Council of Catholic Bishops Veto Millions of Advance Directives
Catholic Health Care Facilities to Ignore Advance Directives,
Patients will be Force-Fed Against their Will
The United States Council of Catholic Bishops has ordered Catholic healthcare institutions to veto the Advance Directive wishes of millions of Americans on the refusal of tube feeding if they were to become permanently unconscious. Compassion & Choices, the nation’s oldest and largest nonprofit working for end-of-life care and choice, sharply criticized the action as an imposition of dogma over the desires and dignity of patients and families. Polls show that at least three-quarters of Americans report they would not want to be kept alive artificially if they were in a persistent vegetative state. Most people who fill out advance directives indicate they do not want artificial feeding if they become permanently unconscious.
But the revised “Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services” (ERD) decrees those wishes will not be honored at the 565 Catholic hospitals across the nation, by Catholic HMO’s and health care plans and by millions of nurses, doctors and hospital workers who must follow the bishops’ lead.
“The impact is enormous, for Catholics and non-Catholics alike,” said Barbara Coombs Lee, president of Compassion & Choices. “The USCCB order runs counter to written instructions in hundreds of thousands of Advance Directives and the clear wishes of many individuals with no written document. The primary consideration in healthcare decisions should always be the individual’s values, beliefs and desires, not fixed doctrine of any one religion. We respect the beliefs of all Catholics, but we do not respect an attempt by Catholic Bishops to override the health care decisions of a majority of Americans. This Directive could bring an equivalent of Terri Schiavo’s tragedy to 300,000 families each year.”
Catholic healthcare institutions must abide by a set of rules called “Ethical and Religious Directives, written by the US Bishops. Meeting in Baltimore, the bishops yesterday overwhelmingly approved a revision to the directives with a specific reference to the “persistent vegetative state” that afflicted Terri Schiavo. Removing all flexibility to respect the wishes of a patient or family, the revised directive creates “an obligation to provide patients . . . medically assisted nutrition and hydration” in all instances except when a patient is actively dying. Thus, Catholic hospitals and nursing homes are now obliged to insert and maintain feeding tubes in all patients with severe advanced dementia, permanent unconsciousness and persistent vegetative state.
An estimated 10,000 to 25,000 U.S. adults are in persistent vegetative states (PVS), according to the Multi-society Task Force on the Persistent Vegetative State. Every year, 300,000 feeding tubes are inserted, usually in patients with PVS, advanced Alzheimer’s disease, and permanent unconsciousness from other causes, such as strokes. Decisions must be made to withhold them, withdraw them, or retain them indefinitely. The prior version of the ERD suggested a “presumption in favor” of feeding tubes, balanced against the burdens to the patient. That balancing allowed doctors to give weight to a patient’s previously stated wishes and reports from family of what the patient would want. The new guidelines allow no consideration of the burden to the patient or the testimony of the family.
“When a healthcare institution adopts a conscience provision that effectively invalidates the advance directives of millions of Americans, it calls into question whether federal dollars are funding religious discrimination against Americans who do not share the Catholic view of end-of-life decisions,” said Barbara Coombs Lee, President of Compassion & Choices.
The revision to the ERD reads, “As a general rule, there is an obligation to provide patients with food and water, including medically assisted nutrition and hydration for those who cannot take food orally. This obligation extends to patients in chronic conditions (e.g., the ‘persistent vegetative state’) who can reasonably be expected to live indefinitely if given such care.”
Compassion & Choices is a nonprofit organization working to improve care and expand choice at the end of life. We support, educate and advocate.
If the hospitals have to pay for this themselves… would they still do it?
Comment by Mary — November 18, 2009 @ 4:46 pm
[...] people to have a living will for such situations? If you were one of the people who did that, make sure you avoid Catholic health care institutions as they’ve been ordered by the United States Council of Catholic Bishops to ignore [...]
Pingback by HorsesAss.Org » Blog Archive » Open Thread — November 19, 2009 @ 5:06 pm
One would think that this edict may well “backfire” on the good Bishops of the Catholic Church.
A court case on whether it is appropriate for a hospital and the treating doctors to ignore an Advance Directive could be interesting.
I am sure members of my group, Christians Supporting Choice for Voluntary Euthanasia, would agree that to be forcefed against our wishes is a gross violation of our Human Rights. Please check out our website, http://www.Christiansforve.org.au
Ian Wood
Group Co-ordinator
Port Pirie
South Australia
Comment by Ian Wood — November 20, 2009 @ 12:35 am
I just had surgery under general anesthesia at a wonderful catholic hospital where I received great care. I made my wishes known that if the occasion arose, I did not want to be kept alive by artificial means or in persistant vegitative state. THis information makes me question my decision to have surgery there! I will limit my health care to non catholic institutions in the future.
Comment by K. Lockwood — November 23, 2009 @ 4:42 pm
Who will be the first to initiate legal action against the Church for ignoring the terms of legal documents created to govern end-of-life treatment? Can the Catholic heirarchy do any more to doom the Church both morally and financially? Sadly, all the good and kindly parishioners, as well as the majority of local priests and nuns, continue to be victimized and betrayed by these bishops and by extension their superiors. This edict does nothing but damage to people who in no way deserve to be treated so poorly.
Comment by steve scott — December 1, 2009 @ 6:33 pm
The council of Catholic Bishops is exactly the kind of nonsense that made me leave the catholic church. Thety represent only themselves and their special agendas.
They are a pathetic group of men who will end up destroying the Church and our country. They are no better than the mulahs in Iran or the ultra left wingers in the Democratic party.
Rest assured I would never again use a Catholic Hospital, ever………
Does the Pope know about this???????He allready admitted in a speech in Koeln Germany that the church was loosing members in droves, now the council will make sure that this happens here as well as in Europe. It is time that these fools stay out of our lives….They should mind their own business because when they do they won’t have time to mind by vusiness……
Thank you
Comment by tom wayne — December 1, 2009 @ 6:34 pm
I would like to print this out - to ask my CAtholic hospital if my directives are going to be ignored
Comment by colleen nicholson — December 1, 2009 @ 7:00 pm
Is there any plan to fight this? What about legislation to prevent the Catholic Church from owning the only hospital in town? What about withdrawing tax exempt status? What about lawsuits? What about charging people with assault when force feed or “hydrate” a person with a living will? I would certainly consider it assault if they ignore my wishes.
Comment by Gail Johnson — December 1, 2009 @ 7:43 pm
There should be a legal requirement for hospitals (catholic or any other) that will go against prospective patients’ wishes on such matters to have plainly visible signs to that effect. There should also be documents to inform patients of what they are possibly going to be subjected to. Of course, there has to be a test court case with all the unfavorable publicity to warn the unsuspecting.
Comment by Ron Christensen — December 1, 2009 @ 8:47 pm
The preservers of life, huh
How many realize that the hatred of the Jews in Europe goes back a thousand years, and comes from the mother christian church, the Catholic church. Unknown millions probably died in the pogroms over much of the churches history.
And the culmination of the churches hate came in the early 1930s. A madman named hitler, who grew up in very catholic Austria, learned his hatreds well. And during a period of economic collapse, he leveraged the poisoning of German society by the church, using Jews as the scapegoats, to gain control of Germany. And 50 million died including 6 million of Jesus own people the Jews..
And if you think the church has reformed, just look at how Benedict has unexcommunicated a Bishop Williamson, to bring Williamson and his 600,000 followers back into the church. Williamson is a holocaust denier - simple as that.
At least when Argentina, where williamson was living discovered he was there, they threw him out of the countrry.
To paraphrase the comment “cry the Beloved Country”, which was about South Africa and Apartheid, all good Catholics should “Cry the Beloved Church”. And close their pocketbooks to the church, until Benedict and his gang are sent packing off to a nursing home, to await their day of Judgment.
And btw, lets not forget that Benedict told Africans “not to use condoms”. In a continent with 23 million people dying of AIDS, and babies being born left and right with this death sentence over their head.
The church re abortion, life, and even birth control is the worst hypocrisy we have ever known. They think these issues are trump cards, they really care not for life, but for their absolute control of minds.
And the other thing that should be done is to insure the church hospitals do not receive any federal or state funds.
Hardly and different then other tyrants of history, hitler, stalin, mao, Saddam, Bin Laden etc. The mentality of absolute control, and all else be damned.
Comment by Stan James — December 1, 2009 @ 10:55 pm
.Advance directive is a necessary evil and an unpleasant death from thirst and hunger, however, the only tool available in many states to allow individuals to die instead of being tortured by religious fanatics.
Pope Pius XII in 1957 said that the terminally ill and suffering pain can refuse treatment and that in some cases passive euthanasia is permissible.
The feeding tube application is an insertion of a foreign object into a bodily orifice - when unwanted or refused, it equals rape.
Catholic Church may influence the laws, and indeed it does, but cannot refuse to obey them!
Comment by Viorel Verka — December 2, 2009 @ 8:06 am
[...] than you when to remove a feeding tube. Even if you have a living will. Nice to know ahead of time. Compassion & Choices Council of Catholic Bishops Veto Millions of Advance Directives Council of Catholic Bishops Veto Millions of Advance Directives Blaine | Advance Directive, Blog | [...]
Pingback by Some hospitals are told to ignore living wills - INGunOwners — December 2, 2009 @ 12:46 pm
I’m glad this information is out and on the table where it belongs.
Now we can fight it tooth and nail. The fundamentalist Catholics who are taking over
their “faith” will lose in the new secular Europe and eventually in the U.S. Their time
is over.
Comment by Michele Marie — December 2, 2009 @ 2:04 pm
If a Catholic hospital, or any other Catholic medical facility receives any form of governmental subsidy in any way, shape or form, then “the buck stops here!” A Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care is a legal document and must be respected, without question. I’m sorry, but I do not see the Catholic Church picking up “the tab” for keeping thousands of people alive by artifical means or people in a vegitative state. I for one will never step a foot into a Catholic hospital again if my Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care goes unrecognized.
Comment by Sherri L Taylor — December 2, 2009 @ 2:10 pm
My mother died only a month ago and my father two years before, both of what is euphemistically called “Adult Failure to Thrive.”
Both of my parents were perfectly conscious when, because of advanced Parkinson’s Disease, swallowing properly became impossible, causing food to enter the windpipe and choking them. Each one of them firmly refused to allow having feeding tubes inserted down their throats or to be given intravenous fluids. They decided that they had lived long enough at ages 85 and 86 and were not willing to live as invalids any longer.
I, their daughter, was charged with carrying out their wishes, and in both cases I experienced the indescribable anguish of seeing my good parents literally shriveling away as I administered whatever nourishment I could, drop by drop, round the clock, to alleviate their bodies’ needs, mainly thirst.
Eventually Hospice provided enough sedation to block the anguish of hunger and thirst, which they both very much experienced as the sedation kept wearing off until they became completely unconscious from weakness.
Their Parkinson’s disease took away their ability to do anything for themselves, and, even if I had found the courage, I could not do anything other than to stand by helplessly as their bodies starved to death. Both asked at some point if there was a way to help them die quickly by injection or overdose.
I have had many pets in my life, and I would never allow an animal to suffer like my beloved parents suffered when their time came to die. My parents did die with dignity, but they and the family had to experience far too much anguish in the process. We are grieving more intensely because of the manner of their death.
Our misguided society persists in denying us the humane alternative of having the assistance of kind professional to ease the most inevitable passage of life. Even as it is, advance directives are poor ways to prepare for a “good” death, with the many variables this presents. Until Euthanasia becomes an available option, people will continue to suffer unnecessarily. I hope and pray that by the time my children reach their lives’ end, they will have this option. I have no hope for it in my lifetime; therefore, I am formulating my own strategy for when my end comes.
Comment by yolanda — December 5, 2009 @ 11:08 am
[...] I posted about the directive laid down by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops which requires their particular institutions to override the end-of-life wishes of certain patients who choose to reject feeding tubes. Barbara Coombs-Lee [...]
Pingback by HorsesAss.Org » Blog Archive » Advance Directives — December 5, 2009 @ 11:41 am
Is it possible to get the text of this directive, or a link to it?
Comment by RobLL — December 5, 2009 @ 4:22 pm
[...] people to have a living will for such situations? If you were one of the people who did that, make sure you avoid Catholic health care institutions as they’ve been ordered by the United States Council of Catholic Bishops to ignore people’s [...]
Pingback by HorsesAss.Org » Blog Archive » Blind Man’s Bluff — December 31, 2009 @ 11:49 am
Don’t believe everything you hear from Compassion & Choices on this important issue. As an advocacy group, part of their role is to (mis?)represent the issue in a way that is favorable to their own agenda. Here is the web address for the Catholic Health Association: http://www.chausa.org. The site has a helpful Q & A published on Dec 10, 2009 regarding the change in Directive #58. Educate yourself and make up your own mind. Don’t let others speak for you.
Comment by John — January 6, 2010 @ 1:48 pm