Is it approved by the Catholic Church to have a "Do Not Resuscitate" Order on yourself or a loved one? Also is it a sin to take your loved one off a ventilator knowing that the person will not survive without it (this is with the understanding that he or she will never recover from the medical condition, and will continue to deteriorate-for example, if they are brain dead). And what are the views on Advance Directives? Thank You!

Dear RP

Here is a link to an article by moral theologian William May http://www.zenit.org/article-30838?l=english

In this article he says

The Church does not explicitly address the morality of a "do-not-resuscitate order," but it still uses the distinction between "ordinary" or "proportionate" (=morally obligatory) and "extraordinary" or "disproportionate" (=morally not obligatory) treatments. Moreover the Church clearly teaches that it is morally wrong to impose on anyone the obligation to accept treatments that impose undue burdens on him, his family, and the wider community or to accept treatments that do not offer reasonable benefits or are useless or futile. This is the teaching found both in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith's May, 1980 Vatican Declaration on Euthanasia ("Iura et Bona"), Part IV on "Due Proportion in the Use of Remedies," and in the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Facilities.[1]

Before examining how the distinction between "ordinary/proportionate" and "extraordinary/disproportionate" treatment relates to the morality of a "do not resuscitate" order, we need to know the purpose of such an order, one intimately linked to the application of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).

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