Fr. Thomas M. Pastorius
June 8, 2014
Spiritual Ponderings:
Physician Assisted Suicide

As we continue to look at the topic of Euthanasia and Physician-assisted Suicide, I would like to remind you that the quotes come from F. Michael Gloth, III M.D. and his article "Physician Assisted Suicide: The Wrong Approach to End of Life Care." They are in bold and my commentary is in regular font. For the full article feel free to go to my website www.mayjesuschristbepraised.com or the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops? website www.usccb.org .

What is physician-assisted suicide? Physician-assisted suicide occurs when a physician facilitates a patient's death by providing the necessary means and information to enable the patient to perform a life-ending act ? for example the physician provides a potentially lethal medication and information about the lethal dose and how to administer it, aware that the patient may commit suicide.

With great power comes great responsibility. Advances in medical technology have given doctors great powers. This is even more the case in the area of medication. Just sit back for a moment and imagine what the world would be like if the advances in medication had never taken place. How many people would have died from high blood pressure or diabetes? There is a thin line between medicating someone to relieve their pain and medicating them with the intent to kill. This line seems to become blurry because it is hard for us to watch someone suffer. It is even harder if that person suffering is a loved one. I have been blessed by God to have had the opportunity to travel with a few people as their earthly pilgrimage was coming to an end and I have come to believe that the greatest pain that Jesus felt while hanging on the cross had nothing to do with the nails or with all the trouble breathing, but rather the hardest part for him was having to look out and see His Blessed Mother suffer so much. It is hard for us to watch a love one suffer and to know that there is nothing we can do to alleviate their pain.

In addition to Oregon, four states - Michigan, Washington, California, and Maine - have put the issue of physician-assisted suicide to a referendum. In all but Oregon, the practice was rejected by voters. In the Spring of 2002, an effort to authorize the practice in Hawaii was defeated.

For Catholics the issue is not whether something is legal or not but rather is it moral. It is not can I do it and not be punished but rather am I respecting the person?s human dignity. As Catholics though we believe that moral things should be legal in order to allow people to do the good and immoral things should be illegal as a deterrent to prevent people from doing it.

The arguments for physician-assisted suicide are generally similar to those supporting euthanasia. Most commonly it is argued that death offers the only means of attaining comfort or dignity for patients in extreme duress, such as those suffering from a terminal, painful, debilitating illness. Advocates of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide buttress this argument with data showing that inadequate pain control is given to patients who are dying with painful conditions. The assistance of a physician is supposed to provide expertise to increase the likelihood of a successful suicide attempt and make the act "cleaner" ? both literally and politically.

What does it mean to be like God? It might seem to be a strange question to ask at this part of our journey but in the end this is the ultimate question. For many people being like God has everything to do with all powerful, always being in control, and always getting one's way. While these are attributes of the Blessed Trinity, Jesus reveals to us that being like God is more about being all caring, all loving, and all self-less.

One priest, who I had the pleasure of hearing talk, discussed his battle with cancer. He said that illness, being sick, is all about returning to our greatest and simplest deity - that of being a child of God. I like the idea of "returning to our greatest dignity" for in many ways those near death or like children. Unfortunately we don't always treat them as well as children.

*F. Michael Gloth, III, MD, FACP, AGSF, CMD, is an Associate Professor of Medicine and Director, Outpatient Services, for the Division of Geriatrics and Gerontology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, MD.