“The Catholic health care ministry faces the reality of death with the confidence of faith. In the face of death – for many, a time when hope seems lost – the church witnesses to her belief that God has created each person for eternal life…"
The Theological Vision of Life and Death –
“The Catholic health care ministry faces the reality of death with the confidence of faith. In the face of death – for many, a time when hope seems lost – the church witnesses to her belief that God has created each person for eternal life…The truth that life is a precious gift from God has profound implications for the question of stewardship over human life. We are not the owners of our lives and, hence, do not have absolute power over life. We have a duty to preserve our life and to use it for the glory of God, but the duty to preserve life is not absolute…” ERD Part Five, Introduction, p 29-30
“All human beings must live their lives in accordance with God’s plan. Life is given to them as a possession which must bear fruit here on earth but which must wait for eternal life to achieve its full and absolute perfection.” Euthanasia, CDF, 1980
The Catholic Vision of End-of-Life Care
“The task of medicine is to care even when it cannot cure. Physicians and their patients must evaluate the use of the technology at their disposal. … The use of life-sustaining technology is judged in light of the Christian meaning of life, suffering, and death. Only in this way are two extremes avoided: on the one hand, an insistence on useless or burdensome technology even when a patient may legitimately wish to forgo it and, on the other hand, the withdrawal of technology with the intention of causing death.” ERD Part Five, Introduction, p 29-30
“While life is to be regarded as God’s gift, it also is true that death in unavoidable. We must be able; therefore, without in any way hastening the hour of death, to accept it with full consciousness of our responsibility and with full dignity for death, indeed puts an end to this earthly life but in doing so it opens the way to undying life.” Euthanasia, CDF, 1980