Towey, who is also president of St. Vincent’s College in Pennsylvania and a former volunteer in a Missionaries of Charity AIDS hospice, strongly criticized the VA booklet.
According to Towey, “Your Life, Your Choices” was first published in 1997 and was initially the VA’s preferred document for living wills. Under the George W. Bush administration, after the White House examined the document the VA removed it from use.
Towey characterized parts of the document as describing “guilt inducing” scenarios and promoting a “hurry-up-and-die” message. He also reported that a July 2009 VA document instructed its primary care physicians to raise the issue of advanced care with all VA patients and to refer them to “Your Life, Your Choices.”
In addition, Towey said that a VA expert panel which in 2007-2008 sought to update the “Your Life, Your Choices” booklet did not include any representatives of faith groups or disability rights groups. He said in the new version of the booklet the only organization listed as a resource on advance directives is Compassion and Choices, the suicide advocacy group formerly known as the Hemlock Society.
According to Fox News, on Sunday Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA) said the document raises “a lot of questions.”
"I think consideration ought to be given right now to suspending it pending hearings,” Specter told Fox News Sunday.
Tammy Duckworth, an injured veteran who is the assistant secretary for the VA, said the document is under revision and its status was reported as such on the VA website. She told Fox News it has not been officially reinstated and described it as “simply a tool” for injured veterans.
CNA accessed a copy of “Your Life, Your Choices” on the website of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs this morning, but it was apparently removed from the site later on Monday.
The pamphlet “A Catholic Guide to End-of-Life Decisions,” produced by the National Catholic Bioethics Center, summarizes Catholic end-of-life ethics, saying:
“When death is imminent one may refuse forms of treatment that would only result in a precarious and burdensome prolongation of life. There is a presumption in favor of continuing to provide food and water to the patient, but there is a stage in the dying process when even these may no longer be obligatory because they provide no benefit. Normal care always remains morally obligatory, but refusal of additional treatment when death is imminent is not equivalent to suicide.”