In the #1 New York Times bestseller book When Breath Becomes Air, Dr. Paul Kalanithi wrote about his vocation to be a healer, saying, “All of medicine… trespasses into sacred spheres” (49). He learned this lesson sometimes in hard ways. One time, after unsuccessfully trying to save the life of a man in a motorcycle accident, he admitted sadly to being more interested in his ice-cream sandwich (83-84).
Another time, while exhausted, he had to help a mother with brain cancer. He wrote, “I rushed through her questions, assured her that surgery would be a success, and assured myself that there wasn’t enough time to answer her questions fairly. But why didn’t I make the time? … I feared I was losing sight of the singular importance of human relationships… between doctor and patient” (84-85).
I have the utmost respect for doctors, nurses, and healthcare providers; whenever I go to the hospital, I go out of my way to thank them because they do amazing work. But they’re human, and like all of us, get tempted to cut corners. Assisted suicide gives them permission to cut corners. Last week, we mentioned how a doctor told Sheila Lewis that she was being selfish and that he wanted to assist her in euthanizing her daughter. Alan Nichols was also euthanized with the help of hospital staffers even though he wasn’t mentally fit to make such a request.
We’re now in the third part of our series on euthanasia. We stated that euthanasia is wrong because it goes against the natural intuition for life and against the standards of civilized society. Today, we add that it goes against the nature of medicine to preserve life. That’s the reason why some doctors and pharmaceutical companies in the U.S. don’t want to participate in executions even when it’s legal. It goes against their essence as healthcare professionals and erodes public trust.
Let’s meditate on two sayings of Jesus in the Gospel. First, “If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again” (Lk 6:33-34). When we protect the dying, the elderly, and the mentally ill against euthanasia, we’re often helping people who can’t pay us back, which is good. We don’t kill people because they can’t contribute anything. We don’t give hospital beds only to those who are useful.
Second, Jesus says, “Do not judge, and you will not be judged” (Lk 6:37). Obviously, He doesn’t mean never make moral judgments because later He says, “If another disciple sins, you must rebuke the offender” (Lk 17:3), meaning, we must judge that their actions need correction. Also, “Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment” (Jn 7:24). These three sayings mean we’re not supposed to judge others as inferior; and we can’t judge people’s hearts, but we can judge their actions. However, we must judge our own actions first.
Many people have heard of the story of Martin Pistorius of South Africa. In the following video, please pay attention to three points: 1) It’s understandable that his mother wanted him to die, but even she judges that she shouldn’t have said that to him; 2) Many healthcare professionals were abusive to patients, and we rightly judge that as wrong; 3) Even though Martin offered nothing to society, many people treated him as sacred.
If the woman who helped him heal had believed in assisted suicide, she would not have invested in him. Assisted suicide kills the investing of time and energy in helping certain people.
Another example: Dr. Paul Brand, who is famous for helping people with leprosy in India, explained that the reason why so many have deformities of the hands is not because the leprosy was eating their flesh, but because they could no longer feel pain, and so, for example, they would put their hands into boiling water. His response? Restorative hand surgeries and teaching them to avoid dangerous actions. Dr. Brand’s wife, Margaret, was also creative. She noticed that many people with leprosy had poor eyesight. Why? Since they couldn’t feel, they wouldn’t blink to moisten their eyes. So their eyes would dry out, and they would even rub their eyes with callused hands, which damaged them further. Her response? Teach them to blink consciously. But that didn’t work. So, she got them to chew gum, which involuntarily made them blink. Again, when assisted suicide is an option, it kills creativity and finding solutions.
These examples show how healthcare providers are meant to heal, not kill.
There are four typical objections to everything we’ve said.
First, what if the person wants to die? Just because a person wants something doesn’t make it right. Many young people want to die, but we stop them. And, as pointed out two weeks ago, once we address the underlying problem, people don’t want to die anymore.
Second, what if someone’s in great pain? Answer? Don’t kill them. Help them. We’ve already seen that, in Canada, once we’re allowed to kill people in pain, then we can even kill people who want to live. Dr. Michael Brescia, a devout Catholic at Calvary Hospital in New York, said, “At Calvary, we have never, ever… hastened death purposely. We’ll argue, ‘We love you enough to never kill…’ I’m never going to tell someone they have to suffer. I will work to alleviate their pain… We treat 6,000 patients a year, and no one, after they have been here for 24 hours, asks for assisted suicide”. (See also this article on pain management.)
Third, some people feel useless and like burdens. The truth is: Diseases are burdens, not persons. We need to help them change their perspective. Even if they feel useless, they’re still special.
Fourth, fear of a bad death? The solution is palliative care which supports the person in the natural process of dying.
Because of everything we’ve said the past few weeks, we can understand why the Catechism says, “Thus an act or omission which… causes death in order to eliminate suffering constitutes a murder gravely contrary to the dignity of the human person and to the respect due to the living God, his Creator” (2277). Thus, euthanasia and assisted suicide are grave matter. If we participate in them knowingly and willingly, it’s a mortal sin. Now, if we didn’t know this and already participated in it, then there’s no sin. And, even if we did know it was wrong, Jesus can forgive and wants to forgive every sin.
If someone asks us to witness their document asking for suicide, we gently say, ‘I can’t do that. I love you too much to kill you.’ If they ask why, we might share some of the ideas we’ve talked about. You could ask them to watch these homilies, unless you think it will increase their suffering. Just kidding.
Once again, we’ve got sign-up cards in the pews for 40 Days for Life. Please join hundreds of us who are taking shifts and do so with a friend. Jesus’ words apply to us: “If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you?” This is a great opportunity to serve and get nothing in return. As Liera mentioned last week, we’re aiming not only that we past participants return, but also for 100 new participants. Thanks!
Finally, next week, as we’ve done for the past four years, we’re going to show a few graphic photos and a video of abortion, so, if you or your young children don’t want to see them, please close your eyes, look down, or go to Mass somewhere else.
Let’s do our part to defend the natural intuition for life, the standards of civilized society, and the nature of medicine to preserve life.