Dear Therese:

I praise God that this ministry has been helpful to you. I also praise God for your ministry as a nurse to our children. I think it is a wonderful gift and ministry to hold these dying babies. That is truly treating them with the dignity they deserve.

As for Catholic teaching on withholding medical care, extraordinary measures can be withheld, but normal medical care must never be withheld and to do so is a direct killing of the person and constitutes murder. Hydration and nutrition is "normal" medical care and as such that means that starving the person to death cannot be done and is a grave sin.

Palliative is to be encouraged. The administration of pain killers and the like should be available to the person to make them as comfortable as possible, as long as the intention is to comfort the patient and not to kill him.

Here is the Catechism on the subject:

Euthanasia

2276 Those whose lives are diminished or weakened deserve special respect. Sick or handicapped persons should be helped to lead lives as normal as possible.

2277 Whatever its motives and means, direct euthanasia consists in putting an end to the lives of handicapped, sick, or dying persons. It is morally unacceptable.

Thus an act or omission which, of itself or by intention, causes death in order to eliminate suffering constitutes a murder gravely contrary to the dignity of the human person and to the respect due to the living God, his Creator. The error of judgment into which one can fall in good faith does not change the nature of this murderous act, which must always be forbidden and excluded.

2278 Discontinuing medical procedures that are burdensome, dangerous, extraordinary, or disproportionate to the expected outcome can be legitimate; it is the refusal of "over-zealous" treatment. Here one does not will to cause death; one's inability to impede it is merely accepted. The decisions should be made by the patient if he is competent and able or, if not, by those legally entitled to act for the patient, whose reasonable will and legitimate interests must always be respected.

2279 Even if death is thought imminent, the ordinary care owed to a sick person cannot be legitimately interrupted. The use of painkillers to alleviate the sufferings of the dying, even at the risk of shortening their days, can be morally in conformity with human dignity if death is not willed as either an end or a means, but only foreseen and tolerated as inevitable Palliative care is a special form of disinterested charity. As such it should be encouraged.

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary