Religious Education Congress, part 1

It's been about two months since I attended the annual Religious Education Congress in Anaheim, an event sponsored by the Office of Religious Education with the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. While some of the workshops didn't excite me too much, I did have the fortune of attending a few that I found to be really good. (I've actually been meaning to write about them for a while) I'll be blogging about them over the course of the next few days.

One talk I attended concerned Physician Assisted Suicide (PAS). It was given by Fr. Robert Spitzer, S.J., Ph.D., president of Gonzaga University in Spokane, WA and co-founder of the Center for Life Principles. He gave an excellent lecture refuting the four primary arguments often given to justify PAS. Much of what he said also applies to arguments in favor of abortion, which I will address. Fundamentally, our opposition to PAS, as well as our opposition to abortion, is rooted in our belief that all human beings are created in the Image of God, from which they derive an inherent dignity and value that is holy.

1.) Pain Protocols vs. "Aid in Dying"
One of the arguments used by the Hemlock Society and other supporters of PAS is that its purpose is to relieve the intense pain of terminal illness. What many people do not know is that approx. 90% of the pain in a terminal illness, such a cancer, can be controlled 100% of the time if physicians are only aware of the treatments available and know how to properly medicate their patients. Furthermore, most of the requests for suicide come from patients who also suffer from depression. According to Spitzer, 97% of all suicide requests are reversed when the pain and depression are treated properly. Spitzer did mention that many physicians often avoid certain pain protocols out of fear of a chemical dependency/addiction. But he notes that when you're dealing with a patient who has a terminal illness, this probably shouldn't be the #1 thing to worry about. If the effects of chemical dependency are not too debilitating or dangerous, depending on what those effects are and how the patient is treated, many rejected pain treatments should be frequently reevaluated. Is suicide therefore a necessity?

2.) Options vs. Duties.
Supports of PAS often argue that they are merely fighting to have PAS be another option that people may choose should they need it, and that opponents to PAS should calm down in that nobody is being forced to die. But is this really true? Spitzer brought up Montesquieu who is credited with having said, Frequently enough, one person's options are another person's duties. What this means is that many choices are treated often as duties by our society, depending on the values. This is certainly true in the case of abortion. Consider the poor, unwed mother who is told by society that having a baby will ruin her life, told by the university that she cannot attend school, and is told by employers that she cannot work in a career that she is qualified for and support a child. It is easy to see why abortion may not be seen as an option, but as a duty placed upon the mother. Many women often explain that they felt they had to have an abortion out of necessity - that they felt they had no choice. So it is with PAS. The option to die becomes the duty to die, particularly if you perceive that you may be a burden to your family, or to friends, or to society, especially when your own child or your own doctor is the one who suggests it. Also, insurance companies could offer a discount to those who, thinking they may never need it or use it, allow PAS. What choice does this give to the poor? The key here is to always work for social change. Are we creating a duty by allowing the option to die? Are we creating a duty by allowing abortion?

3.) Quality of Life
This is the argument I hear the most. The argument asserts that the last six months of life are not worth living because your autonomy is decreased, your ambulatory ability is limited, your verbal capacity is decreased, etc. This decrease in powers warrants PAS because your quality of life isn't significant enough to warrant living.

However, for many, especially the Christian, self-possession is not what makes the entirety of quality of life - but rather it is also love and self-transcendence (faith) that make quality of life. And it is true that these often increase significantly prior to death. To articulate this, Spitzer outlined the four levels of happiness (popularized by Life Principles):

1.) Materialistic: how much money you have, the things that you own.
2.) Self-possession: Ego-fulfillment, career, personal control,...
3.) Self-communication: Love, agape, ability to impart wisdom, ability to forgive, reconcile, to make a positive difference, justice, community.
4.) Self-transcendence: through faith, learn about truth, love, justice, and beauty. Learn about God.

In the last six months of life, the ability of acquiring levels 1 and 2 will decrease, but 3 and 4 can increase. This makes sense since levels 1 and 2 often have immediate and short-term effects, whereas the effects of 3 and 4 are more long term.

Our Catholic tradition also allows for the concept of redemptive suffering - that suffering has redemptive value - it is not always bad, it can be transformative of ourselves and of others. Spitzer notes that God can work even in the comatose and the most vulnerable. If quality of life is what you pay for in life, then the common good is merely a cultural property. This understanding destroys the notion of love of the other, which kills dignity, and eradicates inalienable rights. If you have loved ones suffering from terminal illness, or even loved ones in nursing homes, always let them know how much you value them in your life. Continue to learn from them, allow them to pray for you and with you. As we know from being at grandma's house, being in their very presence is often very empowering.

4.) Effects on culture
This argument asserts that PAS enables cultural advancement because we cannot afford to keep people alive beyond their productive years. But how is productivity defined here? Most supporters of PAS would argue that productivity is defined by self-possession (#2 in the levels of happiness above). But is there no productivity associated with ability to love? Who hasn't been empowered by the love of a grandparent, or by the love of children? This goes way beyond the work place and is not linked to money and economics.

But is PAS a cultural good?

Spitzer quoted Edmund Burke who stated that what you legally sanction becomes normative, and what becomes normative becomes moral. This means that a legal act is interpreted as being an act sanctioned by the government, and effectively, by society. "Everybody does it." But if you legalize/sanction suicide, what are you making moral? Is it not true that a society's youth often initially develops morality based upon what is normative in culture, but this is generally true of society - and the argument can be made that we have seen that effect regarding the issue of abortion.

More tomorrow.