DEATH ON DEMAND:

...While there are certain valid analogies to be drawn between the abortion and euthanasia debates, we believe that if death-on-demand becomes an institution in our culture, it will be for reasons quite different from those that brought abortion into our midst...

...They mention the Johns Hopkins case in which a baby was born with Down syndrome (mongoloid) and in which minor surgery was required to open up a blocked duodenal tract...

...The Quinlan Case The extreme complexity of the Quinlan case simply overwhelms traditional thinking on the matter...

...But if Christians are to have any credible input into the euthanasia debate, they are going to have to bear more witness to the care of the old, the dying and the unsuccessful...

...Or more subtly stated so as to be protected under the murky state of the law, "The moral question then is whether the death should be entrusted to the imminent disease or whether it could be brought on by the administration of drugs or whether a compromise could be found whereby the drugs are used to comfort and to weaken in co-ordination with the meningitis...

...It seems rather certain, for instance, that the progress of medical science is one of the chief factors forcing the issues of death-by-choice, now that there is, in principle, no deadly, no incurable disease...

...What was to be gained by the fifteen-day period of starvation...

...To many persons in the medical field the choice seems obvious: disconnect the respirator...

...He would receive old friends, enemies and members of the family into his home and converse with them, bind old wounds, and ask forgiveness for former trespasses...

...Actually, there is a bit of surface truth to the theory...

...Augustine's reasons to the contrary...

...Any number of old people would be coerced or feel coerced by their own sense of futility and the burdens that they are placing on their kin by their very troublesome and potentially expensive existence...

...For one aspect often overlooked in the abortion debate is that far from giving women a choice in the matter, a subtle burden has been placed on a woman to have an abortion whsther she desires one or not...

...time assistance to respirate...

...Yet contact with pro-abortion activists often reveals them to be a rather high-minded, humanistic lot with an unfortunate tendency to short-sightedness-for the most part, they find it very difficult to see beyond the plight of the reluctant mother to the quite a bit more perilous plight of her unwanted offspring...

...Maguire cites another case, that of Missy who was born with spina bifida with meningomyelocele of the lumbar spine...

...Or perhaps it is the relatives who do not wish to know...

...The second defect of the "domino" theory is the ease with which it obscures the unique character and attitudes which have brought abortion to legal status, and seemingly eliminates the need to seek out and examine those distinct societal conditions which are presently germinating legalized euthanasia...

...The unfortunate and well-publicized case of Karen Quintan is an obvious example of this difficulty...

...The point of difficulty, however, is the ambiguity of the term "extraordinary...

...For amidst the current debate on the definition of death, there is a developing consensus that death can be said to occur when there is no measurable brain wave activity over a twenty-four-hour period and there is an absence of spontaneous heartbeat and respiration...

...In her case the course of action seems fairly clear, but what about cases that are less well-defined...

...In addition, many people today fail to see any redemptive value in apparent needless suffering...

...Maguire poses a third alternative for possible consideration-direct termination of life...

...Passive euthanasia, both voluntary and involuntary, has been, in principle and in fact, acceptable to Catholic moral theologians for some time...

...The same result could happen in the euthanasia debate...

...Now that science has brought us to a point where we can keep such infants biologically alive, these theologians are asking: does such survival constitute the fullest expression of respect for the natural law and the sanctity of life...

...why not alter it to live shorter since both are to our convenience...

...Nothing remains of Karen Quinlan but a minimal degree of brain activity and occasional spontaneous breathing...

...It even received the endorsement of Pope Pius XII in a 1957 address to the International Congress of Anesthesiologists...

...Add the primitive fear and attendant folklore that have traditionally surrounded the act of taking one's own life, and it is obvious why suicide was neither popular nor condoned...

...The debate will have to shift to other grounds...

...If we do not do this, the legalized euthanasia debate, like the abortion debate, will be lost before it has begun...

...Gone are the days when death was accepted as part of the natural processes of the family...

...The same sort of pressure would be placed on a large number of the elderly...

...Some of the most difficult situations involving euthanasia concern the defective new-born...

...In fact, the suicide's body was often desecrated or buried at a crossroad with a stake through its heart, a fate reserved for vampires...

...it is just that their sympathies have not, for one reason or another, been engaged on behalf of fetal life...

...At the time that this case was discussed by a distinguished panel, two questions were raised, "Should the baby have been allowed to die from the meningitis that would normally ensue in such cases...

...Alvarez obtained the tablets for the man, but the suicide-euthanasia was unsuccessful because the man fainted when he tried to walk across the room to get them from his bureau, and the tablets were then discovered by his wife...

...It is our fear that for every Senecan sage who would be blessed by the cool and rational shortening of his days, there would be thousands of elderly persons who would be hastened to their deaths by the subtle coercion of a society which ranks the care of the aged and ill as one of its most onerous burdens...

...Some of the agonizing questions to arise out of this were whether after the decision not to operate was made, should the child's death have been hastened by a merciful injection of pain-killer...

...These complicated instances have been amply chronicled by Catholic philosophers and theologians, notably Daniel Maguire (Death By Choice) and Richard McConnick, S.J...

...Although he strongly states in his book, The Patient as Person, that there is a moral imperative to care for the dying and that one ought never to hasten the dying process of those who are within our love and care, he exempts from the prohibition against active euthanasia those patients who are so far beyond our love and care that it is "entirely indifferent to the patient whether his dying is accomplished by an intravenous bubble of air or by the withdrawal of useless ordinary remedies such as nourishment...

...A sixty-year-old man was suffering from inoperable cancer which was eating into a number of sensitive spots in his chest and spine...

...But he is suggesting the possibility of active involuntary euthanasia for infants in certain cases in which the life possibilities of the baby may function at a biological or physical level but not in any kind of spiritual, psychological, or relational manner...

...and she had club feet...

...The girl was placed in a bind and obviously looked like an irresponsible person if she did not abort...

...They take a more Senecan view to the problem of suffering...

...Take the matter of suicide, for instance, St...

...Water on the brain develops in 90 percent of these cases, and even with complicated surgery and the insertion of a shunt drain, the child had a 50-50 chance of being mentally retarded...

...They are frequently very sympathetic persons...

...Thus, while for a Christian, voluntary euthanasia might be a horrendous action because of God's knowledge and of one's stewardship to Him and because of the redemptive nature of the meaning of the cross, to the atheist or Deist, however, it may well appear that personal suffering in no way serves the interests of God and that common sense demands that it be minimized, even at the cost of one's own life...

...Christians must share the burdens of the despair experienced by the incurably pain-wracked people who are approaching death...

...Maguire notes that ten years ago 80 percent of these babies died and today 75 percent survive...

...We are reminded of a recent case in the news in which a young man, the father of a fetus being brought to term by an unmarried girl, saw his responsibility in the pregnancy absolved because, after all, he had urged her to obtain an abortion, and "She was too stupid to do it...

...For after all the discussion and controversy on the abortion issue, too many people are either for it or against it, without knowing the issues and the complicated reasoning behind the different stands...

...Using these criteria, we must agree with the opinion of Miss Quintan's doctors that she is not yet dead...

...The problems arise mainly because modern technology can keep alive seriously ill and defective infants who would have otherwise died merciful and natural deaths...

...He asked the doctor for enough morphine tablets so that he could take a fatal dose if he should so decide...

...The active voluntary euthanasia of the rational aged, and/or ill, presents a serious moral problem...

...And the decision is that it is a life not worth living...

...Philippe Aries, in an article entitled "Death Inside Out," points out that in the Middle Ages the primary role in the death ritual was played by the dying person himself...

...Another problem would be that of proper and valid consent...

...She is said to be in a chronic vegetative state, with no hope of rehabilitation or recovery...

...To Save or Let Die," America, 7/13/74...

...1The eminent Christian theologian, Paul Ramsey, goes so far as to suggest that it would not be wholly inappropriate to practice an active form of euthanasia in cases like that of Karen Quinlan...

...Maguire is not championing any mad rush to eliminate by painless means all such infants who do not meet current demands for perfection...

...Alvarez said that he barely escaped a lawsuit, but that he felt that he had done the correct thing and that doctors should let patients like this commit suicide if they so desire...

...In much the same way the general beliefs are changing about euthanasia and suicide: namely, the belief in the right to die with dignity and the diminished effectiveness of the religious and cultural strictures against taking one's life...

...Karen Quinlan is certainly "beyond our love and care" in the sense that he uses the terms, but Catholic moral thinking is diametrically opposed to overt action to terminate her life...

...For in what way does the Quinlan situation differ from that of another who through catastrophic illness such as polio requires life...

...In these instances, both men tentatively argue that perhaps it is precisely to the infant's benefit to allow him to die...

...But one must not lose sight of the awesomeness of declaring a life-even the artificially sustained life of Karen Quinlan -to be a life that is not worth living...

...She had no reflex activity in either leg and could not control her anal or urinary sphincters...

...The man told him that he had just talked with his son and was satisfied and that his unbearable wife was only adding to his misery...

...DEATH ON DEMAND PATRICK F. and CAROL ALTEKRUSE BERGER The complexity of the Quinlan case overwhelms traditional thinking There is a theory, current in pro-life circles, that there is a "domino" relationship between abortion and euthanasia, that if we acquiesce to legalized abortion, euthanasia is sure to follow...

...Generally speaking, euthanasia falls into two categories: active (involving overt action such as a lethal injection) and passive (requiring nothing more than the refusal to use "extraordinary means" to prolong life...

...If one is to have a grasp on the situation, it is necessary to understand the most compelling and most agonizing of the euthanasia arguments...

...Today, we not only remove the dying from their natural habitat, we do not even wish them to know that they are dying...

...Norman St...

...What kind of guilt would be produced in them...

...We are forbidden it in the law: 'Thou shalt not kill, . . .' How much more should Christians, that adore the true God, and aim wholly at the eternal dwellings, restrain themselves from this foul wickedness, whenever it pleaseth God to expose them for a time to taste of temporal extremities, either for their trial, or for correction sake...

...For if we can make exemptions for criminals and war victims, we can just at least as easily exempt the suicide because there are things we can do to ourselves that we cannot do to others...

...Both Maguire and McCornick bring up the,difficult cases of babies who are practically incapable of attaining any meaningful experience or human relationships...

...for it is the extreme case that will constantly be paraded before the public in the attempt to legalize the process...

...The man was suffering so terribly that Dr...

...It differs only in that Karen Quinlan is severely brain damaged and we can presume that the polio victim is cerebrally unimpaired and is capable of fully human interaction with others.1 In the Quinlan case it would seem that to force continued use of the respirator is to make a mockery of the sacredness of life...

...Many pro-abortionists are, in fact, shocked by what they interpret as the "malice" of anti-abortionists whom they perceive as wanting to "punish" the unwilling mother...

...In fact, Alvarez laments the fact that today, since suicide has been taken out of the realm of damnation, it is now treated simply as an abstract, intellectual, sociological problem, beyond personal tragedy and morality...

...Legalized abortion is with us now, and the inertia of law and custom present a formidable obstacle to those who would have it repealed...

...Thus if Christians and other people concerned about the value of life are going to raise voices of protest against euthanasia, they are going to have to resort to other sources than authority or slogans like "Euthanasia is murder"-if, that is, they have learned anything from the abortion issue and its ready acceptance into the law books by society...

...On the other hand, would the relatives feel responsible for that fact that Grandfather does not want to live...

...There is rather one poignant case in which he obtained a lethal dose of morphine for a dying man under such circumstances...

...Nevertheless, the domino theory is basically inaccurate and misleading...

...Louis University in Missouri...

...The legal option of euthanasia would perhaps, in time, erode the now and again begrudged privilege of the elderly and infirm to linger on for as long as the Lord lets them.on for as long as the Lord lets them...

...As a result, the problem of euthanasia is leaving the sector of isolated, private cases of individuals who might opt for it, either as agent or patient, and it is entering the arena of public legislation...

...For it was due, in part, to the continual publicity given to the hard abortion cases involving rape, incest and dementia caused in a woman forced to carry a baby to term she was not prepared for that eventually turned the tide to legalized abortion-on-demand...

...He could see no reason why the horrible process of his dying should be prolonged for another two or three months...

...First of all, it seems to rest upon the presumption that abortion is the product of minds which are infected by a callous disregard for human life, and that anyone who would be so cruel as to kill a helpless infant, surely must be setting his sights on Grandma...

...Augustine established the classic Christian argument, based on an appeal to divine authority...

...Or should the medics have begun at once what would be for the child a lifetime of extraordinary care...

...If pro-life Christians should have learned anything from the abortion episode, it is that the core issues should be discussed now, in their entirety, not after euthanasia has passed into law as a fait accompli...

...Often their vision has been clouded by related issues such as population control and notions about a woman's right over her body...

...Given the reluctance of most people to face the difficult problems of the dying, what Christians must become aware of are the differences between the genuinely hard cases, the malformed Missy or the damaged Miss Quin-lan and the cases of inconvenience from which grave abuses by the unscrupulous and subtle pressures on the old or imperfect could easily result...

...At the same time, we are witnessing increasing sentiment in favor of legalizing some forms of euthanasia...

...McCormick makes the same point by emphasizing that some babies might be let die, because if they survived in a state which demanded such extraordinary care and excessive hardship, then the "very possibility of growth in love of God and neighbor, and the like would be impossible...

...In fact there are even respected Christian moralists like Joseph Fletcher who are aware of the redemptive potential of suffering but who have lobbied for euthanasia in cases where a long painful death does more to dehumanize a person than to elevate him...

...What may look like an unbearable day today could be much more hopeful tomorrow...

...To maintain a grotesque remnant of human life by artificial means is as clear a violation of natural law as any test-tube baby could be...

...Just as abortion-on-demand assumed its respectability because pro-abortion forces continually presented the hard cases, so too could the pro-euthanasia forces make euthanasia-on-demand a respectable alternative...

...Modern man has taken the task of dying out of the home, away from the sphere of familiar places, friends and routines, and placed this process in the professional yet antiseptic and cold confines of the hospital and old age home...

...Likewise, to make the Commandment "Thou shalt not kill" apply in cases of suicide, even though we permit the involuntary homicide of criminals in capital punishment or even innocents in war is simply not coherent, St...

...Walter Sackett, a Miami practitioner who is also a member of the Florida Legislature and one who has introduced a death with dignity bill in Florida, or whether placed for discussion before the British Parliament for adoption as is currently the case in England, it seems almost inevitable that euthanasia will become legalized in some form, just as abortion-on-demand has been legalized...

...Patrick F. & carol altekruse berger team-teach medical ethics for the Metropolitan College of St...

...For our part, we would be opposed to the legalization of euthanasia...

...At the other end of the spectrum, what response does the Christian make to the hopelessly incurable who beg their doctor for some medication that will put them out of their physical and psychological misery...

...But there is a deceptive simplicity in that decision, for one is actually making a decision regarding the quality of the life that Karen Quinlan may be expected to live should the respirator remain in use...

...But, he adds, the law certainly does not permit this...

...Whether advocated by a person like Dr...

...Comatose since April, she does not even resemble her former self physically...

...How many dying and old people would opt for euthanasia if it became legal merely because they were in a deep, real, painful, but nonetheless curable or passing depression...

...John-Stevas, the British MP and author on pro-life issues, has spoken most eloquently on this need for all concerned to face the needs of the problems of the dying and for those who must care for them when he writes, "To achieve this, intense, loving and tactful care is needed between relatives and medical attendants...

...There are other forces at work, in the case of abortion, the combination of overpopulation and the rise of the feminist movement helped to change attitudes towards abortion more quickly and more deeply than anyone realized and the central problem has been set aside- namely, is the fetus human and does he or she have any rights to be protected under the 14th Amendment...

...It is not only a question of euthanasia, but a question about the meaning of death, as well...

...The art of medicine has long been dedicated to the frustration of natural forces-the appendix that wants to rupture and kill is removed before it can follow its natural course-but there must also be a time to submit when the struggle has lost its human meaning...

...Still, these very difficult and trying cases are not enough' in themselves to create sufficient pressure to have pro-euthanasia laws formally placed on the books...

...This painstaking, conscientious and constructive approach to the dying is, we believe, more human and compassionate than the snuffing cut proposed by those who may be well-intentioned, but who seem to understand little of the real needs of those they are seeking to help...

...Both in a personal manner and in a structured institutional way...

...Alvarez could not relieve him with the amount of morphine that he could safely give...

...For there is a tendency in people to say that if one approves a hard case, then one should move to approve the act per se...

...But in what sense can she be said to be alive...

...It is the task of every concerned Christian and humanist to raise the general level of awareness between these distinctions, and to point out, without vilification of people filled with altruistic intentions, the abuses that could ensue and to encourage people to face the process of dying with the dying rather than pushing the matter into the hands of medical personnel...

...Her body has gradually assumed a fetal position and her weight has been cut by half...

...What these two theologians are saying is that problems of this type simply did not exist in the past when the death of some infants was determined by forces beyond our control...

...However, as A. Alvarez has noted in his classic study on the subject of suicide, The Savage God, this taboo element has been taken out of the act by the clinical dissection of the motives of the suicide since the publication of Emile Durkheim's pioneer study of this phenomenon...

...In effect, what many moralists are coming to the awareness of is that we have most certainly altered the natural law to live longer...

...Walter Alvarez, a noted medical doctor and lecturer in this field, has recorded cases of elderly patients who have led productive lives, made peace with the world, and wanted only to die quickly with as little pain as possible...

...In a medical climate which has come to regard respirators and intravenous feeding tubes as basic hospital equipment, the line between ordinary and extraordinary is extremely difficult to draw...

...The parents opted against the surgery, and thus the baby died by starvation in fifteen days...