A change in teaching on life support?Pope John Paul Pope John Paul is the name of two Popes of the Roman Catholic Church:
"We have to figure out more specifically what he meant and the implications," Dan Dwyer, director of ethics for the Springfield, Missouri-based St. John's Health System, told USA Today USA Today National U.S. daily general-interest newspaper, the first of its kind. Launched in 1982 by Allen Neuharth, head of the Gannett newspaper chain, it reached a circulation of one million within a year and surpassed two million in the 1990s. (April 15). "Our intention is to provide care and comfort, not to put someone to death quicker because they're suffering. If there's a vague or gray zone, we always favor providing nutrition and hydration hydration /hy·dra·tion/ (hi-dra´shun) the absorption of or combination with water. hy·dra·tion n. 1. The addition of water to a chemical molecule without hydrolysis. 2. . It's recognized as a very special form of care." The implications are important because more than 600 Catholic hospitals in the U.S. will need to assess their operations and see if they are in agreement with the pope's statement. Currently, most Catholic hospitals look to the "Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services" outlined by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The pope, who made the statement March 20 following a Vatican symposium on scientific and ethical issues surrounding people in vegetative states, also said families of vegetative vegetative /veg·e·ta·tive/ (vej?e-ta?tiv) 1. of, pertaining to, or characteristic of plants. 2. concerned with growth and nutrition, as opposed to reproduction. 3. patients need more emotional and economic support so they can better care for their loved ones. According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke is a part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health. The NINDS conducts and supports research on brain and nervous system disorders. Created by the U.S. , a persistent vegetative state is when "individuals have lost their thinking abilities and awareness of their surroundings, but retain noncognitive brain function and normal sleep patterns." A vegetative state is generally considered persistent if it lasts more than four weeks. Some people are concerned that patients with living wills who have requested no extraordinary life-prolonging medical treatments in the case of a vegetative state might not have their intentions respected. Some hospitals have been assuring patients that won't be the case. "There are people reading into the doomsday scenario, and I think they're wrong," said Gerard Magill, executive director of St. Louis University's Center for Health Care Ethics and Health Sciences. "Everything as we know it now would remain the same." |
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