Medical Treatment Decisionmaking And Catholic Teaching

Details: 09 August 2013

At the beginning of his "how-to" suicide manual, euthanasia apologist Derek Humphrey says this: "If you consider God the master of your fate, then read no further." The Final Exit Network, a pro-euthanasia group, promotes this mantra: "My Life, My Death, My Choice."

Both statements embody a Godless understanding of human life. This view believes that our life is something we "own"; that we—not God—are the ultimate arbiters of our lives.

Judeo-Christian teaching, on the other hand, believes that human life is a precious gift from a loving God; made in His image and likeness, and that we are stewards, not arbiters or owners, of our lives. With this precious gift come responsibilities to treat our life and those lives in our care in a way that honors God.

Catholic teaching on the meaning of life, suffering and death helps us to be responsible stewards of our life and guides us to avoid two extremes when it comes to decisions about medical treatment. The first extreme is actions intended to cause death (i.e. euthanasia, assisted suicide). The other extreme is insisting on useless or disproportionately burdensome treatment to avoid death at all costs.

Most Catholics probably know that Church teaching opposes euthanasia and assisted suicide as grave violations of the law of God. However, I believe few Catholics know that Church teaching does not require us to utilize every medical intervention or treatment to prolong our lives as long as possible.

To assist Catholics in determining which medical treatments/interventions are morally required and which are morally optional, the Church provides principles for such decisionmaking. The Nebraska Catholic Conference (NCC) presents those principles in a document entitled "Medical-Treatment Decisionmaking: Moral Guidance and Considerations from Catholic Teaching" available online at www.nebcathcon.org or by contacting my office.

The document’s introduction presents the basic foundation for our moral obligation to be responsible stewards of our lives:

"[F]aith in the resurrection and hope for eternal life have enabled the Catholic tradition to accept death as the inevitable end to temporal life and to believe that death is the gateway to eternal life. It is for this reason that there is no obligation to utilize all possible medical interventions, all possible means of prolonging life. Death need not be avoided at all costs.

"Although Catholic teaching does not look upon biological life as an absolute value, nevertheless it rejects suicide, assisted suicide and mercy killing because they are intrinsically opposed to the reverence for life that Christians are called upon to manifest and express. Compassion and care for dying and seriously ill or disabled persons must never include the willingness to assist in the direct ending of their lives."

Clearly, most decisions that individuals or families must make about whether to utilize or forego medical treatment fall somewhere between the aforementioned extremes. Therefore, the NCC document provides the following moral principle to assist us in determining whether a medical intervention is morally required or morally optional:

"If a particular medical intervention is necessary or useful for the preservation of life or restoration of health, it is ethically ordinary and there is a moral obligation to use it. If, however, a particular medical intervention is analyzed and judged by the patient to be useless (offering no reasonable hope of benefit) or excessively burdensome, it is ethically extraordinary and therefore morally optional."

"Nutrition and hydration", the document continues, "should be provided as part of any patient’s normal care, even when the assistance of medical intervention is necessary." However, "if the provision of artificially administered nutrition and hydration is clinically useless…or causes excessive burdens it may be rejected as ethically extraordinary (morally optional)."

The document provides other very useful principles to assist us in making moral medical-treatment decisions. Furthermore, the Church encourages us to have an advance directive for healthcare decisions (in case of incapacitation) and to make sure that it embodies these Catholic principles. Samples of Catholic healthcare power of attorney forms can be obtained free of charge from my office by calling 402-477-7517.

You can contact Greg at The Nebraska Catholic Conference, 215 Centennial Mall South Suite 310, Lincoln, NE 68508; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.