A Catholic Perspective on the Ethics of Artificially Providing Food and Water
In the short time since the late Pope John Paul II, now designated John Paul the Great, delivered his controversial March, 2004 address on the morals of providing, withholding, declining and discontinuing tube-feeding of persons in the condition often called "persistent vegetative state," a number of cases have arisen and interpretations offered of the papal statement, some of them seriously affecting patient care. I I wish here to offer a reading of the papal address that is more permissive than some in thelt)ptions it preserves but, I think, faithful to the text and the wider tradition of Catholic moral reasoning in medical ethics. Much of my discussion will focus on the more general topic of assisted food and drink, rather than on the special issues raised by the condition misleadingly called "persistent vegetative state." I hasten to state that I am not a moral theologian, nor a theologian of any sort. Rather, I wish to offer reasons why the recent statement might, when construed within the larger context of Christian thought on ethical issues in medical practice, reasonably be judged consistent with that thought and with a position on responsible discretionary interventions with such patients that I find sensible and attractive. My proposed interpretation is offered as provisional, contingent on further exploration of these issues in the light of religious and secular moral inquiry. Moreover, we need to be sensitive to the fact that Pope John Paul II's March, 2004 allocution is part of a tradition periodically developed and refined. Future doctrinal statements may clarify the tradition's implications, rendering obsolete