Catholic Stance on Tube-Feeding Is Evolving

Washington Post ^ | 3/27/05 | Manuel Roig-Franzia

[Crackingham]

The Terri Schiavo case, for all its legal and political wranglings, is also churning up spiritual questions, ones with particular relevance for Catholics during the holiest days of the church calendar this weekend.

The Roman Catholic Church has taken a strong stance in the saga of Schiavo, the brain-damaged woman whose parents are fighting to keep her alive. Her Catholic faith has been such an important issue in the case that a court ordered doctors to deliver the sacrament of Holy Communion through her feeding tube before it was removed March 18. Pope John Paul II has said feeding tubes are "morally obligatory" for most patients in vegetative states, and high-ranking cardinals have followed up by referring to Schiavo, saying that removing her feeding tube could lead to legalized euthanasia.

Theologians disagree about whether the pope is altering Catholic tradition, but there is consensus across the ideological spectrum that the Vatican's position in the Schiavo case has given Roman Catholics a new calculus for end-of-life decision making.

"This is the most authoritative statement we have to date," said Richard M. Doerflinger, vice president of the Pro-Life Secretariat of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and an opponent of ending Schiavo's feeding.

Before this case, before the pope's statement, even conservatives such as Doerflinger say there was enough of a debate about the Catholic position that a person could choose which side to take: continue or discontinue tube-feeding. But now the pope and the cardinals have made much more definitive statements that Doerflinger and his polar opposites agree seem to require Catholics to continue with tube-feeding, as long as it "provides nourishment" and "alleviates suffering."

[frogjerk]

Some prominent theologians argue that the pope is contradicting his recent predecessors by declaring that food and water are morally obligatory "basic care" and, as the Rev. John Paris, a bioethicist at Boston College, put it, "wholly upending four centuries of consistent Catholic moral analysis." Other prominent Catholic thinkers believe the Vatican is merely updating the church's position to reflect modern medical advances.

Who's the authority on Faith and Morals in the Catholic Church? Um...The Pope...ya think?

[frogjerk]

Almost from the beginning, both sides -- Schiavo's parents and her husband, Michael Schiavo -- have mixed religion into the process. Initially, the spiritual mantle seemed to tilt in favor of Michael Schiavo, who says his wife would have wanted him to remove the feeding tube that has kept her alive since her brain was damaged from lack of oxygen after a heart attack 15 years ago. A Catholic priest testified on Michael Schiavo's behalf at a trial in 2000.

What is this Catholic priest's name? Anyone know?

[MisterRepublican]

Most preists and "theologians" would do well to take a Catholic cathechism class. They have no clue what the Catholic church teaches about most issues.

[expatguy]

More legal mumbo jumbo - meanwhile a disabled woman starves to death.

I don't need a court or a judge to tell me that starving and dehydrating another human being to death is wrong.

Moral Sovereignty and America's Foreign Policy

[Alberta's Child]

Before this case, before the pope's statement, even conservatives such as Doerflinger say there was enough of a debate about the Catholic position that a person could choose which side to take: continue or discontinue tube-feeding.

Absolute crap. The Catholic Church has long defined a feeding tube as an "ordinary" means of medical care (it isn't really a form of "treatment" in any sense of the word), and has prohibited anyone (including the patient himself/herself) from refusing to be fed via this means when there is no alternative.

Other means of artificial life support -- including ventilators, dialysis machines, etc. -- are considered "extraordinary" means of treatment and can be refused by a patient and/or legal guardian in cases where this means of treatment is not likely to restore a patient's health.

[Don Corleone]

Her Catholic faith has been such an important issue

No wonder the libs want her to die. She's a CATHOLIC!

[Sir Charles]

Most good Catholics would at least spell "priest" correctly and would not speak quite so harshly about the Church. If not a Catholic, then who cares what you think?

[AlbertaBeef]

You are completely wrong, it is you that do not know much about the catholic teachings if you make such a claim.

[Honestfreedom]

Isn't this moot? My understanding is that she could be hand fed. The tube was for the convenience of her care providers.

[tkathy]

It seems to me the Catholic Church should pay for the enormous costs to society involved in keeping people living for decades. I don't recall anything about feeding tubes in the bible.

[visualops]

Exactly.
Those who would try to make it seem as if the Church is at odds with itself, or undecided [I believe] in order to diminish or discredit the Church, are doing Satan's work.

[rmmcdaniell]

It seems to me the Catholic Church should pay for the enormous costs to society involved in keeping people living for decades. I don't recall anything about feeding tubes in the bible.

Yes what is hardly mentioned on these threads is that it takes $80,000 a month to pay for her care. More spent in a month than most households with children earn in a year. That sounds like heroic treatment to me. Then these same people will go on other threads and whine how states across the country are raising taxes and won't cut spending.

[visualops]

There's nothing about antibiotics or defibrillators or a host of other medical advances either. Your statement is idiotic at best, communist otherwise.

[visualops]

I'd like to know where that $80,000 a month figure came from, as other statements about the hospice put her care at considerably less than that. Do you actually believe it costs $2600 a day to have someone in a bed in a hospice??
From family.org:
The Cost of Hospice Care
Hospice care is the most cost-effective way of caring for a terminally-ill person. In the U.S., the approximate estimated cost for hospital care is $1,756 per day, $284 per day at nursing facilities, and averages about $100 per day for at-home hospice care and $200 per day in a private facility. Hospice care is covered under Medicare, Medicaid (in some states), most private-insurance groups, and HMOs. Families may be asked to meet some uncovered costs. However, hospices rarely, if ever, turn down patients for financial reasons. Public and community support through donations, grants, memorial gifts and fund-raising events assist to help cover the cost of care.
Even if you jack up those figures some on the assumption they may be a few years old, you are still not anywhere near the astronomical number of $80,000 a month.

[tkathy]

Feeding tubes are a huge big government, raising taxes issue. At 80,000 per year, if Terri were to live 30 more years, at a total of 45 years, you do the math. Well over 3 million dollars to the government.

[rmichaelj]

The Catholic Church has always paid for and taken care of those who the society has cast off. Even if the parents were'nt willing to (they are) the Church would. Of course this isn't the real issue is it.

[madprof98]

Absolute crap. The Catholic Church has long defined a feeding tube as an "ordinary" means of medical care (it isn't really a form of "treatment" in any sense of the word), and has prohibited anyone (including the patient himself/herself) from refusing to be fed via this means when there is no alternative.

This is exactly right. I got into this with my very liberal pastor a good while before the pope's speech. The issue then was Terri Schiavo, and the Florida Catholic had put out a snotty article about their being more important causes to worry about. The pastor had no problem with "letting Terri die naturally" since, he argued, the Church allows us to withdraw feeding tubes.

I pointed out to him then what should have been obvious to anyone who looked at the case: Though the Church allows dying patients whose bodies are shutting down to reject food and water, Terri Schiavo was not a terminal patient. So we were not talking about "end-of-life" care for her, anymore than we would be talking about end-of-life care for a person who had a feeding tube because of any other non-life-threatening but permanent condition.

I can't imagine that this concept is so hard for The Washington Post to grasp, though I will admit that it seems to have escaped that perfidious bishop down in St. Pete.

[madprof98]

I don't recall anything about feeding tubes in the bible.

Hard to recollect anything from a book you've never opened, isn't it?

[verity]

Where have you been?