Euthanasia

Learning Goals and Standards

1. Define the word “euthanasia”.

2. Discuss the different terms for euthanasia.
3. Understand the concept and morality of
euthanasia.
 No one chooses to be born. Everyone is born in a
certain place, time, and manner. No one chooses one’s
own parents, nor the time and the place where one will
be brought forth into this world. There is no freedom to
be born. Ultimately too, everyone is going to die
sometime, someplace, somehow. Everyone is destined to
die.
A person grows, he/she may be developed to be full
grown. But life can be harsh and interspersed with
sufferings, pains and sickness
Before we go into particulars, let us examine a case and decide
which particular action to take.
“A physicist who had done research on x-rays for thirty years
was suffering terribly from skin cancer. Part of his jaw, his
upper lip, nose and left hand ere lost; growths had been
removed from his right arm. He also lost the two fingers from
his right hand. He was blind and in constant excruciating pain.
Only surgery and continued suffering awaited the patient, whom
the doctors felt had about a year to live. For many months he
pleaded with his three younger brothers to put an end to his life.
Eventually, the youngest, a man of thirty-six, took a pistol and
after an afternoon wandering and drinking in local bars,
returned to the hospital during visiting hours and shot hid
brother to death”
If you were the youngest brother or sister, would you have
done the same thing? Would you approve the means
employed, or would you have preferred a more subtle
nonviolent, and painless method?
Meaning of Euthanasia

“easy death” {from the Greek eu or “easy” and Thanatos

or “death”}. It means a painless, peaceful death. It is the
deliberate putting to death an individual suffering from an
incurable and agonizing disease in an easy, painless way. It is
also called “mercy killing” Some call euthanasia as art or
practice of painlessly putting to death a person suffering from
a marked deformity or from an unbearable and distressing
disease. (Timbreza, 1993)

It can be a self-administered or other-administered (Pahl,

1981)
On the other hand, other administered euthanasia may be
classified into four:

1. Active and voluntary euthanasia

2. Passive and voluntary euthanasia

3. Active and non-voluntary euthanasia

4. Passive and non-voluntary euthanasia

Arguments for Euthanasia

Promoters of the right to euthanasia use mainly two

arguments: compassion for the suffering person and the quality-
of-life argument. The argument of “unbearable suffering”
becomes less and convincing, since in almost all cases, modern
medicine has new and very effective means of combatting great
pain without depriving the patient of consciousness.

The quality-of-life in favor of euthanasia is more unjust

argument. It is based on the presumption that there are people
who have the right to judge whether or not other persons’ lives
are still worthwhile, valuable, and must be prolonged.
 The main cause of freely accepted or desired euthanasia –
the desire to be killed either by neglect of treatment or by direct
measures – is the feeling of “social death” or the feeling that
one is already dead and buried as he/she is refused the most
basic of social communications.

Most promoters of euthanasia make the consent or the

request of the suffering person as an absolute condition. To
assist in direct cooperation in the desire of the person is, then,
not considered as murder. The presupposition remains,
nonetheless, that the suffering person has the right to decide
about his/her death, a right to suicide and, as a consequence, the
right to be assisted in it. Hence it is “assisted suicide”
 The argument of St. Thomas Aquinas is still valid. “
Because life is God’s gift to a person, whoever takes one’s
own life sins against God, as the one who kills another
person’s slave sins against that slave’s master.”

According to Kart Barth, suicide is an “act of ingratitude,

a failure to recognize that God is the ‘owner’ of human life.
Morality of Euthanasia

Whatever its motives and means, direct (positive or active)

euthanasia consists in putting an end to the lives of handicapped,
sick, or terminally-ill persons; thus, it is morally unacceptable.
From an ethical point of view, active euthanasia, if freely chosen
and premeditated, is morally wrong because it constitutes
murder.
If a terminally-ill person requests to be put to death, the
malice of suicide is involved. Active euthanasia, even if
requested by the patient, is immoral because it exceeds a
person’s rightful dominion over human life and violates the
relationship which should exist between human beings and God.
It is an assisted suicide.
 A person does not have the right to die for whatever
reasons contrary to his/her nature as a person, nor does
he/she has the right to die contrary to his/her
supernatural end. If one has the right to die contrary to
reason, there will then be the corresponding obligations
on the part of others to respect that right and to help that
person satisfy his/her right.

In other words, a person has the right to commit

suicide and others have the obligation to help him/her do
so. Thus, the right to die is not right at all. It is a
convenience, an easy way out, which people or societies
use for their own interests.
Position of the Church on Euthanasia

The church condemns direct euthanasia as morally wrong

and a grave sin. By directly causing the death of oneself or
another, a person assumes an authority over life which
belongs to God Himself.

The church also teaches that we must take all the

proportionate means to preserve life even if there is a little
hope for recovery. Disproportionate means, on the other hand,
may be applied if a person so decides, though this is not a
moral obligation.
 Disproportionate means refer to the kinds of
treatment, medication or some other medical assistance
which inconvenience the patient and are excessively
expensive , yet do not offer a reasonable hope for
recovery.

However it is always acceptable to give the patient

the needed medication to keep him/her free from pain and
to assist him/her to remain lucid and alert.
 Meanwhile, passive or negative Euthanasia, which does
not use extraordinary means and is not direct, is morally
allowable. Indirect passive euthanasia is also allowable under
the principle of double effect. The Catechism of the Catholic
Church (CCC) is very explicit with its teaching regarding
euthanasia:

“Discontinuing medical procedure that are burdensome,

dangerous, extraordinary, or disproportionate to the expected
outcome can be legitimate;
it is the refusal of “overzealous” treatment. Here one does not
will to cause death; one’s inability to impede it is merely
accepted.
 The decisions should be made by the patient if he/she is
competent and able or, if not, by those legally entitled to act
for the patient, whose reasonable will and legitimate
interests must always be respected.

Even if death is thought imminent, the ordinary care

owed to a sick person cannot be legitimately interrupted.
The use of painkillers to alleviate the sufferings of the
dying, even at the risk of shortening their days, can be
morally in conformity with human dignity if death is not
willed as either an end or a means, but only foreseen and
tolerated as inevitable.
 The Church acknowledges the right of every
person who is terminally ill to meet his/her death
with dignity.
Christian Meaning of Suffering

From a Christian point of view, an understanding of the

basic truths of our faith enables us to understand
sufficiently well the role that suffering can and should play
in the life of the Christian, and perhaps most significantly,
as the moment of death comes nearer.

The entire purpose of the Incarnation– God becoming

human– is that through the infinite merits of the suffering
involve in the passion, crucifixion, and death of Christ,
humanity is redeemed.
INTEGRATION

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 
“Or do you not know that your body is a
temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom
you have from God? You are not your own,
for you were bought with a price. So, glorify
God in your body”
ASSESSMENT
1. What are the different forms of euthanasia? Give
at least four.
2. In your opinion, if a family member is suffering
with an uncurable disease for so long, will you
perform the euthanasia to him/her in order to help
him/her to alleviate his/her suffering? Why or why
not?
REFERENCES:
• Catechism of the Catholic Church
• Christian Morality in Contemporary Society by
Esteban T. Salibay,Jr.
• Church Dogmatic by Karl Barth Vol. III
• New American Bible