mother had a massive stroke after surgery (in a RC hospital) the neurosurgeon said she would never recover since 80 percent of one side of her brain was damaged, and a large percentage of the other as well. Some of the damage was in the part of the brain that regulates temperature and breathing. Anyway all seven of us children agreed that she would not want extraordinary measures taken to keep her alive and her advance directives said this too.
ReplyDeleteWe had the feeding tube removed and she was just given water through and IV. Some of the staff were upset at our decision, but it held. They put her in a hospice bed at the hospital and we took turns staying with her day and night. She lived a little more than two weeks and I know that some say we "starved" her, but she could not have lived and she was as comfortable as she could be in her last days.
I shudder to think of her having to be kept "alive" just to please some stupid bishops.
Another TBTG that I left early on.
Amelia, during the last 8 months of her life, my mother was brought into the ER in critical condition on several occasions. I reminded the staff of her DNR instructions which were in her chart, but sometimes overlooked (deliberatly?), and I sometimes received dirty looks in response. I was made to feel like the potential killer-daughter, guilt which I did not need at the time.
ReplyDeleteThe hospital was not RC, but most of the staff were. That I was made to feel guilty for reminding them of my mother's own directives showed a true lack of compassion on their part. Piss on them. I feel quite strongly about folks being free to choose in instances like this and having their choices respected.
Indeed this is very scary business. I have an advance directive but now I have genuine fear in being taken to an RC hospital.
ReplyDeleteHorrible, horrible, horrible!
ReplyDeleteIn many parts of the country, there are no hospitals that are not RC.
ReplyDeleteWhich means, no advanced care directives, no birth control, no morning after pill, no tubal ligation or vasectomy, and presumably no recognition of gay couples.
Who would have thought that in this country we would cede so many regions to the Vatican?
General anesthesia ought be prohibited in order feel the need to confess, repent and ¨get closer to God¨ before one croaks from shock...these sick jokers must stay awake at night figuring out how to distract the world from their own gruesome behavior and mischiefmaking...did they have JPII on a feeding tube and respirator at the end? (nobody knows because they didn´t take him out of his room?).
ReplyDeleteIt's a damned shame. Our community hospital was once RC, but the nuns who ran the hospital gave it up when it was deemed inadequate, and a new hospital was built. Thank goodness! Why should Roman Catholic bishops have a say in what kind of medical care people get? There ought to be a law.
ReplyDeleteRoman Catholic Church: A death-of common-decency panel.
ReplyDeleteMimi,
ReplyDeleteHow far back can these folks go?
Roughly 375 AD.
Sounds like a winner, Fred. Fourth century medical care ought work for us.
ReplyDelete