USCCB warns against ‘Physician Order for Life-Sustaining Treatment’

October 16, 2026

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CWN Editor's Note: In a newly published article (“Advance Medical Directives: Planning for Your Future”), the U.S. bishops’ Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities said that “some states and healthcare systems have been implementing a troubling document known as a ‘Physician Order for Life-Sustaining Treatment,’ also called by a confusing array of acronyms (POLST, MOST, MOLST, or POST).”

“The POLST document is filled out by a doctor or other medical professional to define treatments to be withheld or administered in a future situation,” the USCCB explained. “It has been criticized for placing more power in the hands of physicians than in patients’ hands. Indeed, in some cases the patient need not even sign the document.”

The article continued:

Once signed by the physician, it becomes a doctor’s order to other medical staff, and may override the patient’s own past advance directives and even the patient’s appointment of a health care agent. It may be applied to patients who are not in a terminal situation and who might only need antibiotics, nutrition and hydration, or other proportionate care.

Yet a POLST document signed months or years before, stating that the patient should not receive antibiotics, could still be followed even if the patient ... faced a simple urinary tract infection which is easily cleared up by antibiotics.

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