Doctor Denies Suspending Treatment for John Paul II

[bones_IV]

WHAT!?

Link

 

[johnstown_johnn]

Todeay, Sunday Sept. 23 a news story:

foxnews.com

Unclear as to what transpired…however, the word “Euthanized” was used.

 

[Roslyn]

I thought the Holy Father was severely ill with no chance of recovery. Withdrawing futile treatment is not euthanasia!

 

[johnstown_johnn]

I thought the Holy Father was severely ill with no chance of recovery. Withdrawing futile treatment is not euthanasia!

I experienced a death-watch of my mother; she was comatose for 11 days and on total life support. I did not know what kind of preparedness to reach for. I called the Vatican Counsel in Washington, DC and asked for whoever is available/present clergy.

A Vatican representative explained to me that extraordinary means (respirator and other means not including basic sustanance) be removed when a person is BRAIN DEAD. That means the caregivers (doctors) must witness and sign verification that NO brain activity is taking place…a flatline inso far as the brain. This constitutes death from the authority of the Vatican.

Whether or not John-Paul 2 had reached that point of being “brain dead” will certainly have to be explored. It is the conscience of the Church.

Terry Schiavo was not brain dead…there was brain activity physically and on the monitors. She was starved and thirsted to death.

 

[yugnok]

There is a big difference between suspending treatment (food) for someone who is already dieing and withdrawing food from someone so that it will cause their death.

Foxnews and the other media people don’t seem to grasp that distinction and just want a shocking headline.

Regardless, the treating doctor says that treatment was never ceased.

 

[Melissa]

I thought the Holy Father was severely ill with no chance of recovery. Withdrawing futile treatment is not euthanasia!

Correct. And when death is very imminent, even nutrition and hydration become futile treatment. (The body ceases to process, so you’re pumping this stuff into the patient, but because the body is no longer processing it, nothing is moving on into the waste–causing distension of the body and considerable discomfort to the dying person. It is a mercy to terminate tube feeding at this point [NB: in this case, death tends to come within a maximum of *hours, less than one day–for example, in my maternal grandmother’s case–approx. 6.5 hrs from termination of tube feeding to death–people go 6.5 hrs all the time w/o eating in a day, it’s called sleep {in my Grandmother’s case, we’re talking the hours between approx. midnight and 6:30am}].)

That Italian doctor is dangerously close to slander, IMO, and certainly has no business making judgments regarding the care of a man who was never under her direct care based on TV appearances and a book that is not a medical history of the patient. I’ll take the word of the doctor who actually was involved in the treatment of the late JPII, not that of a doctor who was not (and who apparently has an ax to grind, to boot).