It is one of the more difficult problems in Catholic healthcare – to see parishioners suffering at the end of their lives and seeking surcease from the pain. While the Church teaches that each person has love and worth until the end, sometimes that last stretch can be the most difficult to manage, for the patients, their loved ones, caretakers and the Church. At such times, physician-assisted suicide has seemed, to some, a solution.
The issue became pressing in June 2016 when the California End-of-Life Options Act went into effect, opening the way for physicians to help patients end their lives.
In Catholicism, that is not an option. Pope Francis has called the practice “false compassion,” saying, “True compassion does not marginalize anyone, nor does it humiliate and exclude – much less considers the disappearance of a person as a good thing.”
However, in these times, many have come to see it as the only way.
“The realization that so many people would consider this as an option told us we have a lot of work,” said Greg Walgenbach, director of the Office of Life, Justice and Peace for the Diocese of Orange.
The Whole Person Care Initiative, not to be confused with the state’s Whole Person Care programs, was undertaken by dioceses across California in partnership with the state’s Catholic Health Care systems to not only address the new law but also reassess how parishes deal with end-of-life issues.
It is an effort to find “a medical and pastoral approach to care through the end of life that provides a dignified, compassionate and loving alternative to physician-assisted suicide for seriously ill people and their families,” according to Church leaders.
To that end, the Diocese of Orange has emerged as a state leader in moving the initiative forward.
“Bishop (Kevin) Vann has been one of the leaders,” Walgenbach said of the movement. “He’s been a very vocal supporter.”
Bishop Vann was part of a contingent, including Dr. Ira Byock, medical director of Providence St. Joseph’s Institute for Human Caring, and Lori Dangberg of the Alliance for Catholic Health Care, that visited the Vatican in March at the Pontifical Academy of Life’s 2018 Palliative Care Congress.
“Our intent is to create a Church and Catholic health care collaborative model that serves our California parishioners and patients well, and that can be replicated by Church and Catholic health care leaders in other states,” according to a statement by California’s bishops.
Dr. Vincent Nguyen, director of Hoag Hospital’s Palliative Care Program, said the legalization of suicide is symptomatic of a system that has lost its way.
“Where we are is a failure of the medical system,” he said, which has allowed death to be conflated with prolonged unnecessary suffering and hopelessness.
However, if patients are provided with a holistic program that addresses physical, mental and spiritual health, Nguyen says they can make better choices.
“When people know all the options, the hope is that it will not be a concern anymore,” Walgenbach said.
Full story at OC Catholic.
The operative word in the last quote is ALL. Patients and families deserve nothing less than ALL the options. This includes options the Church considers morally wrong, as well as reasons therefor.
mike m– what do you mean, by “including options the Church considers morally wrong?” Are you Catholic? Do you also believe that the “option” of abortion for an unborn chid (especially if the mother does not want it, or if it has medical abnormalities)– is a worthy “option?” Do you believe it is morally wrong– for a doctor to kill a patient? Tell them, “go jump off the Golden Gate Bridge,” or “go take hemlock, like Socrates”— if you want to die?? Is that the kind of “patient care” you think is an “option?” And would Christ tell you, “your life is not worth much, if you are suffering a great deal, and have high medical bills???” Only God can make a life– and only God can take a life! Mankind must never “play…
I will complete my final sentence, above– “mankind must never “play God!”