MANASSAS, VA, July 31, 2008 (CNSweb) –
\nArticles about end-of-life ethics by two college professors, including
\na bioethics professor at Loyola University of Chicago, have prompted a
\nrare public correction by the leading American bishops responsible for
\npro-life activities and Catholic doctrine.<\/p>\n
Cardinal Justin Rigali, Archbishop of Philadelphia and chairman of the
\nCommittee on Pro-Life Activities of the U.S. Conference of Catholic
\nBishops (USCCB), and Bishop William E. Lori of Bridgeport, Conn.,
\nchairman of the USCCB Committee on Doctrine, raise their concerns in
\nthe August 4 issue of the Jesuits’ America magazine.<\/p>\n
The bishops write that two previous America articles by John Hardt,
\nassistant professor of bioethics at Loyola University of Chicago’s
\nStritch School of Medicine, and Thomas Shannon, emeritus professor of
\nreligion and social ethics at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, “appear
\nto misunderstand and subsequently misrepresent the substance of Church
\nteaching on these difficult but important ethical questions” about “our
\nmoral obligations to patients who exist in what has come to be called a
\n‘persistent vegetative state.'”<\/p>\n
Both professors argue for exceptions to Church teaching, thereby
\nallowing the removal of a feeding tube and hydration from such patients.<\/p>\n
In his January article, Hardt cites a 2007 statement by the Vatican
\nCongregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), which teaches that
\nartificial nutrition and hydration may be withheld from a patient when
\n“in some rare cases” the treatment “may become excessively
\nburdensome.” Using the example of his father, who has asked
\nnot to receive artificial hydration and nutrition should he enter a
\nvegetative state, Hardt writes, “[M]y father has judged that the burden
\nof persisting in a vegetative state far outweighs the benefit of being
\nsustained that way. This, in my view, is a very Catholic way
\nof thinking….”<\/p>\n
Cardinal Rigali and Bishop Lori respond that Hardt wrongly defines
\nexcessive burden as “a simple dislike for survival in a helpless
\nstate.” In fact, the bishops write, “that claim has no
\nfoundation in the text [and] is actually contradicted” by the CDF.
\n…<\/p>\n
Glad they MANASSAS, VA, July 31, 2008 (CNSweb) – Articles about end-of-life ethics by two college professors, including a bioethics professor at Loyola University of Chicago, have prompted a rare public correction…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2489"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2489\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\ntype of article certainly must be addressed especially in a magazine
\nput out by a religious order whose founder’s Feast Day is today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"