(b) Describe Catholic teaching about the importance of dying well.

Question 1

• Dying well means being prepared for death, as far as possible.
• To prepare for death a Catholic might seek forgiveness through the Sacrament of
Reconciliation and try and restore damaged relationships with family or friends.
• Dying well involves respecting human life until natural death has occurred.
• Dying well involves rejecting euthanasia or assisted suicide both of which would
be seen as a failure to die well.
• Palliative care is part of helping someone to die well. It can happen at home, in a
hospital or in a hospice.
• It involves making sure the dying person is as comfortable as possible and that
they are receiving as much pain relief as they need.
• Receiving the Sacrament of the Sick.
Relevant reference to sources could include:
• Pope John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae 65:
‘…when death is clearly imminent and inevitable, one can in conscience “refuse
forms of treatment that would only secure a precarious and burdensome
prolongation of life, so long as the normal care due to the sick person in similar
cases is not interrupted” … 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… it is licit to relieve pain by narcotics, even
when the result is decreased consciousness and a shortening of life … In such a
case, death is not willed or sought, even though for reasonable motives one runs
the risk of it: there is simply a desire to ease pain effectively by using the
analgesics which medicine provides…Taking into account these distinctions…I
confirm that euthanasia is a grave violation of the law of God, since it is the
deliberate and morally unacceptable killing of a human person.