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The Immorality and Morality of Euthanasia
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11461 |
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Section : |
MODERN THOUGHT
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| Issue
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4 / 1994 |
1,197 Words |
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An Interview With Monsignor Robert Paul Mohan
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The following interview was conducted by THE WORLD & I editor Robert Selle with Monsignor Robert Paul Mohan, professor emeritus of philosophy at Catholic University in Washington, D.C.
The World & I: How do you feel about the ethics of doctor-assisted suicide and other versions of voluntary active euthanasia, in which a patient who is terminally ill or in a state of enormous pain or suffering asks that his life be ended by lethal injection or some similar means?
Monsignor Robert Paul Mohan: The ethical prohibition of taking life extends to voluntary active euthanasia, whether it is assisted or not.
You mentioned that some patients are in "enormous pain" and that this becomes a justification for euthanizing them. But when patients are in great pain, it implies bad pain management by their physicians in most cases.
I have a quote here from an article by Dr. Ira Bycock, the ethics chairman of the Academy of Hospice Physicians. He says,
The requisite knowledge, medicines, and technology exist for the palliation of pain to alleviate the distress of dying. Physicians who do not aggressively respond to the anguish among their dying patients deserve the sternest professional sanctions. As a doctor who has been involved in hospice care for more than fourteen years, I can state without equivocation that the physical sources of suffering associated with dying all can be controlled. Most often such symptoms as pain, shortness of breath, and nausea yield to routine evaluation and straightforward intervention. Even the pain of end-stage cancer commonly can be managed with oral medication.
So the point is that a patient's "enormous pain," far from being a reason for euthanizing him, is a clarion call for better pain management.
W&I: What about the question of whether excruciating suffering of an emotional or mental nature can be a reasonable justification for active euthanasia?
Mohan: I find such a justification very troubling. There's such a broad range of mental and emotional suffering among humanity! If society accepts such suffering as a valid reason for terminating human life, then it could very well be a foot in the door to a much more lax policy somewhere
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