Declaration on Euthanasia
 | This article relies largely or entirely on a single source. (March 2017) |
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The Declaration on Euthanasia is the
Catholic teaching purports that euthanasia is a "crime against life".
In Catholic medical ethics official pronouncements strongly oppose active euthanasia, whether voluntary or not...
...no one is permitted to ask for this act of killing, either for himself or herself or for another person entrusted to his or her care, nor can he or she consent to it, either explicitly or implicitly. nor can any authority legitimately recommend or permit such an action.[1]
....while allowing dying to proceed without medical interventions that would be considered "extraordinary" or "disproportionate". The Declaration on Euthanasia states that:
When inevitable death is imminent... it is permitted in conscience to take the decision to refuse forms of treatment that would only secure a precarious and burdensome prolongation of life, so long as the normal care due to a sick person in similar cases is not interrupted.[1]
The Declaration concludes that doctors, beyond providing medical skill, must above all provide patients "with the comfort of boundless kindness and heartfelt charity".
Although the Declaration allows people to decline heroic medical treatment when death is imminently inevitable, it unequivocally prohibits the hastening of death and restates