The Vatican Pontifical Academy for Life (PAV) has issued a new text on a series of bioethical issues, including the provision of food and hydration for patients in a vegetative state. The Catholic Herald notes that this “marks a modest departure from the Vatican’s previously held position on the issue, while the Church’s stance against euthanasia is unchanged.

Published 8 August 2024, the volume entitled “Small Lexicon on End of Life”,  [currently available only in Italian, €] covers a variety of bioethical issues. An analysis of the document has been published by Elise Ann Allen in Crux and in the Catholic Herald. She notes “the 88-page text reaffirms a blanket ‘no’ to euthanasia and assisted suicide, but it also shifts toward a new openness from the Vatican when it comes to so-called ‘aggressive treatment’, specifically the requirement to provide food and hydration to patients in a vegetative state.

Section 13 of the volume deals with this issue of food and hydration, and refers to the recently published declaration of human dignity from the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF), Dignitas Infinita. In this, the DDF reiterates the need to avoid “every aggressive therapy or disproportionate intervention” in the treatment of patients with serious illnesses”.

Allen concludes:

“By allowing the space to be kept open for research on legislative mediation on the topic, Paglia [Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life] in his introduction said that “in this way, believers assume their responsibility to explain to everyone the universal (ethical) sense disclosed in the Christian faith.”