Advance medical directive catholic

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georgemiller

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What is the official church teachings relative to advance medical directives. Is a do not revive directive in union with church teachings? Can ever hydration and nutrition ever be withheld?
 
Someone will probably provide you with more specific links. The short answer is that DNRs are consistent with Catholic teaching as long as reasonable normal care is taken to protect life. You do not need to accept extraordinary efforts to keep you alive. Nutrition and hydration are considered normal care and not extraordinary. However, in many cases of terminal illness, even hydration starts to do more harm than good (ie drowning in his/her own fluids) and can be morally stopped. What you can’t do is put someone in the situation of starving to death as a quicker way to end a life.
 
The document Dorothy posted seems good. If you are going to execute something like this, in my opinion, you should also include your wishes about organ donation. The protocols in the hospital may or may not conform with Catholic moral teaching. Your best option, again only in my opinion, is to put everything together in one document to avoid confusion for your family members in a time of stress. People tend to think of living wills/advance directives in terms of “what if I am terminally ill and close to death” but the same document will be the one pulled out in the event of something unexpected such as a automobile accident when the subject of donation will likely be brought up by the health care professionals.
 
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