The Vatican’s Academy for Life has issued a new text on a series of bioethical issues, including the provision of food and hydration for patients in a vegetative state. It marks a modest departure from the Vatican’s previously held position on the issue, while the Church’s stance against euthanasia remains steadfast.
Published 8 August by the Pontifical Academy for Life (PAV), the volume is titled, “Small Lexicon on End of Life”, and covers a variety of bioethical issues.
According to an introduction by Italian Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the PAV, the volume has the aim of “reducing at least that component of disagreement that depends on an imprecise use of the notions implied in speech”.
