(d) (i) ‘The quality of life is more important than the sanctity of life

Question 1

• Human life has no intrinsic value; it is only valuable if the quality of that life is not
diminished by serious pain or debility.
• A person experiencing pain or loss of functions due to illness should have the right to
decide whether their life is still worth living; a belief in the sanctity of life should not be
more important than a person’s autonomy.
• Some suffering is so extreme and the quality of life so low that euthanasia should be
allowed to bring an end to that suffering; using ideas of sanctity of life to prevent this
is a form of cruelty.
• All human beings are valuable because they are made in the image and likeness of
God, no matter how sick or ill they are.
• If human life is not treated as sacred in all cases, then this means that it becomes
possible for the state to decide which human lives are not worth living and this could
lead to discrimination and pressure to commit suicide or seek euthanasia.
• The effect of suffering can be reduced and made bearable by the compassionate use
of pain relief and palliative care, improving the quality of life and preserving the
sanctity of life because both are important.
Relevant reference to sources could include:
• Genesis 1:26-28,31:
• 26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they
may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all
the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” 27 So God
created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and
female he created them. 28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and
increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the
birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”… 31 God
saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there
was morning—the sixth day.
• 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.