Catholic moral teaching, medically assisted nutrition and hydration and the vegetative state

Abstract

A wide range of medical, legal and ethical opinion regarding withholding or withdrawing medically assisted nutrition and hydration (ANH) from vegetative state (VS) and persistent vegetative state patients (PVS) has been presented in professional journals over the past twenty years. This article concerns the moral aspects of this debate as it has developed within the Catholic Church, especially in the United States. It presents traditional Catholic teaching about the extent and limits of the moral obligation to employ medical means in the preservation of human life, and examines how this teaching applies to the specific question of supplying ANH to PVS patients. It provides a critique of two contradictory views on the morality of discontinuing ANH for PVS patients presented by Catholic theologians. It examines the teaching of Pope John Paul II, who identifies ANH as a natural means of preserving life that must be maintained as long as it preserves the patient's life or alleviates his suffering. Finally, it discusses the practical implications this papal teaching has for the treatment of PVS patients in all Catholic health care facilities.