Euthanasia: Moral and Pastoral Perspectives

Richard M. Gula, 1994, Euthanasia: Moral and Pastoral Perspectives, Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press

Richard M. Gula, S.S. is professor of moral theology at St. Patrick Seminary in Menlo Park, California. He gave the Catholic tradition's reasoning and motivations for opposing physician-assisted suicide. It is interesting to read their well reasoned objections.

In Declaration on Euthanasia issued by Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, June 26, 1980, there is a section on suffering. "According to Christian teaching, however, suffering especially suffering during the last moments of life, has a special place in God's saving plan; it is in fact a sharing in Christ's passion and a union with the redeeming sacrifice which he offered in obedience to the Father's will."

Gula outlines his pastoral response as "a call for the personal virtues of humility, courage, hope, within a community or parish committed to caring, hospitality, and interdependence."

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