Dear Friends,
Two priests in our diocese, Frs. Peter Harman and Christopher Trummer, have written an explanation of why the Catholic Church rejects assisted suicide. Over the next few weeks I will be including selections from their writing to help us better understand where we stand and why. Here’s the beginning:
Christians have always been occupied with the task of healing and caring for the sick, suffering, and dying. Jesus Christ himself came into our midst, doing good, healing the sick, and preaching the arrival of the Kingdom of God. Thus God has inspired and enabled Christians to address the needs of the sick and suffering in our midst, to treat illness and bring healing.
Throughout the whole world, the Church is committed to caring for the sick, regardless of their status, income, religion, or creed. This ministry has increased the health and quality of life of countless persons. But we are also aware of the limits of our earthly life, and that God has made us for eternal life heaven. Therefore, the Church’s ministry to the sick always upholds the inherent dignity of the human person in this bodily life, created as we are in God’s own image and likeness, while also preparing us for our ultimate destiny in the life to come.
Recently, efforts have been undertaken to legitimize the intentional ending of human life by means of assisted suicide, which is also known as physician-assisted suicide (PAS) or, more euphemistically, “medical aid in dying” (MAiD). The Catholic Church strongly rejects such initiatives as contrary to the dignity of the human person and our vocation to care for the sick and suffering in our midst. The following are some of the most important reasons for the Church’s opposition to assisted suicide.
Assisted suicide is simply a form of deliberately ending one’s own life that involves the cooperation of another person or persons. Currently, because assisted suicide is primarily being promoted in the context of healthcare, these other persons are usually doctors and nurses. This medical context does not make assisted suicide more morally acceptable (in fact, it makes it even more immoral, as we will explain below). Whether done actively through the administration of drugs or passively through the removal of basic and necessary care, assisted suicide is gravely immoral, both for the patient choosing it and anyone who cooperates with this action.
Promoters of assisted suicide appeal especially to the autonomy and rights of the patient. However, while the right of a person to make his or her own healthcare decisions is real and important, it is not unlimited or absolute; it does not extend to actions or omissions that directly contradict his or her dignity as a person. Thus, in a recent document on end-of-life care, the Church states:
There is no right to suicide nor to euthanasia: laws exist, not to cause death, but to protect life and to facilitate co-existence among human beings. It is therefore never morally lawful to collaborate with such immoral actions or to imply collusion in word, action or omission. The one authentic right is that the sick person be accompanied and cared for with genuine humanity. Only in this way can the patient’s dignity be preserved until the moment of natural death (CDF, Samaritanus Bonus, V, 9)
With gratitude and joy for the days ahead!
Fr. Seth