SW News: The Catholic Church in England has intervened in the case of a Polish man who is a patient in an English hospital and who, it is claimed, is being, “sentenced to death by starvation.” On Wednesday, two English bishops wrote to the U.K. Government’s Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, following a court ruling allowing the withdrawal of food and water from the practicing Catholic man identified, for reasons of patient confidentiality, only by the letters “RS.”  According to reports, doctors at a hospital in the city of Plymouth decided to withdraw assisted nutrition and hydration from the Polish man who is in a coma after suffering a heart attack in November. In their letter to the Health Secretary, the bishops state that providing food and water to very sick patients, even by assisted means, is, “a basic level of care” which must be given whenever possible unless it is medically indicated as being overly burdensome or failing to attain its purpose. The letter was signed by Bishop Mark O’Toole of Plymouth and by Bishop John Sherrington of Westminster who has responsibility for life issues for the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales. The letter was issued a day after the President of the Polish Bishops’ Conference, Archbishop Stanisław Gądecki, appealed to his English counterpart, Cardinal Vincent Nichols of Westminster, to intervene in the matter.  Archbishop Gadecki said the case has, “shaken” the Polish people whose government were now willing to pay for the repatriation of the Polish man whom he described as, "being sentenced to death by starvation". The U.K. Government is yet to give a public response to the bishops.