Vatican rules on nourishment for vegetative patients

By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Vatican, ruling on a debate that has divided Catholic hospitals, said on Friday it was wrong to stop administering food and water to patients in a vegetative state even if they would never regain consciousness.

In a document approved by Pope Benedict, the Vatican's doctrinal department said tube-feeding such patients presumed to be near death was "ordinary" care that should not be discontinued because the patients still had human dignity.

The document was bound to prompt further debate among bioethicists, especially in the extensive health system the Church maintains in many countries, over how far doctors should go in using the latest scientific methods to sustain life.

It reaffirmed a position taken by the late Pope John Paul in 2004 during a heated debate in the United States about ending artificial feeding for the severely brain-damaged Terri Schiavo. She was taken off her feeding tube and died in 2005.

"The administration of food and water even by artificial means is, in principle, an ordinary means of preserving life," the one-page document said, adding the aim of such nourishment was to "prevent death by starvation and dehydration".

Even when food and water are administered by artificial means, it was wrong to discontinue them because even a person in a permanent vegetative state had "fundamental human dignity".

The Church opposes euthanasia but teaches that extraordinary -- that is, overly aggressive and possibly painful -- means of artificial life support can be stopped if the family wishes.

The Vatican ruling came in response to questions put forward by the U.S. Catholic Bishops Conference after debate among Catholic ethicists and hospitals there on what constitutes ordinary and extraordinary life support.