Medically Assisted Nutrition and Hydration A Contribution to the Dialogue

• Published in: Artificial Nutrition and Hydration and the Permanently Unconscious Patient p. 215
• Main Authors: Mark Repenshek, John Paul Slosar
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Georgetown University Press 13-09-2007
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Axiology; Bioethics; Catholicism; Christianity; Clergy; Concept of mind; Digestive system diseases; Diseases; Education; Environmental ethics; Environmental philosophy; Environmental studies; Ethical instruction; Ethics; Food; Food science; Foodborne illnesses; Foodstuffs; Formal education; Gastroenteritis; Gastrointestinal diseases; Health sciences; Human life; Judgment; Medical conditions; Medical sciences; Metaphysics; Moral judgment; Morality; Normative ethics; Nutrition; Nutritional science; Pedagogy; Philosophy; Philosophy of mind; Popes; Practical theology; Religion; Spiritual belief systems; Spiritual leaders; Theology
• ISBN: 9781589011786; 1589011783

The Address to Participants in the International Congress on “Life-Sustaining Treatments and the Vegetative State: Scientific Advances and Ethical Dilemmas,” promulgated in March of this year by Pope John Paul II, has become a source of considerable controversy, partly due to the theological and clinical complexity of this issue, and partly because of how it has been portrayed in the popular media.¹ In light of this controversy, many Catholics, as well as Catholic health systems, are re-examining the half-millennium-old tradition of Catholic moral teaching regarding the obligation to use particular means of sustaining human life.² In this essay, we seek