

There’s an old saying in the legal profession: “Hard cases make bad law.”
In England right now there’s a particularly hard case that presents the danger of making very bad law indeed. A retired educator named Noel Conway is in the advanced stages of motor neuron deterioration (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) — what in this country we refer to as Lou Gehrig’s disease.
At age 67, Conway is losing the ability to control all bodily movement as his muscles waste away. At some point, involuntary functions, such as breathing, will break down, as well.
“If I let nature take its course, I could effectively become entombed in my own body, as my ability to move and communicate continues to diminish,” he has explained, “or I may die by suffocation or choking.”
It’s a terrifying prospect, and Conway, quite understandably, wants to avoid it. So he has brought legal action attempting to alter the British law restricting suicide (which has a certain ironic ring after the denial of medical treatment to baby Charlie Gard).
“Having the option of an assisted death would bring me great comfort in my final months,” he insists. “It would empower me to live my life as I choose and to end it with dignity. I believe it is my fundamental human right — one I am willing to fight in the courts to secure.”
I can’t imagine anyone whose heart wouldn’t ache for those in such a situation, or who doesn’t fear the prospect of facing that kind of terror themselves. But in the midst of strong emotions, it’s easy for certain truths to become obscure.
One key truth is that suicide, when committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent, is a mortal sin.
Now, it’s important to remember that only God can judge an individual’s culpability. Some people are mentally ill when they commit this offense. Others have endured such intense and prolonged suffering that they cannot be said to exercise true volition in deciding to end their lives. These judgments we leave to God. Only he knows the heart. We do not speculate on the final disposition of souls.
But there is something in Noel Conway’s statement (made through a British suicide-rights advocacy group) that is revealing. It is his belief in a “fundamental human right” to “live my life as I choose and to end it with dignity.”
This is a sentiment that resonates strongly on our side of the Atlantic. While the Declaration of Independence acknowledges the right to life — not the right to end life — changing public attitudes have made physician-assisted suicide legal in five states (Oregon, Washington, California, Montana and Vermont). Legalization movements are advancing in others.
Many people would agree with Conway’s view, which is based on individual autonomy. This is the libertarian assertion that human beings are self-contained. We are free to do anything with and within our own lives as long as we don’t impinge on the rights, freedom or property of others.
This is the perspective set forth, for instance, in the novels of writer/philosopher Ayn Rand. And it has broad appeal among virtually all age groups, including baby boomers and millennials. It has been embraced perhaps most enthusiastically by people in their 20s, the cohort known as Generation Z.
There is an especially insidious aspect of the so-called “right to die.” It tends to expand. Beginning with seeking to end unbearable physical suffering, it has moved on to being seen as a solution for chronic debilitating conditions such as dementia. It even provides a rationale for suicide in general, legitimizing it as the answer to less specific forms of distress, such as unhappiness, emotional trauma or frustration with one’s circumstances.
And strangely, there are those who see it as the fitting “completion” of a life that hasn’t involved suffering at all. According to this thinking, if I’ve come to the point where I’m happy and fulfilled, if I’ve accomplished everything I set out to accomplish, why not end on a high note? Circumvent the pains and travails of old age by dying early.
Eventually the “right” to die moves beyond autonomous choice, transforming into active euthanasia and imposing itself on others.
In the Netherlands, which has long been an assisted-suicide trailblazer (only slightly ahead of other European societies), there is broad acceptance of death for the mentally incapacitated. Increasingly, dementia patients are being euthanized. A recent report tells of an old woman who tried to fight off a doctor advancing on her with a needle while being held down by her family members.
The notion of individual autonomy contradicts Judeo-Christian tradition, which has always maintained that we do not live isolated, self-contained lives, but, rather, we have an effect on one another. How we live, how we believe, how we die — in other words, the respect we show for our own lives — is important. It sends a message to other people. It impacts society.
Senior citizens (like me) have a particular and immediate stake in the assisted-suicide issue as the health care debate rages on.
From the early days of the Affordable Care Act, the government has vehemently denied that there are any kind of “death panels” at work making judgments about which patients will be granted or refused which treatments. But the truth is that protocols and standards are an intrinsic part of medical practice and insurance claim evaluations.
Whether we are talking about “Obamacare,” “Trumpcare” or private insurance, we have to look closely at what treatment procedures are precluded, accepted or favored. I know of a woman in California whose insurer denied her chemotherapy because of the expense, but approved coverage of physician-assisted suicide. There was a similar case recently in Oregon.
In both of these states, where physician-assisted suicide is legal, the “right to die” is shading into a “duty to die”: I have to die for the good of society. I must not be a burden to my family. I can’t be a drain on society’s resources.
These ideas are being heard more and more. They play into our deepest human feelings, and they are worrisome signs for our future.
We have to ask: Who is really making the decisions? Have we given insurers — or the government — control over our lives? There are fundamental moral questions involved here. And they must be answered.
Hard cases make bad law. No matter how much sympathy we may feel for people like Noel Conway, no matter how much we may fear our own suffering, there is no “right” to die. Only God has authority over life: when it begins and when it ends.
Father Michael Orsi is a parochial vicar at St. Agnes parish in Naples, Florida.
He’s the former chaplain and research fellow at Ave Maria School of Law.
Jean, Have you not read 1 Corinthians 6:19??
“Do you not know that your body is a temple* of the holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?”
That’s right Jean. You do not belong to yourself. You belong to God. And, Therefore; you cannot do what you please with yourself-whether it be killing yourself or engaging in sex with someone who is not your husband. Neither can you mutilate your body in order to “transition” from a woman to a “man” or a man to a “woman”. Nor are you allowed to kill the unborn child because that child belongs to God, not you. Nor are you allowed to turn doctors, nurses or pharmacists into executioners, whether it be in a hospital, nursing home or an abortion mill, for “thou shall not kill” applies to those people as well. Jean, those are simple 7th grade catechism teachings. Were you absent on those days? Or is it that you are so obtuse that you are incapable of getting any of those points? It’s not spiritual rocket science Jean. This is some very basic stuff!!
@ Jean, just one question? If you are still Catholic why? You seem to not only reject Church teaching but to actually despise the Church. I don’t know but the more I read your comments the more I have to think you are nothing more than an anti Catholic troll who just likes to stir the pot. You talk about compassion but seem very selective to whom you actually show compassion and have very little for the most vulnerable among us. For the most part I have come to ignore your posts because it’s the same thing over and over ad infinitum. I’ll give you this much, you sure stick to the narrative however false it is.
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“If I let nature take its course, I could effectively become entombed in my own body, as my ability to move and communicate continues to diminish,” he has explained, “or I may die by suffocation or choking.”
.....not really what would happen if you let nature take its course. The lack of medical knowledge is pretty apparent. Far more likely nature would give him an infection and he would die of sepsis.
Oh Jean, let him (or her!) who is without sin cast the first stone!
You’re sounding a tad “holier than thou” in your comments.
Our Church is ultimately guided by the Holy Spirit, but the humans involved are fallible, just like the rest of us.
Jean, Somehow you are immune, unable to get moral theology. “The notion of individual autonomy contradicts Judeo-Christian tradition, which has always maintained that we do not live isolated, self-contained lives, but, rather, we have an effect on one another. How we live, how we believe, how we die — in other words, the respect we show for our own lives — is important. It sends a message to other people. It impacts society.” What does that mean and how come you are incapable of understanding it?? Or is it that you understand but just don’t get it-or reject it- just as you do with other church teachings?? I’ve read your other postings Jean. You don’t get why saying “sexual partners should decide whether or not to use contraceptives” is way off the mark! What do you want Jean?? Do you want the Church to teach that it’s ok to sleep with anyone you chose as long as contraceptives are used?? And that if the contraceptive fails you have the right to determine whether or not the child which was conceived has a right to live?? And that any sexual act between two consenting adults is permissible regardless of gender or marital status?? That if you are dissatisfied with the sexual identity that God has given you, you are allowed to mutilate your body to “change yourself into another sex”?? Is that what you believe Jean? Human dignity speaks against all those things.
Jean, I can’t believe what you are saying. You imply that a Catholic Chaplain “agreed that it was time for the doctors to put an end to that suffering through dramatic increases of morphine.” Jean, Catholic teaching says that we can never give medication to a patient with the intent of causing that person’s death. I’m not surprised by the growing number of issues on which you dissent from Church teaching. I’m a nurse Jean. I would never agree to administer a medication to a patient which had as its purpose the taking of a human life. That includes abortion causing medications in addition to euthanasia. Those things are a violation of respect for human life and human dignity (along with depriving a child of a Dad AND mom through same sex “marriage”. Oh by the way. Our bishops NEVER defended pedophile priests. It just never happened! You have a warped sense of the Holy Spirit. It would never encourage people to commit suicide or kill an unborn child. If something is encouraging you to do those things, it ain’t the Holy Spirit!
Jean, the ultimate undignified death was that of Jesus on the cross. Anything else doesn’t even come close. Not only was He innocent, He was mocked and shamed, He was naked, He was battered to within not an inch but less than a millimeter of His life. He was in the greatest pain. Now that is undignified.
To instruct the ignorant that their actions are mortally sinful is NOT to judge them and is something we are all called to do, even you Jean - it’s a Spiritual Act of Mercy. Only God can judge the state of a soul. Jean, I’m thinking you don’t even know your faith. The Holy Spirit would never lead a person to make a decision to kill themselves. Such a temptation would be from the devil. I suggest you read the Catechism of the Catholic Church and stop with the false compassion, which is exactly what leading people to believe assisted suicide, abortion and gay rights are ok is - false compassion. As for your assertion that “our Church misses a profoundly determining factor - human dignity” where is the dignity in putting a human being to sleep in the way one would kill a dog! Suffering always has a purpose. God does not give us a cross that is too difficult to bear and our suffering can be used for ours and others’ redemption. Also we are required to Comfort the Sick - a Corporal Work of Mercy, NOT KILL THEM.
One final word on the pedophile priest scandal, it was overwhelmingly a homosexual priest scandal as most of the BOYS abused were pubescent and above. As the Vatican is teeming with homosexuals it’s no wonder there was a cover-up. May God give those who have perpetrated such heinous crimes the justice they deserve!
Jean: “I therefore, as many of my fellow Catholics do, I support a person’s right to decide with the empowerment of the Holy Spirit.”
If any spirit “empowers” one to take his or her own life, well… I think we know whence that spirit comes.
Posted by bumble bee :
I think we all need to recognize that sometimes medicine does harm more than help. That prolonging life at all costs is not a good thing in so many ways. That with the advent of life saving measures that are done or need to be done without real consent from family can often times do more damage. “
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I think that’s generally not the kind of pressure you’re going to receive these days from healthcare professionals. It’s becoming more & more pressure to end life that you encounter. Not to extend it.
I’ve had personal experience in that situation, too & the medical directives that are offered are pretty much worthless, if not dangerous. A much better alternative is naming someone you trust to make medical decisions in the case you are unable to.
Hospice can be a good thing but too often it becomes a way to hurry up the process & save resources. Hospices are currently taking grant money to show a film promoting medical directives. The foundation offering the grant money has also funded a film on euthanasia. Either hospices are not connecting the dots or worse, they’re heading on a very dark path.
Healthcare resources are finite & our elderly population is booming. We all need to be watchful.
This is what happens when the government takes control of all of healthcare.
Father Orsi raises interesting points within his own ideological mindset. I personally “understand” some of the views he shares, having recently lost a family member to cancer and a close friend to ALS. Yet, I also saw first hand inhumane suffering where EVEN the Catholic chaplain at the hospital kind of agreed that it was time for the doctors to put an end to that suffering through dramatic increases of morphine. In one instance, the dying person had never expressed any opinion on his desire for medical assistance to die. In the second instance, the person explicitly requested medical assistance to die. Father Orsi tries to convey the message that only God will judge if one opts for medically-assisted death (or as he ideologically says, suicide). Yet, he emphasizes that it is a ‘mortal’ sin!!! That is the judgment! As with gay rights, abortion and…sexual abuses of children by priests, our Chuch misses a profoundly determining factor: human dignity. God gave us a body, an intelligence ...and improved science so that we can make a good discernment about our’s and other’s human dignity. I therefore, as many of my fellow Catholics do, I support a person’s right to decide with the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. My Church has been so, so wrong so often, especially when our Bishops and Cardinals defend pedophile priests, that I do not rely on them anymore to decide for me on human dignity matters.
It is interesting that satan’s latest trick is the so called ‘freedom of choice’. Is he can convince us that life is only of value while we are productive and suffering is unnecessary, then God is not required. Will we buy into the delusion? In this special year of the hundreth anniversary of fatima, Our blessed lady reminds us that one of our greatest weapons is the rosary. If we value the aged and the suffering who are often the most devoted to the rosary, we win the battle over evil. Satan knows this so he will to everything to deceive us with his lies. ‘Apart from God we can do nothing’John 15:5.
I think we all need to recognize that sometimes medicine does harm more than help. That prolonging life at all costs is not a good thing in so many ways. That with the advent of life saving measures that are done or need to be done without real consent from family can often times do more damage. When all is said and done, it is not the doctors or the hospital that deals with the ramifications of life saving measures that really did not save a life, but could very well destroyed many lives.
I do not feel that my faith tells me I must do everything to the point of a vegetative existence. The fear of death can cause decisions to made that are far worse than death. If we believe our faith, appropriate death is an expression of that faith.
I am not advocating terminating people’s lives, or cutting them short, but when you have gone through it, like I have, medicine has a way of walking you down a path that leads to a dead end caught between death and life that at the end of the day has such profound implications in which you are absolutely on your own to deal and take care of the person after they have all gone home.
Having to deal with such situations, I believe is the most difficult decisions anyone will ever make in their life.