Download Responding to Requests for Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide

Responding to Requests for
Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide
Euthanasia and assisted suicide are both deliberate attempts to end a patient’s
life in order to end the patient’s suffering. The act is called euthanasia when a
person other than the patient takes action which directly causes the patient’s
death. For example, if a doctor were to inject a patient with a drug with the intent
of bringing about the patient’s death (perhaps in response to the patient’s
request), this would be an act of euthanasia. Assisted suicide takes place when
someone provides the patient with the means to take his or her own life, but the
patient is the one who initiates the action directly causing death. The form of
assisted suicide which has been legalized in some states in the U.S. allows a doctor
to prescribe a drug which the patient may take at home at his or her discretion to
bring about death. Some euphemistically refer to such assisted suicide as
“physician aid-in-dying” or even as “death with dignity.”
The current movement towards legalization of assisted suicide in the United
States did not arise in a vacuum. Some see it as resulting from a failure in our
society to provide good end-of-life care.
The report Care of the Dying: A Catholic Perspective from the Catholic Health
Association of the United States notes that “many who care for the dying tell us
that people are generally not afraid to die.” Rather, “they fear…the process of
dying, especially the dependency, helplessness, and pain that so often accompany
terminal illness…”. The report also notes that “one of the major arguments of
euthanasia advocates is that for some people dying is too painful to endure and
so bringing about death by lethal injection or assisted suicide is the only merciful
way to end the pain and suffering.”
On the issue of euthanasia and assisted suicide, the Ethical and Religious
Directives for Catholic Health Care Services from the United States Conference
of Catholic Bishops (2009) states:
Catholic health care institutions may never condone or participate in
euthanasia or assisted suicide in any way. Dying patients who request
euthanasia should receive loving care, psychological and spiritual
support, and appropriate remedies for pain and other symptoms so
that they can live with dignity until the time of natural death. (no. 60)
The statement on assisted suicide from the United States Conference of Catholic
Bishops, entitled To Live Each Day with Dignity, reiterates that “our society
should embrace what Pope John Paul II called ‘the way of love and true mercy’—
a readiness to surround patients with love, support, and companionship,
providing the assistance needed to ease their physical, emotional, and spiritual
suffering.” The document advocates for prudent use of life-sustaining treatments
and for palliative care services:
Respect for life does not demand that we attempt to prolong life by
using medical treatments that are ineffective or unduly burdensome.
Nor does it mean we should deprive suffering patients of needed pain
medications out of a misplaced or exaggerated fear that they might
have the side effect of shortening life. The risk of such an effect is
extremely low when pain medication is adjusted to a patient’s level of
pain, with the laudable purpose of simply addressing that pain. In
fact, severe pain can shorten life, while effective palliative care can
enhance the length as well as the quality of a person’s life. It can even
alleviate the fears and problems that lead some patients to the
desperation of considering suicide.
Effective palliative care also allows patients to devote their attention
to the unfinished business of their lives, to arrive at a sense of peace
with God, with loved ones, and with themselves.
In sum, the Catholic Church sets out a two-pronged response to requests for
euthanasia and assisted suicide. On the one hand, the Church unqualifiedly
condemns these practices. On the other hand, the Church issues a “call to action”
to provide good end-of-life care to address the needs of dying persons who, out
of a sense of desperation, may request euthanasia or assisted suicide.
Prepared by Janine Marie Idziak, Ph.D. Consultant for Health Care Ethics, Archdiocese
of Dubuque, IA. July 2000; updated May 2015.
This document may be reproduced.