Keeping him alive seems to be the best his doctors can do.
PopeWatch: Acute Respiratory Failure
- Donald R. McClarey
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 43 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
At what point does preserving life become merely postponing death?
CCC 2278
Situation very acute. It is like a drum beat.
Just speaking as a medical observer of many in this type of situation:
The steroids cause the body to fight the infection, which then secretes the infected material as fluid into the lungs. That material has to be suctioned out.
In fact the steroid treatments gradually create an outcome that may have a reverse effect for the viability of the individual.
@ LKL: Good observation: CCC 2278
“ Discontinuing medical procedures that are burdensome, dangerous, extraordinary, or disproportionate to the expected outcome can be legitimate; it is the refusal of “over-zealous” treatment. Here one does not will to cause death; *one’s inability to impede it is merely accepted*. The decisions should be made by the patient if he is competent and able or, if by those legally entitled to act for the patient, whose reasonable will and legitimate interests must always be respected.”