VATICAN - “A person, although seriously ill and prevented from performing his or her most important functions is and will always be a person, never a vegetable or an animal”: the Pope tells participants at Conference on “Life-Sustaining Treatments and Vegetative State: Scientific Advances and Ethical Dilemmas”

Vatican City (Fides Service) - “With deep esteem and sincere hope the Church encourages the efforts of scientists who devote their daily work, often with great sacrifice, their study and research to improving diagnostic, prognostic and rehabilitative possibilities of persons totally dependent on those who give them treatment and assistance. A person in a vegetative state, in fact, gives no visible sign of consciousness of self or the environment and would appear to be incapable of interacting with others or reacting to suitable stimulation”. Pope John Paul II said this on Saturday 20 March when he received in a special audience the participants of an international Conference on “Life-Sustaining Treatments and Vegetative State: Scientific Advances and Ethical Dilemmas” organised by the International Federation of Catholic Doctors Associations FIAMC and the Pontifical Academy for Life, PAV , 17-20 March at the Augustinianum College in Rome.



Vatican City (Fides Service) - “With deep esteem and sincere hope the Church encourages the efforts of scientists who devote their daily work, often with great sacrifice, their study and research to improving diagnostic, prognostic and rehabilitative possibilities of persons totally dependent on those who give them treatment and assistance. A person in a vegetative state, in fact, gives no visible sign of consciousness of self or the environment and would appear to be incapable of interacting with others or reacting to suitable stimulation”. Pope John Paul II said this on Saturday 20 March when he received in a special audience the participants of an international Conference on “Life-Sustaining Treatments and Vegetative State: Scientific Advances and Ethical Dilemmas” organised by the International Federation of Catholic Doctors Associations FIAMC and the Pontifical Academy for Life, PAV , 17-20 March at the Augustinianum College in Rome.
“Our brothers and sisters in the clinical condition ‘vegetative state’ retain all their human dignity” the Holy Father said underlining that “a person, although seriously ill and prevented from performing his or her most important functions is and will always be a person, never a vegetable or an animal.”
“Doctors, health workers, society and the Church - the Pope said - have moral duties towards these persons which cannot be shirked without failing to meet the demands both of medical ethics and human and Christian solidarity. The patient in the vegetative state, pending recovery or natural end of life, has the right to basic health-care (nutrition, hydration, hygiene, heating etc.).”
“In particular - the Pope said - I would emphasise that giving water and food, even through artificial means, is always a natural way of preserving life, rather than a medical means. Its use therefore should be considered on principle ordinary and proportioned and as such morally compulsory to the extent that and until it is able to attain its proper finality which, in this case, consists in providing the patient with nourishment and alleviating his or her suffering.”
The Pope also stressed to need to “support families whose loved ones have been struck by this terrible clinical condition and who must not be left alone with this weighty human, psychological and economic burden.”
By way of conclusion, the Pope encouraged those present, “as people of science responsible for the dignity of the medical profession, to closely guard the principle according to which the chief task of medicine is ‘to cure if possible, always to care’.

(AP) (Agenzia Fides; Righe:39 Parole:488)














“Our brothers and sisters in the clinical condition ‘vegetative state’ retain all their human dignity” the Holy Father said underlining that “a person, although seriously ill and prevented from performing his or her most important functions is and will always be a person, never a vegetable or an animal.”
“Doctors, health workers, society and the Church - the Pope said - have moral duties towards these persons which cannot be shirked without failing to meet the demands both of medical ethics and human and Christian solidarity. The patient in the vegetative state, pending recovery or natural end of life, has the right to basic health-care (nutrition, hydration, hygiene, heating etc.).”
“In particular - the Pope said - I would emphasise that giving water and food, even through artificial means, is always a natural way of preserving life, rather than a medical means. Its use therefore should be considered on principle ordinary and proportioned and as such morally compulsory to the extent that and until it is able to attain its proper finality which, in this case, consists in providing the patient with nourishment and alleviating his or her suffering.”
The Pope also stressed to need to “support families whose loved ones have been struck by this terrible clinical condition and who must not be left alone with this weighty human, psychological and economic burden.”
By way of conclusion, the Pope encouraged those present, “as people of science responsible for the dignity of the medical profession, to closely guard the principle according to which the chief task of medicine is ‘to cure if possible, always to care’.
See the Pope’ s address in Italian http://www.evangelizatio.org/portale/adgentes/pontefici/pontefice.php?id=75
(AP) (Agenzia Fides; Righe:39 Parole:488)