What does the Church teach about euthanasia and assisted suicide?

The Church teaches that euthanasia and assisted suicide are gravely contrary to the dignity of the human person. Compassion calls us to care for suffering people, never intentionally to cause or help cause their death.

What euthanasia means. Euthanasia is an action or omission chosen in order to cause death and thereby eliminate suffering. Such an act is morally unacceptable, whatever the person’s condition or the motives of those involved (CCC 2277). Assisted suicide is likewise wrong because it provides the means or direct assistance for someone to take his own life. Human life belongs to God, and no one may directly intend the death of an innocent person (Ex 20:13; Rom 14:7-8). A desire to relieve suffering can be sincere, but a good intention cannot make the deliberate killing of an innocent person morally good.

What may be refused. Catholics are not required to pursue every possible medical intervention. Treatment may be stopped or declined when it is dangerous, excessively burdensome, or offers no reasonable hope of benefit. This is often called refusing extraordinary or disproportionate treatment. The decision accepts the approach of death without intending to cause it (CCC 2278). There is a real moral difference between allowing a person to die from an underlying illness and choosing an action whose purpose is to make the person die.

What care must continue. A dying person must receive ordinary care appropriate to his condition. This normally includes warmth, cleanliness, companionship, nutrition, hydration, and ordinary medical care when they provide benefit and are not excessively burdensome. Food and water are generally forms of basic care, even when delivered artificially, although they may cease to help or may become harmful in particular circumstances. The sick, disabled, elderly, and dying deserve special respect and loving attention (CCC 2276, 2279).

Pain relief and hospice. Strong pain medication may be used even when it carries a foreseeable risk of shortening life, provided death is neither intended nor used as the means of relieving suffering. This follows the principle that an unintended secondary effect may sometimes be tolerated for a proportionately serious reason (CCC 2279). Palliative care, hospice, the sacraments, and steady human presence express authentic compassion.

If a medical decision is approaching, speak with the patient’s physician, priest, and a Catholic health care ethicist. Ask whether the treatment offers proportionate benefit, whether basic care is being maintained, and whether anyone intends death as the goal.