What is the Churchs teaching on keeping unconscious people alive?
We owe those who are permanently unconscious basic comfort care which includes food and water. “The sick person in a vegetative state… as the right to basic health care (nutrition, hydration, hygiene, warmth), and to prevention of the complications associated with their state…In particular, I would want to emphasize that the administration of water and food, even when it is provided by artificial means, always represents a natural means of preserving life, not a medical intervention. Its use is therefore considered …morally obligatory… “(Pope John Paul II on Life Sustaining Treatment and the Vegetative State, March 20, 2004) Can a surrogate for a person in a “persistent vegetative state” refuse artificial nutrition and hydration for that person? Can a person sign a living will that asks that no artificial nutrition and hydration be administered if he or she falls into a permanently unconscious state? The legal answer to both questions is yes. The moral answer may be no. Legally
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