Our Mission, vision, values and identity as a Catholic health care system guide our practices. Our Integrity calls us to promote ethical behavior throughout our system.
Ethical Questions About Your Care
St. Mary’s has an Ethics Committee to help patients, families and caregivers discuss ethical issues concerning your care. Ethical issues may include consent for treatment, withholding or withdrawing life support, artificial feeding, and decisions about resuscitation and surrogate decision-makers.
Any patient, family, friend, caregiver, or employee of this institution has the right to speak to an Ethics Committee member if he or she has an ethical question or concern. Patients, families or friends wishing to consult with someone from this group should ask a nurse or staff member to request an ethics consult.
Even though the Ethics Committee is here to help you, your loved ones and your caregivers, it is an advisory group only, and does not make medical decisions.
Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services
The Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services, often called the ERDs or the Directives, is the document that offers moral guidance, drawn from the Catholic Church’s theological and moral teachings, on various aspects of health care delivery.