- John Paul II, Address to the participants in the international congress on “Life-Sustaining Treatments and the Vegetative State: Scientific Advances and Ethical Dilemmas” (March 20, 2004); and Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, “Responses to Certain Questions of the USCCB concerning Artificial Nutrition and Hydration” (August 1, 2007), reprinted in Ethics & Medics 32.11 (November 2007): 1–3.
- CDF, “Responses to Certain Questions,” 3.
- “I should like particularly to underline how the administration of water and food, even when provided by artificial means, always represents a natural means of preserving life, not a medical act. Its use, furthermore, should be considered, in principle, ordinary and proportionate, and as such morally obligatory, insofar and until it is seen to have attained its proper finality, which in the present case consists in providing nourishment to the patient and alleviation of his suffering” (n. 4).
- CDF, Commentary on “Responses to Certain Questions of the USCCB Concerning Artificial Nutrition and Hydration” (August 2007), reprinted in National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 8.1 ( Spring 2008): 123–127.
The Linacre Quarterly
Volume 76, 2009 - Issue 3