wfn.org | [ENS] Call for Comment: End-of-life-issues (Daybook)

["Matthew Davies" <mdavies@episcopalchurch.org>]

Daybook, from Episcopal News Service

April 1, 2005 - Friday Forum

Call for Comment: End-of-life-issues

[Episcopal News Service] End-of-life issues continue as a matter of
public
discourse and personal reflection following the March 31 death of Terri
Schiavo-the 41-year-old Florida woman who suffered severe brain damage
in
1990 and for 15 years lived in what doctors called a persistent
vegetative
state.

Her death came two weeks after the controversial removal of the feeding
tube
that kept her alive and thrust her husband and legal guardian Michael
Schiavo and her parents into a seven-year legal battle that is now
causing
the U.S. Congress to re-visit end-of-life issues. Recent polls show that
a
majority of Americans oppose lawmakers' intervention in the Schiavo
case.

The Episcopal Church's General Convention has adopted several
resolutions
regarding end-of-life issues, including a 1991 resolution regarding
prolongation of life (Resolution number 1991-A093
http://www.episcopalchurch.org/3577_60370_ENG_HTM.htm) The Convention,
which
meets every three years, has not commented specifically on the Terri
Schiavo
case.

"Christians are not 'vitalists' who believe that life must be maintained
by
medical technology for as long as possible," said Dr. Cynthia B. Cohen,
Kennedy Institute of Ethics, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C.;
chair
End-of Life Task Force of General Convention, 1997-2000 and parishioner
at
St. Alban's, Washington, D.C.

"As the Anglican bishops declared at Lambeth in 1998, artificial
nutrition
and hydration amount to a form of medical treatment. Pumping a synthetic
protein compound into the intestine is vastly different from feeding a
person with a cup and spoon, the End-of-Life Task Force of the General
Convention pointed out," she said.

Cohen said that such treatment becomes "extraordinary" and not morally
required when it offers no reasonable hope of overcoming a terrible
condition such as irreversible coma.

ENS seeks its readers' comments and observations on how end-of-life and
prolongation and related issues are viewed.

The ENS staff will appreciate any and all responses, ideally prior to
April
5.

Please send responses to news@episcopalchurch.org including "Call for
Comment" in the subject line. Thank you.

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