strategy
Assisting suicide
Claim:
To concur with the intention of another person to commit suicide and to help in carrying it out through so-called "assisted suicide" means to cooperate in, and at times to be the actual perpetrator of, an injustice which can never be excused, even if it is requested. In a remarkably relevant passage Saint Augustine writes that "it is never licit to kill another: even if he should wish it, indeed if he request it because, hanging between life and death, he begs for help in freeing the soul struggling against the bonds of the body and longing to be released; nor is it licit even when a sick person is no longer able to live". Even when not motivated by a selfish refusal to be burdened with the life of someone who is suffering, euthanasia must be called a false mercy, and indeed a disturbing "perversion" of mercy. True "compassion" leads to sharing another's pain; it does not kill the person whose suffering we cannot bear. Moreover, the act of euthanasia appears all the more perverse if it is carried out by those, like relatives, who are supposed to treat a family member with patience and love, or by those, such as doctors, who by virtue of their specific profession are supposed to care for the sick person even in the most painful terminal stages. (Papal Encyclical, Evangelium Vitae 25 March 1995). Broader:
Assisting Narrower:
EuthanasiaMaking suicide pact Constrained by:
Preventing suicides Problems:
SuicideReferences:
Papal Encyclical: Evangelium Vitae: The Gospel of Life: On the Value and Inviolability of Human Life Subjects:
Societal Problems → MaltreatmentType Classification:
C: Cross-sectoral strategies