Food for the Holy Father

Ailing Pope May Have Feeding Tube Fitted



Pope John Paul II may have to return to the hospital to have a feeding tube inserted since he is having trouble swallowing with the breathing tube that was inserted last month, an Italian news agency reported.

The APcom news agency stressed yesterday that no decision had been made and that the insertion of a feeding tube was a hypothesis that was being considered to help the pope improve his nutrition and regain his strength.

The agency said the pope’s doctors were considering the procedure, which involves inserting a feeding tube through the throat and into the stomach. The tube is then extended from inside the stomach to outside the body through a small incision in the abdomen. Liquid formula is then fed through the tube in the abdomen, and no tubes are left in the throat.

If performed, the pope would be receiving nutrition the same way Terri Schiavo was fed through her feeding tube before it was removed. Schiavo is the severely brain damaged woman at the centre of a right-to-die legal battle in the US.

John Paul has been having trouble swallowing since a tube was inserted in his throat February 24 to help him breathe. He was admitted to the hospital twice in February because of breathing crises.

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

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.
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The Pope may need to be fed through a tube because of swallowing difficulties since his throat surgery.

No doubt, George Felos would recommend that John Paul choose to die with dignity and not suffer the trauma of receiving nourishment via a tube.

Of course, Felos argues that the insertion of a feeding tube is an extraordinary measure to prolong life.

I'm sure Felos would urge the Pope to opt for the beautiful and peaceful experience of dying by starvation rather than relying on a tube to sustain him.

What Felos considers to be an indignity the Catholic Church considers to be morally obligatory.

Such is the clash of the pro-death and pro-life movements.