Serious Health Care and End of Life Decisions

This resource is dedicated to Theresa Marie Schindler and her loving parents, sister and brother.

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• The Terri Schindler-Schiavo Foundation

This document is a compilation of authoritative and reliable resources that address the principles that must be applied when making serious health care and end of life decisions. Since making these decisions can be very difficult and emotional, it would be prudent for everyone to be well informed about the complexities of the issues involved before being confronted with them. “Modern medical technology seems to confront us with many questions not faced even a decade ago. Corresponding changes in medical practice have benefited many, but have also prompted fears by some that they will be aggressively treated against their will or denied the kind of care that is their due as human persons with inherent dignity. Current debates about life-sustaining treatment suggest that our society’s moral reflection is having difficulty keeping pace with its technological progress. A religious view of life has an important contribution to make to these modern debates. Our Catholic tradition has developed a rich body of thought on these questions, which affirms a duty to preserve human life but recognizes limits to that duty.” (USCCB)

• Death and Dying Issues
• End-of-Life Health Care Decisions are Difficult
• POPE JOHN PAUL II ON THE CHRISTIAN MEANING OF HUMAN SUFFERING
• POPE JOHN PAUL II – MESSAGE FOR WORLD DAY OF THE SICK 2002
• POPE JOHN PAUL II – MESSAGE FOR WORLD DAY OF THE SICK 2005 – 1993
• POPE JOHN PAUL II ON THE VALUE AND INVIOLABILITY OF HUMAN LIFE
• Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services
• Ad limina address of Pope John Paul II to US Bishops of California, Nevada and Hawaii
• Living the Gospel of Life: A Challenge to American Catholics
• The Charter for Health Care Workers
• The Value of Life and its Bearing on Three Issues of Medical Ethics
• POPE JOHN PAUL II ON LIFE-SUSTAINING TREATMENTS AND VEGETATIVE STATE Must Reading
• Comments on the Pope’s speech on life-sustaining treatments and the vegetative state Must Reading
• Editorial on the Pope’s speech on life-sustaining treatments and the vegetative state Must Reading
• Joint Statement on the Vegetative State Must Reading
• POPE JOHN PAUL II On Palliative Care, Alleviation of Suffering and Health Pastoral Care
• POPE BENEDICT XVI – MESSAGE FOR WORLD DAY OF THE SICK 2006
• Responses of The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to questions regarding the nutrition and hydration of patients in the condition commonly called a “vegetative state” Must Reading

NUTRITION AND HYDRATION:

• The evil of so-called euthanasia
• PROVIDING NUTRITION AND HYDRATION TO PATIENTS
• Questions and Answers about “Artificial Feeding”
• Bioethical Magisterium on Normal Treatment and Ordinary Care: Medically Assisted Feeding and Hydration
• Statement of Principles for Health Care Decisions Concerning Assisted Nutrition and Hydration and Related Issues

Repeated from Above – Must Reading:

• POPE JOHN PAUL II ON LIFE-SUSTAINING TREATMENTS AND VEGETATIVE STATE
• Comments on the Pope’s speech on life-sustaining treatments and the vegetative state
• Editorial on the Pope’s speech on life-sustaining treatments and the vegetative state
• Joint Statement on the Vegetative State
• Responses of The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to questions regarding the nutrition and hydration of patients in the condition commonly called a “vegetative state”

The Holy Bible, Revised Standard Version Matthew 25.31-46 31: “When the Son of man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. 32: Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, 33: and he will place the sheep at his right hand, but the goats at the left. 34: Then the King will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; 35: for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36: I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ 37: Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see thee hungry and feed thee, or thirsty and give thee drink? 38: And when did we see thee a stranger and welcome thee, or naked and clothe thee? 39: And when did we see thee sick or in prison and visit thee?’ 40: And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.’ 41: Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; 42: for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, 43: I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ 44: Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see thee hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to thee?’ 45: Then he will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it not to one of the least of these, you did it not to me.’ 46: And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

EUTHANASIA:

• Statement on Euthanasia
• Declaration on Euthanasia
• Brief Reflections on Euthanasia
• FREEDOM TO DIE
• The evil of so-called euthanasia Repeated from above

ORGAN DONATION:

• Organ donation and the definition of death
• Ethical Implications of Non-Heart-Beating Organ Donation
• Update on Non-Heart-Beating Organ Donation
• Play It Again Organ Donation
• Are Organ Transplants Ever Morally Licit?
• “Non-heart beating organ donation” and the “vegetative state” Must Reading
• Should We Be Dying to Donate?
• Organ donation: The inconvenient truth

ADVANCE DIRECTIVE, LIVING WILL, DURABLE POWER OF ATTORNEY:

• End-of-Life Health Care Decisions are Difficult Repeated from above
• Death and Dying Issues Repeated from above
• Of Living Wills and Butterfly Ballots Must Reading
• “MIS-DIRECTIVES”: EUTHANASIA IN CATHOLIC HOSPITALS IN THE UNITED STATES ADVANCE
• Living Wills
• Advance Directives
• Protective Medical Decisions Document
• Importance of Having the Right Type of Document

APPENDIX:

• Is Palliative Sedation Becoming Another Form of Euthanasia?
• Was Zack Dunlap’s Recovery a Miracle?
• Whatever Happened to Common Sense at the End of Life?
• WFF’s Online Journal on Bioethics and Health Care Issues
• Nancy Guilfoy Valko Articles ~ Frequent Additions
• License to kill: Hospitals reserve the right to pull your plug
• Sedated to Death?
• Futility Policies and the Duty to Die
• Can Steven Becker be Neglected to Death?
• A Lethal Evolution
• Intentional Death in America Beyond the Hype
• Fast Facts
• Enforcing the “Right to Die” The Case of Terri Schiavo
• Hospices – A Trojan horse for covert euthanasia?
• Palliative Care “Killing me softly”
• A Study in Contrasts: The Deaths of Pope John Paul II and Terri Schiavo
• The evil of so-called euthanasia Repeated from above

Send comments or questions to: fjdalessio @ prolifeamerica . com

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Comments from a grateful reader: Thank you, thank you, thank you for this fantastic collation of reliable Church teaching and explication on end of life issues!!! I tried recently to find some of this material on the web, but to no avail. (Okay, I’m no expert on web-searching, but . . .) These issues are very timely for my own family right now; I also plan to share this magnificent resource with the priests at my parish. Again, thank you!! And may God bless you!