The progress of medical science in recent years has brought to the fore new aspects of the question of euthanasia, and these aspects call for discussion on the ethical level. In modern society, in which even the fundamental values of human life are often called into question, cultural change exercises an influence upon the way of looking at suffering and death; moreover, medicine has increased its capacity to cure and to prolong life in particular circumstances, which sometime give rise to moral problems.

 In ancient times (63 B.C.), Euthanasia meant a good death without severe suffering; a very gentle and quiet death, which happens without painful convulsions.  The word comes from ευ, bene, well, and θανατος, mors, death.   It was first used to describe Emperor Augustus dying in the arms of his wife.  Today one no longer thinks of this original meaning of the word, but rather of some intervention of medicine whereby the suffering of sickness or of the final agony are reduced, sometimes also with the danger or intention of suppressing life prematurely.

 How do we balance the historic Christian belief to see suffering as a participation in the redemptive power of Christ’s passion, death, and resurrection and to see death, transformed by the resurrection, as an opportunity for a final act of communion with Christ with the current cultural belief that, when there is no reasonable expectation of recovery from a physical or mental disease, condition or disability, a person should be allowed ‘to die with dignity’ and not be kept clinically alive by artificial or “heroic means” and that medications be used to ease, and even to hasten, death. 

Questions: samhartjr@comcast.net