Care & Prepare

1. Finding Loving Care At The End of Life Care & Prepare

2. What to Remember: • Dignity of the Human Person • Resurrection

3. Euthanasia & Assisted Suicide • Putting someone to death who is disabled, sick, or dying in order to end their suffering • “An action or omission which of itself and by intention causes death, with the purpose of eliminating all suffering” EV65 • Never acceptable

4. Allowing Natural Death • Allowing a person to die means “discontinuing medical procedures that are burdensome, dangerous, extraordinary, or disproportionate to the expected outcome” CCC 2278 • Must provide ordinary care

5. Proportionate & Ordinary Care • Ordinary Care to Preserve Life • Food and water (nutrition & hydration) – always • Ordinary medicine – always • Treatment - depends

6. Proportionate vs. Disproportionate Care • Optional Support to Preserve Life • Burdensome - Extreme pain/discomfort; severe financial hardship • Dangerous - Experimental or life-threatening treatments • Extraordinary - Extreme medical procedures to prolong life • Disproportionate to Expected Outcome - Even with care, life/health would only be helped by a small degree

7. Palliative Care • Care to a dying person who cannot be healed, so that he/she will experience death with love and human dignity • Can use painkillers to alleviate pain even if it hastens death – as long as death is not willed/intended, but simply foreseen and tolerated as inevitable

8. No One Is Alone • Those choosing assisted suicide don’t want to die • They are sick, in pain, hurting, and don’t want to feel like a burden • Accompany, reassure, love, care, advocate