Catholic Doctrine & Your Health
Dateline: May 24, 2000
"CATHOLIC DOCTRINE & YOUR HEALTH" > Page 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8
End of Life Services
While the burden of these restrictions has largely fallen on women, men do not escape unscathed - Catholic limitations on our health care also exist at the end of life and whenever we are ill:
#24 ...The institution, however, will not honor an advance directive (living will, health care proxy, etc.) that is contrary to Catholic teaching.
#25 Each person may identify in advance a representative to make health care decisions as his or her surrogate in the event that the person loses the capacity to make health care decisions. Decisions by the designated surrogate should be faithful to Catholic moral principles and to the person's intentions and values, or if the person's intentions are unknown, to the person's best interests.
#28 ...The free and informed health care decision of the person or the person's surrogate is to be followed so long as it does not contradict Catholic principles.
What this means is that if you fall seriously ill or are involved in an accident and are taken to either a Catholic hospital or a secular hospital which has merged with a Catholic institution, then all of your health care decisions are irrevocably bound by Catholic doctrines. It doesn't matter if your prior decisions were legally made - Vatican rules take precedence.
What if you have a designated "surrogate," like a spouse, who is empowered to make decisions for you if your are incapacitated? What if that person knows that you don't want extreme measures taken to save you? The decisions of chosen surrogates, health care proxies or living wills may not be honored if they are found to be contrary to Catholic teachings.
What if you don't want to be kept on life support if you end up in a "persistent vegetative state" from which you won't recover? Too bad - advanced life support may not be discontinued, even if family requests it, if it is found to be against Catholic teachings. Since Catholic organizations are also buying up or merging with nursing homes and other institutions which exclusively care for the elderly, such restrictions will have a widespread impact.
Non-Catholic physicians and families will find themselves in the awkward position of having to consult Catholic theologians when advance directives risk violating religious moral teaching. How would you feel if you were forced to argue with a nun or a priest that you should be permitted to take perfectly legal action which you know your loved-one wanted?
And what if you are in an extreme amount of unrelievable pain due to a terminal illness? You're totally out of luck:
#61 ...Patients experiencing suffering that cannot be alleviated should be helped to appreciate the Christian understanding of redemptive suffering.
This is absolutely unacceptable when you remember that this is expected to happen even in a secular hospital receiving government funding! Of course, such an ideology does explain why Mother Teresa failed to provide adequate pain medication and is quoted as saying that the suffering of patients was "beautiful."
Prohibitions against "material cooperation" would also not allow for you to be moved to another institution for the purpose of your desires being fulfilled. And keep in mind that in such extreme situations, you won't have a choice about what hospital you are taken to, especially if you are travelling.
Affects on Doctors
It should be remembered that patients - you and I - are not the only ones who are adversely affected by these polices. Even non-Catholic doctors working at a non-Catholic hospital suddenly find themselves under severe restrictions when their institution merges with a Catholic hospital:
#9 Employees of a Catholic health care institution must respect and uphold the religious mission of the institution and adhere to these Directives. They should maintain professional standards and promote the institution's commitment to human dignity and the common good.
Although this may sound rather innocuous, its ramifications can be tragic. A doctor's admitting privileges, scope of practice, participation in medical trials, relationship with patients and even his or her ability to fulfill professional responsibilities face restrictions.
Catholic hospitals must ensure that their physicians and staff adhere to the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services. These doctors are thus typically required to sign agreements promising to respect the Directives and follow the moral teaching of the Church. Refusal means loss of admitting privileges or a staff position.
Some hospital administrators may say that doctors can continue to do what they want if they are discreet and nobody finds out, but this is a dangerous "don't ask, don't tell" policy. It leaves doctors vulnerable to exposure by hostile hospital staff members or even patients.
Even worse, doctors can be punished for what they do or say away from the hospital if it conflicts with the Directives! For example, Dr. David Mesches was fired as chair of the Department of Family Medicine at Catholic-affiliated New York Medical College just for saying to a newspaper reporter that legal abortion is the "law of the land."
In another case, an Illinois physician was fired by the Catholic OSF HealthCare System and its St. John's Medical Center in Bloomington in March of 1999 for writing a letter to the editor defending Dr. Jack Kevorkian. Other doctors have also been punished for criticizing hospital merger terms or for providing banned services, such as abortions, at other facilities.
Next Page > Church & State > Page 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8
Get weekly updates about what's new on the site and news from around the world:
|
|
|
|
Read the Latest News on religion, freethought and related topics from around the world! Updated regularly. |
|
|
|
|
