SUMMARY OF CATHOLIC TEACHING
For your guidance, we present the Catholic teaching relevant to personal health
care decisions.
1. All human life is sacred, from the first moment of conception to the time of
natural death.
2. All human beings, regardless of physical or mental abilities, share an equal
human dignity meriting both respect and protection.
3. Catholics are free in accordance with Catholic moral teaching to make
health care decisions forgoing the use of extraordinary means that prolong a life
in a terminal illness.
4. Suffering is a mystery. The role of medicine is to relieve the suffering of the
sick by diligent research and compassionate treatment. Suffering which cannot be
alleviated can become redemptive when united with the suffering love of Christ.
5. Persons are obligated to take reasonable care of their own health by
preserving and nurturing it with appropriate and ordinary (proportionate) means.
But, no one is obligated to use extraordinary (disproportionate) measures to
prolong life in this world; that is, measures offering no reasonable hope of benefit
or measures involving excessive hardship.
6. Respect for unborn human life requires that life-sustaining treatment be
extended to a dying pregnant mother if continued treatment can benefit the child.
7. An agent never can be authorized to deny basic personal services every
patient rightfully can expect; such as bed rest, hygiene, and appropriate pain
medication. Nutrition and hydration should always be provided when they are
capable of sustaining human life, as long as this is of sufficient benefit to outweigh
the burdens to the patient.