The Catholic View of Euthanasia Essay

There are some diseases which cannot have the pain properly managed. The awful suffering of these human beings, and the distress that their families, who have to look on helplessly enduring, it is a tragic situation. A situation like that can be prevented to a large extent by Voluntary Euthanasia. Any decent and caring person should not allow others to suffer when their pain can be ended if they wished

Presence of a Duty of care: Physicians have a responsibility to treat people in a medically- appropriate manner.

Facing the suffering of a serious and painful or unbearable medical condition, for which there is no hope of healing, is sometimes an intolerable situation. It can lead some patients to the deep desire of dying, hoping to end this suffering.

Throughout the millennia since the origin of man, technology has continuously evolved contributing to a longer life expectancy among humans. Now, even terminally ill patients can be kept alive by medications and machines. These life saving devices also carry the potential to kill a human with little effort or time. The debate has arisen as to whether people have the “right to die” or often referred to dying with their dignity. The modern dictionary defines the right to die as, “a person 's right to refuse extraordinary life-sustaining measures intended to prolong life artificially when the person is deemed by his or her physicians to be terminally or incurably ill”(right-to-die). As the questions circling these methods of killing grow, religious groups are beginning to take stances on the issue. Two of the largest religions in the world, Buddhism and Hinduism, have denounced the idea of death with dignity but for different reasons. While neither religion is a supporter of the right to die, the rejections are not unanimous for either group.

Traditionally, the physician was expected to use all of their talents and training in an effort to save the life of their patient, no matter the odds. More recently, the physician’s role has been redefined to preserve the autonomy of the patient. Now physicians must give life saving care only in so far and to the degree desirous of the competent patient.

Doctors have an oath called the Hippocratic Oath and part of that oath states the following.

All procedures and treatments should be intended to help the patient reach their individual goals; to address this need the we will apply the ethical construct of beneficence. “To ensure beneficence, medical practitioners must develop and maintain a high level of skill and knowledge, make sure that they are trained in the most current and best medical practices, and must consider their patients’

Person: Simple. Physicians have an obligation to relieve pain and suffering and to promote the dignity of dying patients in their care. They must also respect the patients’ decisions to forgo life-sustaining treatment.

It might be useful to view the moral principles that apply to this case. First, patients have the right to made a decision on whether or not to receive medical treatment. This follows

The Catholic churches stance on euthanasia, is basically one that defines it as bad, and goes against many of its teaches. This can be shown through the Catholic churches ethical principles.

I believe that Euthanasia should be accepted in the Catholic church, the church says that God made us in his image and he has the right

But on the issue of euthanasia distance itself from the Stoic current. And the Church's conviction that "God is the only master of life and man is his mere administrator." The Vatican also act in a very tough way against euthanasia, mentioned by the abortion, suicide and genocide: "All these practices and others like themselves are degrading, degrade human civilization, dishonor perpetrators more than the victims and militate against the honor due to the Creator" (GS

Choices influence the way we live our everyday lives, whether they be tiny, seemingly inconsequential decisions, or whether they be life changing. The Catholic Church teaches us that as humans, God has given us free will, free will to make decisions for ourselves and in so doing, we have the ability to sin. Sin is an action violating God’s will. It is from Revelation and Natural Law that the Catholic Church’s ethical principles stem from. Principles govern our conduct, and what we define what is ethical and unethical by. A contemporary ethical issue is Euthanasia. Euthanasia is defined as ‘the deliberate action causing the death of another person to spare them suffering.’ The issue is the subject of an ongoing worldwide debate for

“Euthanasia is a cowardly death.” According to a ancient Greek Philosopher, Aristotle. Just like today, the ancient greeks tried to use euthanasia to end pain and suffering. Euthanasia is the painless killing of patients, induced by drug overdoses or lack of treatment(“Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide”). Euthanasia is considered assisted suicide and assisted suicide is illegal, so euthanasia should be illegal. Christians strongly believe that suicide and euthanasia is against the Ten Commandments, and is morally wrong. Also a type of euthanasia is considered murder known as Involuntary euthanasia.The topic of euthanasia is argued because the different beliefs of people. People that favorite euthanasia believe it is mercy killing and it puts

The Catholic Church has been guiding civil morality since its inception, be it through the Ten Commandments or church dogmatic teaching. However, society no longer looks to the Church as its primary source of moral teaching, especially with the new libertarian doctrines surrounding human life (both neonatal and elderly). Modern society has created a new dogma of conscience that emphasizes the selfish needs of the individual and disregards the needs of the collective. Such an example is Canada’s legalization of euthanasia/physician-assisted suicide with the passing of bill C-384, which states that a person may choose to medically end their life as long as they are lucid and over the age of 18 . People do not understand the Church’s position