Pope May Require Feeding Tube

[desflood]

March 29, 2005, 1:30PM

Report: Pope may require feeding tube
Associated Press



VATICAN CITY — Pope John Paul II may have to return to the hospital to have a feeding tube inserted, an Italian news agency reported today. It stressed that no decision had been made.

The APcom news agency, citing an unidentified source, said the 84-year-old pope might have to have the tube inserted to improve his nutrition since he is having difficulty swallowing with the breathing tube that was inserted Feb. 24.

APcom said the idea of inserting a feeding tube was a hypothesis that was being considered. The procedure involves inserting a tube into the stomach to allow for artificial feeding.

Earlier today, the Italian daily Corriere della Sera reported that the pope's doctors were considering a new hospitalization next week both to perform tests on the breathing tube and to adjust his diet because of problems swallowing.

There was no comment from the Vatican. Nicola Cerbino, a spokesman at Polyclinic Gemelli hospital where John Paul was rushed twice last month, called it media speculation.

Another newspaper, La Repubblica, quoted the pope's Vatican physician, Dr. Renato Buzzonetti, as saying doctors are "reasonably calm" about the frail pope's condition.

[bigzak25]

man...i hope he gets better, but i just don't want him to suffer...i know God will take him when it's his time. Get well JP.

[2centsworth]

but i just don't want him to suffer

my understanding that starvation and dehydration is a painless death.

[Drachen]

No, thats only if your in a persistant vegitative state. Youre welcome for clearing that up for ya.

I almost forgot, get well JP the 2nd.

[JoeChalupa]

God Bless JP.

[2centsworth]

No, thats only if your in a persistant vegitative state. Youre welcome for clearing that up for ya.

I almost forgot, get well JP the 2nd.
that's why they are giving her morphine, because she doesn't feel pain. it's as clear as mud.

[exstatic]

I hope they keep the fucker alive as a human tater-tot for at least 15 years.

[Useruser666]

that's why they are giving her morphine, because she doesn't feel pain. it's as clear as mud.

She can't make decisions for herself. The Pope as of now can. Even if he couldn't, I'm sure his wishes as to what he wants done have been made clear.

[samikeyp]

wow...it only took three posts "Pope vs. Terri" thread. :rolleyes

[desflood]

Of course, the Pope will stay alive as long as possible. Having yourself disconnected from anything keeping you alive would be considered suicide, which is a sin in the Catholic Church.

[desflood]

I hope they keep the fucker alive as a human tater-tot for at least 15 years.
Are you sure that's an appropriate way to refer to the pope?

[travis2]

Are you sure that's an appropriate way to refer to the pope?

Anti-Catholic bigotry is still cool.

[gophergeorge]

I hope they keep the fucker alive as a human tater-tot for at least 15 years.


"You just made the list"...

[bigzak25]

Elaine: Oh. So, you're pretty religious?

Puddy: That's right.

Elaine: So is it a problem that I'm not really religious?

Puddy: Not for me.

Elaine: Why not?

Puddy: I'm not the one going to hell.

----------------------------------------------------


New scene.
Elaine's hallway. The door opens, Puddy steps out in his bathrobe. There's a
newspaper in front of the door across from Elaine's.

Puddy: Elaine, they forgot to deliver your paper today. Why don't you just
grab that one.

Elaine: 'Cause that belongs to Mr. Potato Guy, that's his.

Puddy: C'mon, get it.

Elaine: Well if you want it, you get it.

Puddy: Sorry, thou shalt not steal.

Elaine: Oh, but it's ok for me?

Puddy: What do you care, you know where you're going.

Elaine: Alright, that is it! I can't live like this.

Puddy: Nah.

Elaine: C'mon.

Puddy: Alright, what did I do?

Elaine: David, I'm going to hell! The worst place in the world! With devils
and those caves and the ragged clothing! And the heat! My god, the heat! I
mean, what do you think about all that?

Puddy: Gonna be rough.

Elaine: Uh, you should be trying to save me!

Puddy: Don't boss me! This is why you're going to hell.

Elaine: I am not going to hell and if you think I'm going to hell, you should
care that I'm going to hell even though I am not.

Puddy: You stole my Jesus fish, didn't you?

Elaine: Yeah, that's right!
-----------------------------------------------------

[samikeyp]

:lmao

[xcoriate]

What do Santa, the easter bunny and jesus/god all have in common? I'm sure you can all work it out.

[Drachen]

Of course, the Pope will stay alive as long as possible. Having yourself disconnected from anything keeping you alive would be considered suicide, which is a sin in the Catholic Church.


Not true, if you deny yourself ordinary means of survival, and perish, it is considered suicide, but you are allowed to pass up a surgery, etc. and if you die, it is not considered suicide.

[TheWriter]

The Pope is a regular human who is beyond his life expectancy.

But through human intervention he still lives.

If cloning is playing God and not tolerated with religious people, how can human's playing God keep other humans alive even though through any other circumstance the Pope would of died years ago.

Religion is like a political cult.

[TheWriter]

Not true, if you deny yourself ordinary means of survival, and perish, it is considered suicide, but you are allowed to pass up a surgery, etc. and if you die, it is not considered suicide.


Having yourself disconnected from anything keeping you alive would be considered suicide, which is a sin in the Catholic Church.

Where does he say passing up a surgery? He's saying if he pulls the tube.

[Drachen]

OK here is the exact quote.

D. Negative and Indirect Suicide

Negative and indirect suicide without the consent of God is also an attempt against the rights of the Creator and an injustice towards Him whenever without sufficient cause a man neglects all the means of preservation of which he should make use. If a man as usufructuary is obliged in justice to preserve his life, it follows that he is equally bound to make use of all the ordinary means which are indicated in the usual course of things, namely:


he should employ all the ordinary means which nature itself provides, such as to eat, drink, sleep, and so on;
moreover, he should avoid all dangers which he may easily avoid, e.g. to flee from a burning house, to escape from an infuriated animal when it may be done without difficulty.
In fact to neglect the ordinary means for preserving life is equivalent to killing one's self, but the same is not true with regard to extraordinary means. Thus theologians teach that one is not bound in order to preserve life to employ remedies which, considering one's condition, are regarded as extraordinary and involving extraordinary expenditure; one is not obliged to undergo a very painful surgical operation, nor a considerable amputation, nor to go into exile in order to seek a more beneficial climate, etc. To use a comparison, the lessee of a house is bound to take care of it as becomes a good father of a family, to make use of the ordinary means for the preservation of the property, for instance, to extinguish a fire which he may easily extinguish, etc., but he is not bound to employ means considered extraordinary, such as to procure the latest novelties invented by science to prevent or extinguish fire.

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14326b.htm



P.S. I was using "surgery, etc" as an example

[Nbadan]

The POPE has a LIVING WILL to be kept alive in the same conditon as Terry Shiavo was for 15 years...


Thu Mar 31, 2005 02:06 AM ET
By Tom Heneghan, Religion Editor

PARIS (Reuters) - Pope John Paul, now being fed through a nasal tube because of his throat problems, effectively wrote his own "living will" last year in a speech declaring some life-extending treatments a moral duty for Roman Catholics. The ailing Pontiff sharply narrowed Catholic guidelines for treating patients nearing death in March 2004 when he described tube-feeding as a normal treatment rather than an extraordinary measure that can be stopped if all hope of recovery fades.

This indicates he would want to be kept alive by artificial means even if he fell into a coma or a persistent vegetative state, such as the brain-damaged Terri Schiavo in the United States whose feeding tubes have been removed after 15 years. "The Pope's statement would have to be considered the equivalent of his living will," said Father Thomas Reese S.J., editor of the Jesuit weekly America in New York. "It would be very difficult to unplug him if it came to that."

Increasingly popular in the United States, a living will is a written statement adults make to indicate whether they want doctors to use all means possible to keep them alive at life's end or to let them die if all hope of recovery seems lost. As the Schiavo case shows, modern medicine can extend basic body functioning for years -- a worrying prospect for the world's largest church if that means its elected-for-life leader is incapacitated indefinitely.

The Catholic Church has traditionally taught that doctors and families could end artificial life-extending measures in good conscience if a dying patient's prospects seemed hopeless.

Link (http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=8044720&src=rss/topNews)

Could this be the beginning of the reign of the long prophesied 'false Pope'?