What is the Catholic Churchs position with regard to nutrition and hydration?
Nutrition and hydration should always be given, unless it’s directly harmful to the patient as noted by Pope John Paul II above. Advance directives and living wills have become quite common. What do you see as the danger of such directives? They are greatly misunderstood and greatly abused. My feeling is that the legal profession takes advantage of people’s fears to rack up the money. Most lay Catholics have no clue what the Church’s teaching is. They sign living wills all the time. Such directives often go against Catholic Church teaching. When you have a 30-year-old’s directive saying he or she doesn’t want food or water, or antibiotics, or blood products, that usually represents a gross misunderstanding of Church teaching. Most of the time, you should be getting those things. So many times people are signing something that is against Church teaching. I’m not saying they are always wrong. You could have a carefully thought out “loving will” that focuses on the things that you do want
