Bishop weighs in on debate over care of dying Texas boy

Published: 2007-04-17

AUSTIN, Texas (CNS) -- Citing difficult decisions in his own family and the example of Pope John Paul II, Bishop Gregory M. Aymond of Austin said Catholic teaching would permit the withdrawal of extraordinary medical treatment for Emilio Gonzales, a dying 17-month-old boy at Children's Hospital of Austin. Catarina Gonzales, the boy's mother, has been fighting for continued medical treatment of her son at the hospital, which is part of the Seton Family of Hospitals, a 31-facility Catholic health system in central Texas. The boy's physicians and other hospital officials have recommended that the child be removed from a respirator and given only "comfort care." Emilio, who has been blind and deaf since birth and was admitted to the hospital Dec. 27 with a collapsed lung, has been diagnosed with Leigh's disease, a rare disorder that is causing his central nervous system to break down. The disease is considered incurable. "I cannot imagine the pain that Catarina experiences as she faces these terrible questions that no mother wants to face," Bishop Aymond said in an April 15 statement.

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