Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide

In 400 B.C. the Greek doctor Hippocratis of Cos, regarded as the father of medicine, wrote the Hippocratic Oath. This pledge of ethics outlines proper conduct and basic principles to be observed by doctors. All graduating medical students once pledged first to “do no harm”—the most well-known and fundamental promise. However, the original Oath has…

The Hippocratic Oath… is an honorable historical document, which, however, does not altogether fit present times. If it is to be applied today, the wording has to be changed very extensively, and in these reformulations a series of new oaths have been drawn up which have only a vague relationship to the ancient Hippocratic Oath….…

Once any human being becomes worthless or expendable, all are reduced from an absolute to a relative value and no two human beings would be of equal worth, thus demolishing the very foundation of moral order….By devaluing life ― the life of the unborn, the elderly, the comatose patient, the handicapped ― we are, quite…

In this you rejoice, though now for a little while you may have to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold which though perishable is tested by fire, may redound to praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. ― 1 Peter 1:6‑7   The Mystery…

Human life is sacred because from its beginning it involves the creative action of God…. God alone is the Lord of life from its beginning until its end: no one can under any circumstance claim for himself the right directly to destroy an innocent human being. ~ Catechism of the Catholic Church In other words,…

“[T]he value of life can today undergo a kind of “eclipse”, even though conscience does not cease to point to it as a sacred and inviolable value,  as is evident in the tendency to disguise certain crimes against life in its early or final stages by using innocuous medical terms which distract attention from the…