Catholic Answers Live - End of Life Issues

Questions Covered:

 

• 13:48 - If someone is in a vegetative state, is it considered moral to disconnect the person from machines that are continuing to keep the person breathing or heart beating? 
• 18:00 - Why would our government be in control of whether suicide is legal? I worry that people will then think they have a right to commit suicide. 
• 29:08 - I am a speech therapist and I work in a nursing home and deal a lot with swallowing issues. Is it considered immoral if I must tell someone that they cannot eat by mouth anymore? 
• 31:52 - Do you know of any national lawyer organizations of pro-life lawyers who can fight the good fight together? 
• 34:10 - Would the advanced directive that the NCBC provides stand up in most situations? I have been told that it would require a living will. 
• 40:08 - I have a Catholic living will. Because of covid, people aren’t allowed to come into the hospital with the patient. In case of emergency, how can a person be sure that the care providers are aware of the pro-life living will? 
• 43:12 - I am a DPOA for my brother. Could his daughter fight me to have him off of a feeding tube? 
• 45:50 - What is the difference between the respirator and the g-tube? Which was good and which was bad? 
• 50:03 - I work in cardiac surgery. Many of our patients are not likely to survive surgery. Is it moral for us to operate on them and have them die in the hospital when they could potentially live more peacefully at the end of their life at their home?