National Catholic Priests Group: Living wills unnecessary and DANGEROUS!

[Bluebear]

:crazy: New edict of the radical American religious clerics: Keep every hospice patient alive as long as possible!!


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Living Wills, Schiavo Autopsy, Not the Answer, Says National Priests' Group

NEW YORK, April 7 /Christian Wire Service/ -- Fr. Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life, who was with Terri Schiavo during the hours and moments before her death, issued the following statement today:

"In response to the Schiavo case, many think they should draw up a living will. This, however, is both unnecessary and dangerous. We cannot make treatment decisions today for circumstances of tomorrow that we cannot predict. Whether a medical treatment is morally required depends on those circumstances and therefore cannot be determined in advance. It is always morally required, moreover, to provide food and water to a patient, because food and water, even when provided artificially, do not constitute medical treatment but rather humane care. We are not morally permitted to request starvation and dehydration.

"In regard to the autopsy of Terri Schiavo, the results -- whatever they may show -- are irrelevant to the moral judgment that she was murdered. The level of brain damage that she had can never justify what was done to her. Life does not lose its value and dignity when it is damaged."

http://www.earnedmedia.org/pfl0407.htm

[Kerrytravelers]

1. These nutcases are still going on and on?

Hey Mr. Priest man, the Pope died. Concentrate on that and give the rest of us a break!



(Yes I"m Catholic and yes, I did just call him Mr. Priest man. I"ll say a few Hail Mary's and I'll be just fine!)

[SaveElmer]

2. Freak...

Crawl back into the hole you slithered out of.

If you want to be kept hooked up to tubes until you eventually fade away in pain and agony that's your business...don't tell anyone else what they should do!

[Freedom_from_Chains]

3. Just leave a POA

giving us supreme authority over your life and you can rest assure that we will make the morally right discussion, and you will be guaranteed to get into heaven.

Fr. Frank Pavone

[Fenris]

4. Priests For Life

Does that refer to prison time?

[Bluebear]

6. hehehehe

[Ian David]

5. The Pope had an "advance directive

The Pope asked that he be "allowed to die simply" without extraordinary means.

[Kerrytravelers]

7. Uh-oh. The Pope must be against Fr Pavone. The Pope must have wanted TS to

die. The Pope must be a liberal. Why did the Pope hate America?









:patriot:

[Coastie for Truth]

8. Well, my "infallible pontifical authority", Maimonides,

that (W)ith regard to the treatment of the terminally ill, the element of pain and suffering plays an important role in determining whether or not treatment may be withheld. Both Rabbi Feinstein and Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach* have ruled that a dying patient should not be kept alive by artificial means where the treatment does not cure the illness but merely prolongs the patient's life temporarily and the patient is suffering great pain; all the more so where the medical treatment actually causes pain and suffering.(emphasis not in original) ...

In the case of a terminal patient who is suffering pain, a distinction is drawn between treatment designed to prolong his life— albeit temporarily— and treatment aimed at relieving pain. According to Rabbi Feinstein, it is proper to administer the latter form of treatment but not the former. (Another question is whether it is permitted to administer pain relieving treatment which may shorten the patient's life. Rabbi Feinstein's responsum refers to drugs which "relieve pain but do not shorten the patient's life even for one moment". On the other hand, in a responsum of Rabbi Yaakov Emden, ... Rabbi Emden rules that it is permitted to undergo an operation to relieve extreme pain even where there is a risk that the patient may die as a result.)

Another distinction drawn in the halachic literature is that between routine treatment, which may not be withheld even from the dying patient who is suffering pain, and non-routine treatment, which may be withheld. Amongst the halachic authorities there are differences of opinion as to where to draw the line between routine and non-routine treatment. According to Rabbi Auerbach, food and oxygen, insulin injections, blood transfusions or the provision of antibiotics and other drugs fall under the heading of routine treatment. Rabbi Ovadia Hadava, who served on the Rabbinical Court of Appeals in Israel, on the other hand, has written that it is permitted to withhold insulin injections from a terminally ill patient who is in great pain.

Another question of crucial importance concerns the definition of"gossess" (a person in the process of dying). The question of withholding treatment, as we have seen from the Shulchan Aruch, relates to a "gossess"— a person in the process of dying. But when is that process regarded as beginning? A strict view is taken by Rabbi Bleich— that the process is regarded as beginning when the doctors believe that the patient has at most three days to live. Rabbi Hadava, in the responsum I have just referred to, takes a much broader view. In response to a question as to whether it is permitted to withhold insulin treatment from a terminal patient, he addresses the question of whether the patient is a "gossess". He answers that where the doctors have diagnosed his case as being terminal and the patient is suffering great pain, he should certainly be regarded as a "gossess"

* Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach is a famous Torach sage of the revered Zalman Rabbincal dynasty

Link: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/euth.html#D4

[Selteri]

9. Plug 'em in boys, they be a Catholic! N/T

[zanne]

10. I consulted a priest about this...

My mother is catholic. When she was in the hospital and very sick, I asked to speak to a priest about life support, etc. I have to make her medical decisions, but I wanted these decisions to be based on her faith. The priest I talked to (this was a Catholic hospital) told me that the church has no objection to a person dying "naturally". She stipulates in her living will that she doesn't want assisted breathing but she mentioned nothing about a stomach tube. The priest assured me that God wouldn't want her to suffer unnecessarily.
So here we are, not quite a year later, and now the church is saying the opposite? WTF??

[Bridget Burke]

11. One priest is not "The Church"

Even if he gets all the publicity.

[zanne]

12. Do the rules change from parish to parish?

I was raised Catholic, and I don't remember having two sets of rules to go by. If you're a Catholic, what do you do?

[Kerrytravelers]

13. BEcause the reich wing has infested the churches, no one knows who to

trust. If you don't have a particular priest you trust hasn't been dragged dow nthe path of insanity, use your best jedgement. God will understand because I'm she s/he has been quite confused by all the christo-fascists running around here on Earth, citing God as their personal reference.

[CTyankee]

14. My 94 year old mother has a living will

We are Protestants. As far as I know, we don't have a religious "directive." My mother has given me P.O.A over her medical matters and named my Guardian. She also has signed a "Directive to Physicians." I hope this is sufficient (so far it has been).

I have asked for a D.N.A. form to be faxed to me (I don't want paddles used on her weak, frail body).

What else should I do? Am I in good shape with her living will?