Euthanasia

One

Euthanasia as “mercy killing”

The dominant cultural conversation around suicide for the last generation or so has centered around “euthanasia. That is, making suicide available, making suicide easy, and getting the medical profession involved in killing folks instead of healing them.

And one of the arguments the pro-suicide people invoke is connected to the word “euthanasia,” which means “mercy killing.” In other words, people say, “Listen, it’s an act of mercy to kill people who are suffering. It’s an act of love.”

They say, “The ultimate standard of morality is compassion and it’s an act of compassion to help someone die if they’re hurting so much that they don’t want to live anymore.”

That’s a wild idea, that it could be an act of compassion to kill another person. It shows that people do not understand either what compassion is or what compassion is for.

Two

What is compassion?

Compassion is a beautiful thing. The Gospels say that Jesus was “moved with compassion.” It’s part of love, it’s part of a meaningful life. But what is it?

Well, you can basically find out what it is just by thinking about the word.

“Compassion” is derived from two Latin words “cum” and “passio,” which just means to “suffer with.”

So that’s what compassion is, it means “suffering with.” Notice that compassion doesn’t mean “ending suffering.” It means sharing in suffering. 

And it certainly doesn’t mean destroying a person because they’re suffering.

Three

Killing a suffering person is actually a refusal to be compassionate

St. John Paul II said, very profoundly, “Euthanasia must be called a false mercy, and indeed a disturbing "perversion" of mercy. True "compassion" leads to sharing another's pain; it does not kill the person whose suffering we cannot bear. Moreover, the act of euthanasia appears all the more perverse if it is carried out by those, like relatives, who are supposed to treat a family member with patience and love, or by those, such as doctors, who by virtue of their specific profession are supposed to care for the sick person even in the most painful terminal stages.” (Evangelium Vitae, #66). 

In other words, Euthanasia is not an act of compassion. It a refusal to be compassionate. It’s a refusal to share the other person’s pain. Quite the opposite, you kill them, “because you can’t bear to see them suffering.”

So yes, compassion is important. It’s the sign of a generous nature, a mature love, and a deep commitment to the other person.

That’s why Euthanasia, which kills a person so that you don’t have to share in their suffering, is such a human, moral failure.

Four

What’s the point of compassion?

A lot of times people who celebrate compassion, who constantly criticize others for not being compassionate, don’t even know why compassion is good in the first place.

And after all, what is the point of compassion?

Why should we feel sorrow at another person’s suffering?

It can’t just be to spread the suffering  around. It can’t just be because misery loves company. It’s not like multiplying sorrow is a good thing in itself. But the point of compassion is to affirm the goodness of the suffering person.

We say, “You are so good, and you matter to me so much, that I feel your misfortune as though it’s my own.”

When we suffer with someone, we are saying, “Hang in there. You are good. I’m with you. You are enduring evil, and I will endure it with you – because you are worth it.” 

But when you deliberately and directly kill a suffering person, what you’re saying is, “You’re not worth it. This misfortune is too much. I will help you destroy yourself – because I’m not that committed to your goodness.”

So not only does euthanasia eliminate the possibility of compassion, but it also sends the exact opposite message – it totally defeats the purpose – that makes compassion so important to love.

Five

Letting die vs. directly killing

Life is short, God will call us home soon, and we aren’t always bound to extend life at any cost.

You don’t have to recommend every experimental treatment, you don’t have to keep comatose people on life-support breathing or blood circulation machines. But you can’t attack people’s lives. You can’t smother them, or lethally inject them. You can’t starve people to death or deny them water (the Catechism says, you can’t deny people “ordinary” means of care).

In other words, you can’t try to kill someone, you can’t destroy the goodness of their lives. 

When someone suffers, we are called to enter into their suffering to support and affirm their goodness. We’re called to tell them that they’re worth it to God, who wants them in the world a little longer, despite their suffering – and they’re worth it to us too.