Vatican: Removal of feeding tubes 'immoral'

The Vatican today reiterated that it considers the removal of feeding tubes from people in vegetative states to be an immoral act.

The Vatican issued the statement in response to questions from bishops in the US in July 2005 – just months after the case of an American woman, Terri Schiavo, made world headlines.

She died on March 31, 2005, in a Florida hospice after her parents unsuccessfully battled a court order to have her feeding tube removed.

She died 13 days after the tube was removed.

“A patient in a ’permanent vegetative state’ is a person with fundamental human dignity and must, therefore, receive ordinary and proportionate care which includes, in principle, the administration of water and food even by artificial means,” the Vatican said in a statement.

At the time, the Vatican condemned Schiavo’s death as “arbitrarily hastened” and called the removal of her feeding tube a violation of the principles of Christianity and civilisation.

Bishop William Lori of Bridgeport, Connecticut, chair of the US bishops Committee for Doctrine, said the American bishops hoped the Vatican’s explanations would provide guidance to pastors, ethicists, doctors, nurses and families involved in the issue.