Freedom and Voluntary Death
July 15th, 2008 by Fr. Pius, OP
Also published on the Catholic Exchange website is an article by Fr. Christopher M. Saliga, OP. Fr. Saliga’s article - entitled “Freedom and Voluntary Death” - discusses the moral dimensions of suicide or voluntary euthanasia. The article also includes a number of resources for those seeking to better understand the Catholic perspective on this issue. The article is a part of the new Bioethics Section of the Catholic Exchange website.
Fr. Saliga’s article begins with this introduction:
Arguments for or against voluntary suicide and/or voluntary euthanasia (hereafter referred to as voluntary death) usually presuppose reductionist understandings of human attributes such as freedom. For example, folks sometimes ask: what is so terribly wrong with a person coming to a substantially-autonomous decision to die? In more personal terms, why should “you” be able to tell “me” that “I” should not voluntarily choose death on “my own” terms?
How, one might wonder, can I respond to such a line of thought in cogent and convincing fashion? One can do so by accounting for freedom more completely. For example, more than simply asking yourself what you are free from, have you ever asked yourself what you are free for? Does a sufficient lack of coercion account for the totality of your freedom? In other words, have you ever voluntarily chosen a course of action that has left you less free at the end of the day? Bearing such questions in mind, does it not seem reasonable to hold that although voluntary choice is a part of personal freedom, it is not the whole of personal freedom?
And yet, how can one prudently consider voluntary death vis-à-vis more fulsome freedom? …
[The article can be read in its entirety here: "Freedom and Voluntary Death".]
Fr. Saliga is currently the full-time chaplain at Walsh University and is assigned to our priory of St. Dominic in Youngstown, OH. Fr. Saliga has his nursing degree from Franciscan University in Steubenville, OH and most recently was assigned to hospital ministry from our priory of St. Catherine in New York city.
