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THE CHURCH MILITANT - BELEAGUERED BY BERGOGLIANISM

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November 16, 2017 headlines

Canon212.com


To Vatican meeting on end-of-life issues:
Pope says it is 'morally licit to discontinue
therapeutic measures when disproportionate'

'Avoiding overzealous treatment is not euthanasia'

by SALVATORE CERNUZIO


VATICAN CITY, Nov. 16, 2017 - It is “morally licit to decide not to adopt therapeutic measures, or to discontinue them, when their use does not meet that ethical and humanistic standard that would later be called “due proportion in the use of remedies”.

Pope Francis made this statement on the complex “end-of-life” issue in a message sent to Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia and to the participants in the European regional meeting of the World Medical Association in progress in the Vatican and promoted by the Pontifical Academy for Life headed by Paglia.

Reiterating what was already established in 1980 by the Declaration on euthanasia of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Pope explains that the specific element of this criterion is that it considers “the result that can be expected, taking into account the state of the sick person and his or her physical and moral resources”. It thus makes possible a decision that is morally qualified as withdrawal of “overzealous treatment”.

[Rather than continue with the rest of the report which merely quotes huge chunks from the message, I will just post the entire message:]

Your meeting will address questions dealing with the end of earthly life. They are questions that have always challenged humanity, but that today take on new forms by reason of increased knowledge and the development of new technical tools.

The growing therapeutic capabilities of medical science have made it possible to eliminate many diseases, to improve health and to prolong people’s life span. While these developments have proved quite positive, it has also become possible nowadays to extend life by means that were inconceivable in the past.

Surgery and other medical interventions have become ever more effective, but they are not always beneficial: they can sustain, or even replace, failing vital functions, but that is not the same as promoting health. Greater wisdom is called for today, because of the temptation to insist on treatments that have powerful effects on the body, yet at times do not serve the integral good of the person.

Some sixty years ago, Pope Pius XII, in a memorable address to anaesthesiologists and intensive care specialists, stated that there is no obligation to have recourse in all circumstances to every possible remedy and that, in some specific cases, it is permissible to refrain from their use (cf. AAS XLIX [1957], 1027-1033).

Consequently, it is morally licit to decide not to adopt therapeutic measures, or to discontinue them, when their use does not meet that ethical and humanistic standard that would later be called “due proportion in the use of remedies” (cf. CONGREGATION FOR THE DOCTRINE OF THE FAITH, Declaration on Euthanasia, 5 May 1980, IV: AAS LXXII [1980], 542-552).

The specific element of this criterion is that it considers “the result that can be expected, taking into account the state of the sick person and his or her physical and moral resources” (ibid.). It thus makes possible a decision that is morally qualified as withdrawal of “overzealous treatment”.

Such a decision responsibly acknowledges the limitations of our mortality, once it becomes clear that opposition to it is futile. “Here one does not will to cause death; one’s inability to impede it is merely accepted” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 2278).

This difference of perspective restores humanity to the accompaniment of the dying, while not attempting to justify the suppression of the living. It is clear that not adopting, or else suspending, disproportionate measures, means avoiding overzealous treatment; from an ethical standpoint, it is completely different from euthanasia, which is always wrong, in that the intent of euthanasia is to end life and cause death.

Needless to say, in the face of critical situations and in clinical practice, the factors that come into play are often difficult to evaluate. To determine whether a clinically appropriate medical intervention is actually proportionate, the mechanical application of a general rule is not sufficient. There needs to be a careful discernment of the moral object, the attending circumstances, and the intentions of those involved.

In caring for and accompanying a given patient, the personal and relational elements in his or her life and death – which is after all the last moment in life – must be given a consideration befitting human dignity. In this process, the patient has the primary role.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church makes this clear: “The decisions should be made by the patient if he is competent and able” (loc. cit.). The patient, first and foremost, has the right, obviously in dialogue with medical professionals, to evaluate a proposed treatment and to judge its actual proportionality in his or her concrete case, and necessarily refusing it if such proportionality is judged lacking.

That evaluation is not easy to make in today's medical context, where the doctor-patient relationship has become increasingly fragmented and medical care involves any number of technological and organizational aspects.

It should also be noted that these processes of evaluation are conditioned by the growing gap in healthcare possibilities resulting from the combination of technical and scientific capability and economic interests.

Increasingly sophisticated and costly treatments are available to ever more limited and privileged segments of the population, and this raises questions about the sustainability of healthcare delivery and about what might be called a systemic tendency toward growing inequality in health care.

This tendency is clearly visible at a global level, particularly when different continents are compared. But it is also present within the more wealthy countries, where access to healthcare risks being more dependent on individuals’ economic resources than on their actual need for treatment.

In the complexity resulting from the influence of these various factors on clinical practice, but also on medical culture in general, the supreme commandment of responsible closeness, must be kept uppermost in mind, as we see clearly from the Gospel story of the Good Samaritan (cf. Lk 10:25-37).

It could be said that the categorical imperative is to never abandon the sick. The anguish associated with conditions that bring us to the threshold of human mortality, and the difficulty of the decision we have to make, may tempt us to step back from the patient. Yet this is where, more than anything else, we are called to show love and closeness, recognizing the limit that we all share and showing our solidarity.

Let each of us give love in his or her own way — as a father, a mother, a son, a daughter, a brother or sister, a doctor or a nurse. But give it! And even if we know that we cannot always guarantee healing or a cure, we can and must always care for the living, without ourselves shortening their life, but also without futilely resisting their death. This approach is reflected in palliative care, which is proving most important in our culture, as it opposes what makes death most terrifying and unwelcome — pain and loneliness.

Within democratic societies, these sensitive issues must be addressed calmly, seriously and thoughtfully, in a way open to finding, to the extent possible, agreed solutions, also on the legal level.

On the one hand, there is a need to take into account differing world views, ethical convictions and religious affiliations, in a climate of openness and dialogue. On the other hand, the state cannot renounce its duty to protect all those involved, defending the fundamental equality whereby everyone is recognized under law as a human being living with others in society.

Particular attention must be paid to the most vulnerable, who need help in defending their own interests. If this core of values essential to coexistence is weakened, the possibility of agreeing on that recognition of the other which is the condition for all dialogue and the very life of society will also be lost.

Legislation on health care also needs this broad vision and a comprehensive view of what most effectively promotes the common good in each concrete situation.

In the hope that these reflections may prove helpful, I offer you my cordial good wishes for a serene and constructive meeting. I also trust that you will find the most appropriate ways of addressing these delicate issues with a view to the good of all those whom you meet and those with whom you work in your demanding profession.




Just as Vatican Insider did, the major Italian dailies chose to highlight the statement in the pope's message that allows ending treatment for terminal cases when the cost and effort would be judged disproportionate to what little positive effect it may have on the patient. Marco Tosatti calls their reporting 'fake news', because the headlines interpret the statement to mean the pope is supporting a proposed law to legalize euthanasia. And although they may have correctly quoted the pope's words, the interpretation they chose to give those words is entirely misleading.

Also, the particular statement that VATICAN INSIDER and the other dailies lead with appears to be the pope's synthesis of what the CDF said in its 1980 Declaration on Euthanasia about 'Due Proportion in the Use of Remedies" (see below). Actually, he would have done better to simply refer the participants to that document.


Fake news on the pope and
the law to legalize euthanasia

Translated from

November 17, 2017

This morning, I must express solidarity with my Vaticanista colleagues. I understand their suffering. As Giovanni Tridente tweeted, "Today is the triumph of 'titolismo'". We are obviously speaking of the news reports on the Pope's message regarding therapeutic obstinacy [the Italian term is accanimento terapeutico, more literally translated as therapeutic doggedness'] and euthanasia. And of the pope's so-called 'openness' to an end-of-life law that would legalize euthanasia in Italy.

It goes without saying that the Pope's written message, prepared no doubt with the help of the Pontifical Academy for Life, makes no mention at all of the law.

Besides, a pope saying NO to therapeutic obstinacy is not news at all. It goes back to 1958 and Papa Pacelli, later reiterated by both John Paul II and Benedict XVI. And so I understand the plight of my colleagues whose reports have been 'violated' by their bosses with headlines linking the pope's message to the proposed law, even if the headlines are not borne out by the articles themselves.

What type of 'fake news' is this? It may not be 100% fake, but at least 75% is. And if you read the entire message, it says many good things, along with some ambiguities which I would attribute to the PAL drafters - and I apologize if I say so unjustly - but then, one remembers that Mons. Paglia had spoken in lavish praise of the late [Radical Party leader] Marco Pannella [one of whose decades-long political causes was the legalization of euthanasia].

Without getting into the euthanasia issue now, I would ask you to read an article in Bussola written by an expert.
http://www.lanuovabq.it/it/papa-ed-eutanasia-un-intervento-problematico
[In which the writer, Tommaso Scandroglio, examines the ambiguities in the pope's message and concludes:

The message is focused for the most part on therapeutic obstinacy [the Vatican translates 'accanimento terapeutico' as 'overzealous treatment'] because "the temptation today (is) to insist on treatments that have powerful effects on the body, yet at times do not serve the integral good of the person".

It would therefore seem that the real danger in hospital practice today is therapeutic obstinacy and not euthanasia. But that is not the case. Existing norms in many countries, widespread clinical practice, the guidelines of some medical societies, and recent headlines such as the case of 'little Charlie', the clinics for 'sweet death' found here and there in the West [what they all have in common is that their aim is to hasten death in terminal cases] - all this tell us that the true emergency we phase is euthanasia and not therapeutic obstinacy.


But for now, we must be resigned: Ambiguity is a characteristic trait of this pontificate, evidently reflective of deeply-rooted personal traits.

**************************************************************************************************************************


The 1980 CDF Declaration on Euthanasia [/](a pre-Ratzinger document) ends with a section entitled DUE PROPORTION IN THE USE OF REMEDIES, which is precise and realistic in its guidelines, and is instructive to read and compare with Pope Francis's message yesterday:

Today it is very important to protect, at the moment of death, both the dignity of the human person and the Christian concept of life, against a technological attitude that threatens to become an abuse.

Thus some people speak of a "right to die," which is an expression that does not mean the right to procure death either by one's own hand or by means of someone else, as one pleases, but rather the right to die peacefully with human and Christian dignity.

From this point of view, the use of therapeutic means can sometimes pose problems. In numerous cases, the complexity of the situation can be such as to cause doubts about the way ethical principles should be applied.

In the final analysis, it pertains to the conscience either of the sick person, or of those qualified to speak in the sick person's name, or of the doctors, to decide, in the light of moral obligations and of the various aspects of the case.

Everyone has the duty to care for his or her own health or to seek such care from others. Those whose task it is to care for the sick must do so conscientiously and administer the remedies that seem necessary or useful. However, is it necessary in all circumstances to have recourse to all possible remedies?

In the past, moralists replied that one is never obliged to use "extraordinary" means. This reply, which as a principle still holds good, is perhaps less clear today, by reason of the imprecision of the term and the rapid progress made in the treatment of sickness. Thus some people prefer to speak of "proportionate" and "disproportionate" means.

In any case, it will be possible to make a correct judgment as to the means by studying the type of treatment to be used, its degree of complexity or risk, its cost and the possibilities of using it, and comparing these elements with the result that can be expected, taking into account the state of the sick person and his or her physical and moral resources.

In order to facilitate the application of these general principles, the following clarifications can be added:
- If there are no other sufficient remedies, it is permitted, with the patient's consent, to have recourse to the means provided by the most advanced medical techniques, even if these means are still at the experimental stage and are not without a certain risk. By accepting them, the patient can even show generosity in the service of humanity.
- It is also permitted, with the patient's consent, to interrupt these means, where the results fall short of expectations.
- But for such a decision to be made, account will have to be taken of the reasonable wishes of the patient and the patient's family, as also of the advice of the doctors who are specially competent in the matter. The latter may in particular judge that the investment in instruments and personnel is disproportionate to the results foreseen; they may also judge that the techniques applied impose on the patient strain or suffering out of proportion with the benefits which he or she may gain from such techniques.
- It is also permissible to make do with the normal means that medicine can offer. Therefore one cannot impose on anyone the obligation to have recourse to a technique which is already in use but which carries a risk or is burdensome.

Such a refusal is not the equivalent of suicide; on the contrary, it should be considered as an acceptance of the human condition, or a wish to avoid the application of a medical procedure disproportionate to the results that can be expected, or a desire not to impose excessive expense on the family or the community.
- When inevitable death is imminent in spite of the means used, it is permitted in conscience to take the decision to refuse forms of treatment that would only secure a precarious and burdensome prolongation of life, so long as the normal care due to the sick person in similar cases is not interrupted. In such circumstances the doctor has no reason to reproach himself with failing to help the person in danger.



Equally instructive is the program of the three-day conference, the organization behind it, and its line-up of speakers:
https://onepeterfive.com/vatican-conference-invites-promoters-euthanasia/

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 18/11/2017 07:44]
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