St. Vincent Regional Medical Center:
Groups push for merger language

Reproductive issues, end-of-life care remain hot-button issues

Sue Vorenberg | The New Mexican

2/20/2008 - 2/21/08

Words have different meanings to different people and different groups.

But when it comes to health care at St. Vincent Regional Medical Center, words need to be overarching shields that protect the community, said a coalition of groups advocating for the hospital and Christus Health to reveal the language in their proposed merger agreement.

"We were delighted to see that St. Vincent put this document on their Web site that says 'here it is in writing,' " Jane Wishner of the Southwest Women's Law Center told a crowd of about 100 people Wednesday night. "But when we say, 'Get it in writing,' we're talking about legal writing in the contract. We want to see key provisions."

The document on St. Vincent's Web site at www.stvin.org tries to assure the community that family counseling, contraception and end-of-life care will be provided according to state law and won't be overruled by Christus mandate to follow ethical and religious directives from the Catholic Church.

But if you take a closer look, that's not really saying a lot, Wishner said at the meeting at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Santa Fe.

The state's definition of words and phrases like euthanasia, advance directive and issues of conscience aren't always the same definitions used by the Catholic Church, she said.

So when St. Vincent says it will follow state law, that really doesn't assure much in the way of protection, said Sarah Cook, a board member of Compassion & Choices, a group focused on end-of-life care issues.

"Who decides what the issues of conscience are in the agreement? Christus does," Cook said. "You see references to 'moral Catholic teaching.' Who decides what that is? Christus, the church does. ... State law gives us no assurances whatsoever about advance directives or end of life care."

Peter Simonson, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico, read some of the church's ethical and religious directives to the crowd, drawing laughter at the contradiction.

"The free and informed judgment made by a competent adult patient concerning the use or withdrawal of life sustaining procedures should always be respected and normally complied with, unless it is contrary to Catholic moral teaching," Simonson quoted to the crowd from the church's 59th directive.

Speakers also took issue with the 60th directive, which says, "Euthanasia is an action or omission that of itself or by intention causes death in order to alleviate suffering. Catholic health care institutions may never condone or participate in euthanasia or assisted suicide in any way."

What that seems to mean is that complying with an advance directive to withhold nutrition and liquid would qualify as euthanasia, which is not the same thing as the assisted suicide definition it has in state law, Wishner said.

"Many of these statements are actually quite vague," Wishner said. "We're not questioning that conflicts will arise between Catholic directives and the community. We just want to see them addressed before this deal is finalized."

Still, St. Vincent has refused to release language from the agreement, since both the hospital and Christus are private nonprofits and they aren't legally required to.

"St. Vincent Regional Medical Center and Christus Health are still in negotiations and we do not have any finalized documents," St. Vincent president and chief executive officer Alex Valdez said in an e-mail to The New Mexican. "We are both private nonprofit entities that operate in very competitive environments. As a result, we are not able to make the terms and conditions of our pending agreement public."

He added the hospital has engaged in several public discussions and has "shared summaries of the contract with various advocacy groups."

Still, those discussions haven't revealed much the groups can work with, Wishner said. "They have shared summaries of some of the concepts, but not how they're going to make them work," she said.

The Southwest Women's Law Center has recommended language for the contract that would provide some protection for the community and has given it to the hospital, but the group has not heard any response from St. Vincent about it, she said.

"And more than just that, we want to get this in writing from Christus — they're the out-of-state entity," Wishner said.

The coalition has started a petition it hopes to bring to St. Vincent's board of directors, which people can sign at www.SVHmerger.org, she added.

"We're trying to create more community pressure on the board and the people making this agreement," Wishner said. "We know they care. We just want to get it in writing."

Contact Sue Vorenberg at 986-3072 or svorenberg@sfnewmexican.com.