PATIENT ADVOCATES ARE DESPERATELY NEEDED: PART II

PATIENT ADVOCATES PUT COMPASSION INTO ACTION  Visiting the sick is a work of mercy. Patient advocates manifest mercy by showing compassion to sick and suffering people. Compassion means “to suffer with” another, to put our kindly inclinations—which we are often tempted to resist—into action through readiness to assist. A person who accompanies a medically vulnerable

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BASIC CARE, HUMAN DIGNITY, AND CARE FOR MEDICALLY VULNERABLE PERSONS

Physical and cognitive disability should not mean one’s situation is considered “end of life,” yet too many persons who are not dying are described this way. Earlier this year, Oregon’s state legislature considered a bill that would have increased the number of medically vulnerable persons at risk of an untimely death. Oregon’s SB 494 would

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DISCERNING ORDINARY VS. EXTRAORDINARY MEANS IN CATHOLIC BIOETHICS

One of the most important tasks in bioethics is distinguishing between ordinary and extraordinary means when it comes to medical care. The reason this distinction is so vital is that Catholics have a moral obligation to receive ordinary care for themselves and give it to others. What is deemed to be extraordinary is morally optional;

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HEALTHCARE ADVANCE DIRECTIVES

Healthcare advance directives are legal documents by which individuals express their wishes regarding medical treatment and/or appoint a trusted person to speak for them any time they are unable to make treatment decisions for themselves. Not all advance directives are equal. Many have been drafted by people who fail to comprehend the reverence, awe, and deep respect

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ORDINARY AND EXTRAORDINARY MEANS

In assessing when there is a duty to preserve life, the Church distinguishes between ordinary and extraordinary means.[1]  Ordinary means must be taken to preserve life, and extraordinary means can be morally refused.[2]  It is, therefore, critical to properly characterize particular means of preserving human life as ordinary or extraordinary, that is, as morally obligatory

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