This Just In... You Can't Starve People

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) has recently released a new document responding to a few questions from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB):

Question: When nutrition and hydration are being supplied by artificial means to a patient in a "permanent vegetative state", may they be discontinued when competent physicians judge with moral certainty that the patient will never recover consciousness?

Response: No. A patient in a "permanent vegetative state" is a person with fundamental human dignity and must, therefore, receive ordinary and proportionate care which includes, in principle, the administration of water and food even by artificial means.

Well I'm glad that's out of the way. It's sad that we need to be told that we cannot starve people, but at least it's here in no uncertain terms. Apparently there are Catholic hospitals that continue to starve people when they want to be rid of them. Let's pray that they now change their practices and not continue to disregard the clear teaching of the church.

Read the Whole Document