Key Points from Thursday Night's Medical Decision-M
From Fr. Frank
National Director, Priests for Life
It was a pleasure for me to join with you last night for our webcast on medical decision-making. I'm grateful to our special guests, Bobby Schindler, and our medical advisor Dr. Matt Harrison.
And I'm grateful to you who took the time to participate, and to the many people who asked questions, whether on the call or through email.
I felt our time was so limited; we hardly scratched the surface of this topic.
Therefore, we are going to post more questions and answers on our site, www.ProLifeQuestions.com, that will address the themes and issues that were raised by the specific questions that were sent to us. We will not, of course, reveal anyone's identity as we do this.
Some of the key points we summarized last night were the following:
1. The Church does not require people to make use of every medication, machine or intervention to keep alive at all costs. We accept the reality of death, and know that it is a transition to the life to come.
2. At the same time, we may never introduce the cause of death. We are called "always to care, never to kill."
3. The Church teaches that we are morally obliged to make use of measures that provide a reasonable hope of benefit, without excessive burden. Note that a "benefit" is not the same as a "cure."
4. A measure that is excessively burdensome to the patient or his/her family is not obligatory. But food and water are normal, ordinary care (and therefore obligatory), unless, of course, the body itself is no longer assimilating them properly.
5. When specific questions arise about initiating or continuing medical treatment, those questions cannot be answered without taking into account the medical details of the patient and of the various options available.
6. A key question that needs to be asked is, What are the medical benefits of starting or continuing this treatment? Note that there is a big difference between a medical benefit and a value judgment. If a medicine is going to clear an infection, that is the question the doctor should answer. Whether the person's life is valuable, or the person is worth keeping alive, is not a medical question, but rather a value judgment, and the value a person places on his/her life or the life of a loved one should never be contradicted by a doctor.
7. There are various documents that can protect us from inappropriate decision-making. These "advance directives" should not attempt to tell the future by making decisions today about conditions we don't know about tomorrow. Rather, with these documents, we can choose somebody who shares our moral and religious values, and entrust to them the responsibility for speaking for us if we cannot speak for ourselves. The "Will to Live" and other similar documents can be found online (see PriestsForLife.org/willtolive). It is wise to appoint several people to this role.
There is much more that we covered last night, and much more that will be covered in the answers to your questions that we will post online.
Meanwhile, feel free to submit additional questions to ProLifeQuestions.com, especially in the "Ask the Doctor" section.
You can hear a replay of the webcast and the see the related web links at PriestsForLife.org/webcast. Be sure to share it with others.
And a special word of thanks to those who donated during last night's webcast. We appreciate everyone's financial support, so that we can continue to make these educational resources available. Go to PriestsForLife.org/donate.
And I'm grateful to you who took the time to participate, and to the many people who asked questions, whether on the call or through email.
I felt our time was so limited; we hardly scratched the surface of this topic.
Therefore, we are going to post more questions and answers on our site, www.ProLifeQuestions.com, that will address the themes and issues that were raised by the specific questions that were sent to us. We will not, of course, reveal anyone's identity as we do this.
Some of the key points we summarized last night were the following:
1. The Church does not require people to make use of every medication, machine or intervention to keep alive at all costs. We accept the reality of death, and know that it is a transition to the life to come.
2. At the same time, we may never introduce the cause of death. We are called "always to care, never to kill."
3. The Church teaches that we are morally obliged to make use of measures that provide a reasonable hope of benefit, without excessive burden. Note that a "benefit" is not the same as a "cure."
4. A measure that is excessively burdensome to the patient or his/her family is not obligatory. But food and water are normal, ordinary care (and therefore obligatory), unless, of course, the body itself is no longer assimilating them properly.
5. When specific questions arise about initiating or continuing medical treatment, those questions cannot be answered without taking into account the medical details of the patient and of the various options available.
6. A key question that needs to be asked is, What are the medical benefits of starting or continuing this treatment? Note that there is a big difference between a medical benefit and a value judgment. If a medicine is going to clear an infection, that is the question the doctor should answer. Whether the person's life is valuable, or the person is worth keeping alive, is not a medical question, but rather a value judgment, and the value a person places on his/her life or the life of a loved one should never be contradicted by a doctor.
7. There are various documents that can protect us from inappropriate decision-making. These "advance directives" should not attempt to tell the future by making decisions today about conditions we don't know about tomorrow. Rather, with these documents, we can choose somebody who shares our moral and religious values, and entrust to them the responsibility for speaking for us if we cannot speak for ourselves. The "Will to Live" and other similar documents can be found online (see PriestsForLife.org/willtolive). It is wise to appoint several people to this role.
There is much more that we covered last night, and much more that will be covered in the answers to your questions that we will post online.
Meanwhile, feel free to submit additional questions to ProLifeQuestions.com, especially in the "Ask the Doctor" section.
You can hear a replay of the webcast and the see the related web links at PriestsForLife.org/webcast. Be sure to share it with others.
And a special word of thanks to those who donated during last night's webcast. We appreciate everyone's financial support, so that we can continue to make these educational resources available. Go to PriestsForLife.org/donate.
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