Faithful Catholics want to make health care decisions that are consistent with their beliefs. But these choices become complicated very quickly, and although most Catholics know there are Church teachings on things like obligatory and non-obligatory treatment and artificial nutrition and hydration, very few know their details much less how to apply them.
All Catholics, however, eventually have to make these kinds of choices, if not for themselves than for their parents or spouses. Unfortunately, these requests almost always come when doctors are trying to withhold basic care from an incompetent patient, not earlier when the patient can express their preferences.
To ensure that more Catholic patients can document their preferences and receive medical care consistent with their human dignity, Nativity of Our Lord, in collaboration with The National Catholic Bioethics Center, is providing parishioners with the advance planning documents that provide explanations and examples of key concepts in end-of-life care. In addition:
A Catholic Guide to End-of-Life Decisions includes templates for a health care proxy and a living will.
A Catholic Guide to POLST (A Catholic Guide to life-sustaining treatment) includes a template physician orders for life-sustaining treatment.
A Catholic Guide to Palliative Care and Hospice includes a checklist for evaluating programs and facilities.
Click below to open PDF documents.
To confidently apply Church teaching to unexpected situations that arise in medicine and daily life, Nativity of Our Lord presents the following:
Living a Catholic Life, introducing parishioners to different tools for thinking like a Catholic. These include reflections on the components of the moral act, principles like double effect and totality, and larger concepts like the integrated view of the human person.
Making Sense of Bioethics, in which Fr. Tad Pacholczyk’s long-running, syndicated column, answers common question on topics ranging from ventilator support to helping friends and family through a difficult pregnancy.
The Bioethics Public Policy Report summarizes legislative, regulatory, and judicial developments on life issues at both the state and federal levels to help Catholics stay informed on all these topics and hold their representatives accountable to their values.
Click below to open PDF documents.
Banner image credit: † Fr. Aldo Trento, a priest of the Fraternity of St. Charles Borromeo and a missionary in Paraguay, attends to suffering at the hospital. Source.
