The bishops of England and Wales have expressed sadness over the news that a Polish Catholic, who had been in a coma, has died after the hospital withdrew life support.
The patient, known as Mr RS, fell into a coma after a heart attack in November last year, and had been on artificial hydration and nutrition, but not respiration, since that time. He passed away last week after a request by the Polish government to have him transferred to Poland for care was rejected by the British and European courts.
The situation is ethically complex: his wife and children wanted him to be taken off life support, and his Polish mother and sister asked for it to be continued.
Catholic bishops lobbied intensely against the decision to withdraw care, and a spokesperson for the bishops’ conference of England and Wales said: “We pray that what happened here will not be repeated, and that all those requiring clinically assisted nutrition and hydration will be treated with proper human dignity. May he rest in peace.”
The conference also reaffirmed: “The Catholic Church continues to oppose the definition of assisted nutrition and hydration as medical treatment which has now become the basis of medical and legal decisions to withdraw assisted nutrition and hydration from patients. Providing food and water to very sick patients, even by assisted means, is a basic level of care. This care must be given whenever possible unless it is medically indicated as being overly burdensome or failing to attain its purpose.”
The late Mr RS’ mother has accused the British government of seeking to “dehydrate my son to death” calling the decision “euthanasia by the back door” and saying: “Depriving him of nutrition and hydration is functionally the same as giving him an injection to end his life, except that the entire process is longer, degrading and inhumane treatment.”
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