“Why does the Church defend the ‘inviolability’ of life? »

Hello Sylvia,

As you write to us, human beings have always risked their lives in the name of their ideals, in particular patriotism through the countless wars that humanity has known. ” And nowdo you write, we refuse a person to be helped to end his life calmly without violence in the name of an alleged undeniable value of life? »

This “indisputable value” you mention, the Catholic Church calls it “inviolability”. And though staying alive is not a “absolute goal”we will come back to this, this principle is the basis of its categorical refusal of euthanasia, considered “morally inadmissible” (Catechism of the Catholic Church not. 2,277). If human life is considered inviolable, it is by virtue of two main arguments, mentioned in this same paragraph 2277 of the Catechism : the dignity of the person and respect for God, his creator.

Based on this principle of inviolability, the declaration Rights and goodspublished in 1980 by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, disputes the two anthropological postulates put forward to found euthanasia: “On the one hand, the idea that in certain circumstances dying would be good and living bad; on the other hand, the claim to maintain that a man has the right to kill others. »

The reference text on the value and inviolability of human life was published fifteen years later, in 1995: it is the encyclical The gospel of life. Pope John Paul II recalls in particular the question posed by God to Cain after he killed his brother Abel: ” What did you do ? » (Gn 4,10)

That being said, the Church also insists on the “proportionality of care” and the refusal of“therapeutic relentlessness”. “We do not want to cause death in this way; we accept that we cannot prevent it”we read in the Catechism (n. 2 278). “The use of analgesics to alleviate the suffering of the dying, even at the risk of shortening his life, can be morally in conformity with human dignity if death is not wanted, neither as an end nor as a means, but only foreseen and tolerated as inevitable. » The Church, as such, encourages the development of palliative care.

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