Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options

Clear filter
Prophecy for Justice: Catholic politicians and bishops
Raymond L. Burke
In his post-synodal apostolic exhortation Pastores Gregis (“On the Bishop, Servant of the Gospel of Jesus Christ for the Hope of the World,” Oct. 16, 2003), Pope John Paul II underlines the scriptural boldness demanded of the bishop as shepherd (No. 66c). In this context, he describes th
The Word
Two Sides of the Coin
Dianne Bergant
The readings for today offer us two conflicting images One is of abundance and rejoicing the other is of the cross and self-denial One might think that these two images cannot be harmonized But if we look carefully at their messages we can see how they really do fit together Isaiah rsquo s mess
Editorials
Christians in the World
The Editors
The early Christians lived in a police state and were judged subversive if they refused to worship the Roman emperor. Yet even during periods of persecution, these Christians insisted they were law-abiding citizens. The anonymous author of a short second-century essay known as the Letter to Diognetu
Of Many Things
Of Many Things
George M. Anderson
Cancer cut short the life of my friend Regina. Barely into her 50’s, she had been working on behalf of immigrants in New York City. A lump on her breast turned out to be a malignant tumor. She told me about it on a Sunday autumn afternoon as we sat on a bench in New York’s Bryant Park. T
Books
Balance Might With Right
Jim Sawyer
The inordinate power of the United States under George W Bush according to Jim Garrison president of State of the World which is based in San Francisco disturbs people on the American left but excites people on the American right Conservatives view the fall of the Soviet empire as Ronald Reaga
Caught Between God and Caesar
Joseph A. Califano Jr.
When God and Caesar claim controlling jurisdiction over public policy in America, public servants who are Catholic can get caught between a religious rock and a public policy hard place. I know. I’ve been there. In 1965 Lyndon Johnson became the first president to support birth control as a pu
The Word
The Cost of Discipleship
Dianne Bergant
Dietrich Bonhoeffer a German Lutheran theologian wrote a series of reflections on the Sermon on the Mount entitled The Cost of Discipleship in which he maintained that discipleship requires us to make a fundamental decision to follow Jesus and to accept the conseuences of that decision His own r
Artificial Feeding
John F. Kavanaugh
At a recent international congress in Rome on “Life-Sustaining Treatments and the Vegetative State,” Pope John Paul II ignited a controversy that is still smoking. He stated that artificial nutrition and hydration “should be considered, in principle, ordinary and proportionate, and
News
Signs of the Times
From AP, CNS, RNS, Staff and other sources
Pope Tells Bush of Deep Concern About IraqIn their first meeting since the Iraq war, Pope John Paul II told U.S. President George W. Bush he was deeply concerned about the grave unrest in Iraq and called for a speedy restoration of the country’s sovereignty. During a 50-minute encounter on Jun
Books
Old Meets New
Russell B. Connors, Jr.
Yes When I read I write lots of notes in the margins What I wrote most often in the margins of this book by James Bretzke is simply yes yes what a fine way of putting things yes what a wonderful example yes I think I rsquo ll use that idea in my own course on Christian morality next time ar
Religious Freedom in the Catacombs
This is not a good time for religious freedom in American law. More and more, U.S. courts are explicitly embracing arguments that religious freedom extends only to those religious practices that are confined and compartmentalized. Religious practices are explicitly receiving reduced protection if th
The Word
What's My Line?
Dianne Bergant
On the old quiz show ldquo What rsquo s My Line rdquo a panel of celebrities tried to discover the occupation of a contestant who was required to answer their questions honestly but without revealing any pertinent clues The contestant won if the panel failed In today rsquo s Gospel Jesus asks
Books
A South Buffalo Start
Terry Golway
Not long ago an English critic and essayist Geoffrey Wheatcroft cast a cold eye on the rash of memoirs written by Irish Catholics from both sides of the Atlantic Would there ever come a day Wheatcroft wondered when an Irish-Catholic memoirist would have something good to say about his or her f
Editorials
Endgame
The Editors
The United States went to war in Iraq to destroy weapons of mass destruction and depose Saddam Hussein. No weapons have been found; Saddam is under arrest. The time has come to declare “mission accomplished” and announce a deadline for bringing the troops home. The administration has mad
Children of the Council
Andrew M. Greeley
The Roman Catholic clergy in the United States report with dismay—and not a little self-pity—that their churches, once filled on Sunday, are now half empty. Some view this decline in Sunday Mass attendance as proof that the Catholic Church is falling apart, and many attribute the decline
Arts & CulturePoetry
The Mouse and the Human
Tryfon Tolides
The mouse doesn’t really bother anyone.
Arts & CultureBooks
Storytelling at Its Irish Best
Tom Deignan
In the very useful Penguin Book of Irish Fiction 2000 editor Colm T ib n ultimately selected but one short story from the prolific Benedict Kiely an unenviable task to say the least T ib n chose Homes on the Mountain a modest-seeming tale about a 12-year-old boy and his extended family tw
News
Signs of the Times
From AP, CNS, RNS, Staff and other sources
Archbishop Closes Parishes, Urges UnityArchbishop Sean P. O’Malley, O.F.M.Cap., of Boston announced on May 25 that 70 of the archdiocese’s 357 parishes would be suppressed in the coming months. In addition to the suppressions, five new parishes will be formed and five other church buildi
The Threat of Same-Sex Marriage
Robert Sokolowski
Those who argue against the legalization of same-sex marriages insist that marriage is ordered toward the procreation of children and that the legal supports given to marriage are given with that end in view. Marriage needs the protection of laws because society must be concerned about its own prese
Letters
Letters
Our readers

At the Bedside

In Must We Preserve Life? (4/19), Ronald Hamel and Michael Panicola present a forthright and cogent summation of the church’s traditional teaching on nutrition and hydration, drawing particular attention to the subtle, and now not-so-subtle, attempts of some to restrict this teaching narrowly during the last 20 years.

Must we preserve life? Each human life is sacred, given dignity by the Creator’s hand, and therefore always and everywhere to be preserved as unique and precious.

Central to this dignity, however, is the belief that the same Creator’s hand will raise up this mortal body to new and eternal life. Human life therefore is understood in the continuum of life here and life hereafter. This then becomes the primary context for our ethical analysis and the implications for care of the sick and dying.

There comes a time when the healing process ends and the dying process begins. Unfortunately there is no clear line of demarcation for this. But there iswith best medical judgment, in consultation with a team of holistic health care providers and with respect for the patient’s wishesa way of determining when this shift appears to be happening, and then of appropriately responding with care by either natural or artificial means.

Artificial nutrition support, whether by means of intravenous catheters or by feeding tubes into the gastrointestinal tract, is a medical therapy. The therapy has greatly evolved over the last 40 years and continues to evolve today. But make no mistake, the physical placement and maintenance of such devices, and the provision of refined nutrients, requires a high level of clinical skill in order to initiate this therapy safely and avoid harm to the patient. The choice of which approach is taken is based on the route of administration that will mostly like be assimilated, irrespective of the patient’s condition.

The decision to initiate and/or withdraw nutrition support is a difficult decision, but should be guided by prognosis. Patients with a prognosis for survival of less than three months, for example, might benefit from a nutrition support intervention that provides limited quantities of nutrients, with a principal emphasis on maintaining fluid and electrolyte (sodium, potassium, etc.) balance. For other patients with a somewhat longer or uncertain prognosis, but nonetheless an ultimate terminal outcome, the same approach may be considered. Alternatively, consideration may be given to complete nutritional support in this setting, when the shift from a healing to dying process is not certain. The decision to intervene is not diagnosis-specific, but rather prognosis-specific, and offered in a manner that preserves the dignity and comfort of the patient and significant others. Initiating nutrition support may occur prior to the final prognosis, but should not preclude its subsequent withdrawal.

Both of us, a clinical researcher and a chaplain, stand on the side of the bed holding not only the technology to assist in the healing or dying, but also the hand of the one we are helping in their healing or dying. Both of us are concerned with the physical and spiritual sustenance the person needs either to gain strength toward healing or to provide comfort in dying.

When we are in a healing process, nutrition and hydration can be physically administered in such a way as to strengthen the person toward recovery. Similarly, out of our sacramental tradition, we administer the Eucharist as food to strengthen the person and fortify him or her spiritually in the journey toward healing.

But when we are in the dying process, nutrition and hydration, whether administered artificially or in the normal course of attentive care, is offered in such a way as to bring comfort to the persona different kind of carein the last part of their journey. In like manner, we administer the Eucharist as the last sacrament, known as viaticumlikewise a different kind of care: food for the journey to the life hereafter.

Prior to the technological advances that have proved to be both benefit and burden, human beings in the home setting naturally followed the process of caring and being cared for, in being nurtured back to health or being nurtured through their dying. As history shows, there were always ethical concerns. But it seems there was a fundamental respect for the difference between the healing process and the dying process. Food and water were given and received in both instances, but always with careand with the appropriate means.

David F. Driscoll