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Dear Father Angelo,

First of all, I thank you for this beautiful column that you make available to the faithful, which I always find full of many interesting ideas.

I come to my question. It is a period in which, even in the media, there is a fine line between “euthanasia” and “aggressive medical treatment”, but I would like to ask you a specific question, relating to an event that involved me indirectly, and personally a friend and colleague of mine.

This quite young friend (32 years, 5 younger than me) was diagnosed with testicular cancer some time ago. He had to undergo surgery to remove the affected testicle, and then have a mostly preventive cycle of chemo. Now he’s fine, thank God. Doctors have said that with just one testicle he can very well have an active sex life and the ability to fertilize is not impaired either.

I wondered what I would have done in his place, perhaps also because of a depression – due to job insecurity – that I try to fight but that has been affecting me for years; I don’t know if I would have found the strength to face all this. Therefore I ask you: in similar cases, if a person refuses to be treated (with more or less invasive surgery, chemotherapy, etc.) allowing the disease to progress to death, does one die in the grace of God, or is it the same as a healthy person who commits suicide and therefore, goes straight to hell?

Thanks for the answer you want to give me, my best regards.

Andrea

Answer 

Dear Andrea,

1. I state that none of us can say that a particular person having refused a certain treatment has committed a mortal sin and ended up in hell.

We can say what is legitimate and dutiful from an objective point of view.

However, only the Lord reads within consciences.

2. The Church herself, while decreeing that certain people are Saints and that it is right to give them honor and cult, has never decreed that a particular person is in hell.

3. For the saints, in fact, a canonical process is carried out which assesses the heroic degree of their virtues or the martyrdom in odium fidei.

Furthermore, as regards the saints, the Church obtains sure signs from God about their holiness such as miracles.

Instead she does not even say for the greatest criminals who have died unrepentant that they are in hell.

In fact, we judge according to the outside.

But what happens in the depths of conscience, especially at the point of death, only God knows.

This is why we can hope for everyone and, at least privately, we are encouraged to pray for everyone.

4. Having said that, since the treatment modalities are by no means disproportionate in the case you presented to me, it is dutiful to undergo treatment.

John Paul II in Evangelium vitae said: “Certainly there is a moral obligation to care for oneself and to allow oneself to be cared for, but this duty must take account of concrete circumstances. It needs to be determined whether the means of treatment available are objectively proportionate to the prospects for improvement. To forego extraordinary or disproportionate means is not the equivalent of suicide or euthanasia; it rather expresses acceptance of the human condition in the face of death” (EV 65).

5. Health and even life are not purely individual goods.

And not only because we have received them from others and it is our duty to reciprocate the gift received.

But also and above all because it is only through self-gift that man realizes himself according to God’s plan.

For this reason, the Catechism of the Catholic Church says that “Life and physical health are precious gifts entrusted to us by God.

We must take reasonable care of them, taking into account the needs of others and the common good” (CCC 2288).

As we have seen, John Paul II speaks of moral obligation.

And since the moral obligation here has to do with very high values, the resulting obligation is grave.

I thank you for the question, I remind you to the Lord and I bless you.

Father Angelo

Translated by Chiara P.