Health Care

A Catholic Perspective

© 2009 by Rev. Roberto M. Cid,

St. Gregory the Great Catholic Church,

Plantation, Florida. All rights reserved

“God infinitely perfect and blessed in himself, in a

plan of sheer goodness freely created man to make

him share in his own blessed life. For this reason,

at every time in every place, God draws close to

man. He calls man to seek him, to know him, to

love him with all his strength”

Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1.

Health Care Ethics

Human Dignity

• The desire for God is written in the human heart.

• The dignity of the human person rests above all on

the fact that we are called to communion with

God.

• The human person, created in the image of God, is

a being at once corporeal and spiritual.

• The call to grandeur and the depths of misery are

both a part of human experience.

The Human Body

• Shares in the dignity of the “image of God.”

• Is good and honorable since God created it and

will raise it up on the last day.

• Wounded by sin, we experience rebellious

stirrings in our body.

• We are not allowed to despise our bodily life.

The Human Mind

• We share in the light of the divine mind.

• Our intelligence is not confined to observable data

alone.

• “The intellectual nature of the human person is

perfected by wisdom and needs to be. For wisdom

gently attracts the mind of man to a quest and a

love for what is true and good.” (Gaudium et Spes, 15)

Faith and Reason

• “Faith and reason are like two wings on which the

human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth;

and God has placed in the human heart a desire to

know the truth—in a word, to know himself—so

that, by knowing and loving God, men and women

may also come to the fullness of truth about

themselves.”

John Paul II, Fides et Ratio, 1.

Conscience

• In the depths of his conscience, man detects a law

which he does not impose upon himself, but which

holds him to obedience. Always summoning him to love

good and avoid evil, the voice of conscience when

necessary speaks to his heart: do this, shun that. For man

has in his heart a law written by God; to obey it is the

very dignity of man; according to it he will be judged.

Conscience is the most secret core and sanctuary of a

man. There he is alone with God, Whose voice echoes

in his depths. In a wonderful manner conscience reveals

that law which is fulfilled by love of God and

neighbor…

Conscience

• …In fidelity to conscience, Christians are joined with the rest of men in the search for truth, and for the genuine solution to the numerous problems which arise in the life of individuals from social relationships. Hence the more right conscience holds sway, the more persons and groups turn aside from blind choice and strive to be guided by the objective norms of morality. Conscience frequently errs from invincible ignorance without losing its dignity. The same cannot be said for a man who cares but little for truth and goodness, or for a conscience which by degrees grows practically sightless as a result of habitual sin. (Gaudium et Spes, 16)

The Mystery of Suffering

• Human suffering evokes compassion; it also

evokes respect, and in its own way it intimidates.

• Medicine, as the science and also the art of

healing, discovers in the vast field of human

sufferings the best known area, the one identified

with greater precision and relatively more

counterbalanced by the methods of "reaction" (that

is, the methods of therapy). Nonetheless, this is

only one area. The field of human suffering is

much wider, more varied, and multi-dimensional.

The Mystery of Suffering

• In order to discover the profound meaning of

suffering, following the revealed word of God, we

must open ourselves wide to the human subject in

his manifold potentiality… This answer has been

given by God to man in the Cross of Jesus Christ.

• Suffering is deeply human, because in it the

person discovers himself, his own humanity, his

own dignity, his own mission.

John Paul II, Salvifici Doloris.

The Mystery of Death

• In its face, the riddle of human existence becomes

most acute.

• We are tormented by pain and the advanced

deterioration of our body, but even more by a

dread of perpetual extinction.

• Technology, though extremely useful, cannot calm

this anxiety.

• A prolongation of biological life is unable to

satisfy the desire for higher life.

The Mystery of Death

• Christ’s death and resurrection have freed us from

death.

• “Jesus said: ‘I am the resurrection’”. (John 11:25)

• “Death where is your victory? Death where is your

sting?” (1 Corinthians 15:55)

• “God has given us a new birth into a living hope

through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the

dead and into a heritage that can never be spoilt or

soiled and never fade away.” (1 Peter 1:3)

The Mystery of Man

• The truth is that only in the mystery of the

incarnate Word does the mystery of man take on

light. For Adam, the first man, was a figure of

Him Who was to come, namely Christ the Lord.

Christ, the final Adam, by the revelation of the

mystery of the Father and His love, fully reveals

man to man himself and makes his supreme

calling clear. It is not surprising, then, that in Him

all the aforementioned truths find their root and

attain their crown…

The Mystery of Man

• …He Who is "the image of the invisible God" (Col. 1:15), is Himself the perfect man. To the sons of Adam He restores the divine likeness which had been disfigured from the first sin onward. Since human nature as He assumed it was not annulled, by that very fact it has been raised up to a divine dignity in our respect too. For by His incarnation the Son of God has united Himself in some fashion with every man. He worked with human hands, He thought with a human mind, acted by human choice and loved with a human heart. Born of the Virgin Mary, He has truly been made one of us, like us in all things except sin…

The Mystery of Man

• …All this holds true not only for Christians, but for all

men of good will in whose hearts grace works in an

unseen way. For, since Christ died for all men, and since

the ultimate vocation of man is in fact one, and divine,

we ought to believe that the Holy Spirit in a manner

known only to God offers to every man the possibility of

being associated with this paschal mystery …

The Mystery of Man

• …Such is the mystery of man, and it is a great one, as

seen by believers in the light of Christian revelation.

Through Christ and in Christ, the riddles of sorrow and

death grow meaningful. Apart from His Gospel, they

overwhelm us. Christ has risen, destroying death by His

death; He has lavished life upon us so that, as sons in the

Son, we can cry out in the Spirit; Abba, Father.

Second Vatican Council, Gaudium et Spes, 22.

Reverence for the Human Person

• Whatever is opposed to life itself, such as any type of

murder, genocide, abortion, euthanasia, or self-willed

destruction, whatever violates the integrity of the human

person, such as mutilation, torments inflicted on body or

mind… all these things and others of their like are

infamies indeed. They poison human society, but they do

more harm to those who practice them than those who

suffer from the injury.

Second Vatican Council, Gaudium et Spes, 27.

Euthanasia

• Those whose lives are diminished or weakened

deserve respect.

• Putting an end to the lives of handicapped, sick or

dying persons is morally unacceptable.

• An act or omission which, of itself or by intention,

causes death in order to eliminate suffering

constitute a murder gravely contrary to the dignity

of the human person.

Ending Over-zealous Treatment

• “Discontinuing medical procedures that are

burdensome, dangerous, extraordinary or

disproportionate to the expected outcome can be

legitimate; it is the refusal of “over-zealous”

treatment. Here one does not will to cause death;

one’s inability to impede it is merely accepted.”

Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2278.

Ordinary Care

• “Even if death is thought imminent, the ordinary

care owed to a sick person cannot be legitimately

interrupted. The use of painkillers to alleviate the

sufferings of the dying, even at the risk of

shortening their days, can be morally in

conformity with human dignity if death is not

willed as either an end or means, but only foreseen

and tolerated as inevitable.”

Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2278.

Ordinary vs. Extraordinary Care

• Patients and caregivers have the right and duty to

provide care necessary to preserve health and life.

• This duty in general includes only the use of those

means which, considering all circumstances are

ordinary, that is to say, which do not impose an

extraordinary burden on the patient or others.

Ordinary vs. Extraordinary Care

• “When inevitable death is imminent in spite of the means used, 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 the sick person in similar cases is not interrupted.”

Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith,

Declaration on Euthanasia, Part IV.

Nutrition and Hydration

• The administration of food and water even by artificial means is, in principle, an ordinary and proportionate means of preserving life. It is therefore obligatory to the extent to which, and as long as, it is shown to accomplish its proper finality.

• A patient in a “permanent vegetative state” is a person with fundamental human dignity and must, therefore, receive ordinary and proportionate care which includes, in principle, the administration of water and food even by artificial means.

Pastoral Care of the Sick

Sacraments

• Seven

– Baptism

– Confirmation

– Eucharist

– Reconciliation

– Annointing of the Sick

– Marriage

– Holy Order

• Instituted by Christ.

• Entrusted to the Church.

Sacraments

• Signs and instruments by which God

communicates his Divine Life to us.

• Their purpose is to sanctify, to build up the

Church and worship God.

• They are efficacious because in them Christ is at

work.

• Ex opere operato.

• Rites signify and make present the grace proper to

each sacrament.

Reconciliation

• Mark 2:10-12, John 20:23

• Any baptized who is aware of having committed a

mortal sin ought to go to confession.

• Sorrow of the soul for the sin committed.

• Resolution not to sin again.

• Integral.

• Auricular individual confession.

Reconciliation

• Restores dignity and blessings of Divine filiation

and friendship with God.

• The priest is not the master of God’s forgiveness,

but its servant.

• Every priest who hears confessions is bound by

absolute secrecy. This secrecy admits of no

exceptions.

Annointing of the Sick

• James 5:14-16

• Intended to strengthen those who are being tried

by illness.

• It is not a sacrament for those who are at the point

of death.

• Peace and courage.

• Union with the passion of Christ.

• Preparation for the final journey.

Eucharist

• John 6,

• Matthew 26:26-29,

• Mark 14: 22-25,

• Luke 22: 19-20,

• 1 Corinthians 11:17-33.

Eucharist

• Sacrament of Sacraments.

• Source and summit in the life of the Church.

• Real presence.

• Eucharistic communion also confirms the Church in her unity as the body of Christ.

• The Eucharist, as the supreme sacramental manifestation of communion in the Church, demands to be celebrated in a context where the outward bonds of communion are also intact.

References

• Holy Bible.

• Catechism of the Catholic Church,

http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM.

• Second Vatican Council. Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern

World, Gaudium et Spes,

http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat

-ii_const_19651207_gaudium-et-spes_en.html.

• John Paul II. Fides et Ratio, On the relationship between faith and reason,

http://www.vatican.va/edocs/ENG0216/_INDEX.HTM

• John Paul II. Salvifici Doloris, On the Christian meaning of Human Suffering

http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/apost_letters/documents/hf_jp

-ii_apl_11021984_salvifici-doloris_en.html

• Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith. Responses to Certain Questions of the

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Concerning Artificial Nutrition

and Hydration,

http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cf

aith_doc_20070801_risposte-usa_en.html

• Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith. Declaration on Euthanasia,

http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cf

aith_doc_19800505_euthanasia_en.html