End-of-Life Issues: Persistent Vegetative State

Our 3-Minute Catechesis continues to address end-of-life issues and what our Church teaches regarding the treatment of patients who are nearing the end of their earthly existence. Morally, can food or water be withheld from dying patients? What about “pulling the plug”? What about the expressed wishes of the patient?

Our Catholic Faith has long taught - and today insists - that each and every human being has inherent dignity. This includes the patient in the so-called "vegetative" state, who cannot visibly respond to us. Pope John Paul II, in a March 2004 address, said that a patient in a “persistent vegetative state” is no "vegetable" but a human person loved by God. The value of a person’s life should not be based on what other people judge to be his or her “quality of life.” That patient, and his or her family, deserves the love and support of the entire community so they will not face their burdens alone.

End-of-life issues can be complicated. In that same speech, the Holy Father also said that food and water should "in principle" be considered an "ordinary and proportionate" means for sustaining these patients' lives. Such feeding, even if it requires some medical assistance, is "morally obligatory" as long as it serves its proper goals – effectively providing nourishment and alleviating suffering. This was a recognition that food and water are basic necessities, without which all of us would die. They should be provided when they serve patients' basic needs, the first of which is sustaining life itself.

As a compassionate people, we should endeavor to make our loved ones understand that they are not a burden to us when they are ill or infirm. As a faith-filled people with a belief in eternal life, we should encourage our family members to express their expectations regarding the care they want at the end of life – and then honor their wishes.

The teaching of Pope John Paul II about sickness and death came not only from his speeches, addresses, and encyclicals. He instructed just with his own witness in the face of injury, suffering, hospitalization, illness and dying. He taught us that to understand death with dignity we must first accept the dignity of life.

We are called to be heralds of a "culture of life." Christ's mission was to every human person, and our Lord had a passionate concern for the sick, the suffering, and the dying. In our own time, Christ continues his mission, and his preference for the vulnerable, through his Church.