Photo Credit at top: “Pontifical Academy for Life.”
A new article at Crux is titled Vatican loosens stance on food, water for patients in vegetative state. It reports on the “Pontifical Academy for Life” which just released an 80 page pamphlet in Italian nearly eliminating past parameters on end-of-life issues. Shockingly, even the USCCB admits that pamphlet contains “an evolution of church teaching” on end-of-life issues. If by “evolution” we mean a moral descent beneath how pagans know how to treat their elders, then that is accurate.
Now, according to Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the “Pontifical Academy for Life,” (all three words being false by this point) their end-of-life care comes down to “reducing at least that component of disagreement that depends on an imprecise use of the notions implied in speech” because “the statements that are sometimes attributed to believers and which are not rarely the result of cliches that have not been adequately scrutinized.”
If that paragraph doesn’t make any sense to you, it’s not supposed to. Heretics always hide their errors in ambiguous phrases that put you to sleep. What he’s saying is that past requirements not to kill old people have not been “adequately scrutinized” in this modern era of mercy-killing. In fact, according to Paglia, traditional Catholic bioethics is simply a “cliché.” (Like all heresies, nobody wants his rotten word salad, which is why his 80 page pamphlet costs €12 at the above link. Never before in the history of the Vatican has it hawked teachings for a bowl-of-porridge like these charlatans.)
Not that the 80 year old Paglia wants to be starved to death himself just yet. No, no. That 80 page document uses very crafty language to essentially say that starving people to death needs to be “safe, rare and legal.” Yes, I took those three adjectives out of Roe Vs. Wade, but that’s the basic notion of Paglia’s desire to “reduce… the component of disagreement” that the Catholic Church always had with the world, flesh and devil in trying to kill weak people.
Do you see why Archbishop Viganó recently insisted that you have to discern the difference between the true “Catholic Church” and the fake “Synodal church”? The latter will lead you to hell. In two paragraphs, we will see what the true Catholic Church teaches on end-of-life issues regarding artificial nutrition and hydration (ANH) for dying or compromised patients.
But first, please pay special attention to the following parameters for when you are with your loved ones when they die. Even so-called “Catholic” palliative-care groups will try to euthanize through starvation much more frequently than narcotics overdoses. I have seen both, but starvation is more common around families who are vigilant to avoid narcotics overdosing.
Even under the Pontificates of Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI, the various dicasteries and doctrinal offices of the Vatican taught clearly: Both natural and artificial nutrition and hydration are always to be considered ordinary means (that is, necessary in terms of good Catholic bioethics) in end-of-life decisions for a person in a living, but compromised state. This is true in all cases, except when the body cannot assimilate natural or artificial nutrition and hydration.
Keep in mind that good Catholic bioethics hold that extraordinary means are not always required in end of life decisions. One example of this is a ventilator. In discernment of time on a ventilator, the patient, his family and the clinicians are permitted to weigh chances of recovery, quality of life and even finances when evaluating how long to continue such aggressive care. In layman’s terms, it’s not anti-pro-life to turn off a ventilator after someone gave it their best shot for a while. Why? Because a ventilator is extraordinary care in end of life decisions. And extraordinary care is not always required.
But ordinary care is always required. This is why natural or artificial nutrition and hydration must always be given to a sick, injured or dying person. Again, this is true in all cases, except when the body of the dying person cannot “assimilate” natural or artificial nutrition and hydration.
The CDF of the Vatican confirmed these good bioethics parameters as late as 2007 under Pope Benedict XVI. (I also saved it at an internet archive because the current Vatican has been “disappearing” past sites that promote orthodoxy.) In both links you can see that…
…the Vatican taught clearly the following under Pope Benedict XVI:
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.
Also, see that even Pope John Paul II upheld this:
“For those who cannot take food orally, in principle, there is an obligation to provide patients with food and water, including medically assisted nutrition and hydration. This obligation extends to patients in chronic and presumably irreversible conditions who can reasonably be expected to live indefinitely if given such care.” (See Pope John Paul II, Address to the Participants in the International Congress on “Life Sustaining Treatments and Vegetative State: Scientific Advances and Ethical Dilemmas” (March 20, 2004), no. 4, where he emphasized that “the administration of water and food, even when provided by artificial means, always represents a natural means of preserving life, not a medical act.”) (See also Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, “Responses to Certain Questions of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Concerning Artificial Nutrition and Hydration”) (August 1, 2007).
There are more advanced criticisms of the hijacked Vatican’s pro-Euthanasia stance at New Daily Compass and LifeSite News.