A new video and website explore Roman Catholic teachings on end of life decision-making.

The New York State Catholic Conference produced Now and at the Hour of Our Death and its companion website to serve as an online education resource for Catholics across the U.S. The eight-minute video focuses on seriously ill patients and their families as they learn to accept the inevitability of death and stop aggressive, often expensive, curative treatments that are often futile.

“Outside of moral evils like assisted suicide or euthanasia, Catholic Church teachings regarding the end of life are not black and white; rather they are shades of gray,” Kathleen M. Gallagher, director of Pro-Life Activities for the New York State Catholic Conference, said in a statement. “There is no one-size-fits-all response. Each case is different. What the video and website attempt to do is, not so much give answers, but help Catholics to ask the right questions.”

The video was created by Blackfriars Media, a New York City production company associated with the Dominican Fathers Province of St. Joseph. Much of it focuses on executive producer Father Gabriel Gillen and his advice for dying Catholics.

“When I go to hospitals and speak with patients, so often I have to reassure them that a time can come when they will discern that the medical interventions that are sustaining them in life will become morally optional and can therefore be withdrawn or refused,” he states. “A lot of people assume that certain treatments are always morally obligatory. It’s not easy to categorize medical treatments as always morally obligatory or always morally optional. Each case is unique.”

Increased medical costs, inconvenience and disease stage make it morally permissible, Gillen says, for some dying patients to stop curative therapies and enroll in a palliative or hospice care program.

Palliative medicine aims to help comfort terminally ill patients when there are no more “helpful” curative treatments available, said Sister Marie Edward Deutsch, a registered nurse. “We support (patients) physically as much as we possibly can. When they start receiving excellent care, they are comforted and some of their anxieties diminish.”

Robert Gilligan, executive director of the Catholic Conference of Illinois, said he applauds the New York Conference for focusing resources on such a difficult issue. “This is a very serious topic, and any serious attempt by the Church to tackle this issue should be welcomed.”

Gilligan said his conference is creating documents that highligh the importance of advance health care directives. An Illinois advance directive with a Catholic perspective is also in the works; it is planned for release later this year.

“We have been working on this initiative for a long time,” he told Life Matters Media. “It’s going through final comments and is being reviewed by the appropriate people. It’s coming from a team of ethicists, lawyers and hospital officials familiar with end of life issues.”

An advance health care directive may take the form of a living will, power of attorney or the Five Wishes collection. The overall purpose of such forms is to ensure one’s end of life wishes are carried through in case of illness or incapacity.

Kim Wadas, associate director of education and health care with the Wisconsin Catholic Conference, said it is not unusual for the Church to address such a taboo issue, partly because it has a long history of providing health care.

“Some of this nation’s first health care institutions were Catholic institutions. A lot of our religious orders have been traditionally active in health care institutions,” she told LMM. “Having experience has also given us an opportunity to think and reflect on things like pain management and artificial nutrition.”