Evangelium Vitae, Euthanasia, and Physician-Assisted Suicide: John Paul II’s Dialogue…(IN: Choosing Life, edited by K M Wildes and A C Mitchell)

This essay examines the meanings and implications of Evangelium Vitae with respect to the issues of assisted suicide and euthanasia for those who are to be exemplars of the Gospel of life, that is, Catholic health care professionals and institutions. The author has chosen three aspects of Evangelium Vitae that he believes are important for Catholic health professionals and health care institutions and that should guide their thought and actions in response to the encyclical: 1) to schematize how the Pope “does” medical ethics in this encyclical; 2) to outline the responses, implicit and explicit, of Evangelium Vitae to four of the major arguments used by proponents of euthanasia and assisted suicide; and 3) how Evangelium Vitae should shape the daily decision making and action of Catholic health care professionals and institutions.