Can a mercy killing ever be not sinful?

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Last night I had to do an emergency load of laundry to do and as I was waiting for it to finish washing so that I could put it briefly in the drier and then hang up, I was switching the stations on the TV. We just switch services and have 3-months worth of extra stations for free.

As I was changing the channels I saw a war film where apparently a plane had crashed and one of the soldiers was trapped in the wreckage and the plane was on fire and they couldn’t get him out and him begged his buddies to kill him so that he wouldn’t be burned alive.

Now, it is my understanding that the church teaches that we are never to intentionally take an innocent life but what about a situation like I just described (or something similar)? Would there be any sin on either the part of the person asking for death or on the part of the other individual if they were to comply with the request?

Hopefully none of us will ever find ourselves in either of these positions but I’m just curious from a discussion perspective if it would be sinful?
 
That is a very good question.
I have wondered about that myself.
I suspect the Church would say it is still a sin, but I am curious what others might think about this.
 
There is no mercy in murder.

Now - if they had the ability to induce a state of unconsciousness in him so that he did not suffer, then I think that would be acceptable. But we do not have the ability to murder someone, even if they wish it.

God gives life, God takes it away. Period. Even when it’s not pretty.

~Liza
 
I would think that the great suffering and terror experienced by the trapped man could mitigate the sinfulness of his request to die. Such a request would not be made with complete freedom.

Betsy
 
I think I’d take the cowards way out & offer him the weapon to kill himself. I don’t think I could physically, mentally, or morally stand to kill someone even if I thought it were for the better and/or they asked me to do it. I don’t even think I’d be capable of knocking someone unconscious physically (w/ a drug perhaps) so they’d suffer less. I’m not that strong… if that’s strength?!
 
BiologyBrain said:
I think I’d take the cowards way out & offer him the weapon to kill himself.
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Suppose his hands were pinned and he was pleading with you to end his suffering so that he wouldn’t burn alive? Suppose it was a loved one? Would you watch them suffer or take their life?

It makes you think.
 
Sir_Knight said:
Suppose his hands were pinned and he was pleading with you to end his suffering so that he wouldn’t burn alive? Suppose it was a loved one? Would you watch them suffer or take their life?

It makes you think.
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I watched my 21 year old fiance die of brain cancer. I guess I could have shot him, poisoned him, or something, but I took the cowards (moral) way out and let God call him home when he was wanted/needed. He asked me to do something. I couldn’t and I don’t regret that decision at all. If I had, I’d probably be regretting the decision of taking God’s place in the end of his life.

I watched my grandmother die of ovarian, breast, bone, liver, & brain cancer. There were times when she’d ask to be put out of her misery. None of us could/would do it. We knew that’s God’s place. She didn’t really expect us to do anything anyway, except to offer her some comfort (our presence & prayers) in her last days.

So really, it doesn’t make me think all that much. I pretty much know my limits. I know I wouldn’t kill anyone even if they were suffering and/or desirous of it. I trust God to use His best judgement. I pray to never be put in a situation like that.
 
Sir_Knight said:
Suppose…he was pleading with you to end his suffering… Suppose it was a loved one? Would you watch them suffer or take their life?
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Not long ago my own Dad died from cancer. He suffered a lot, and had, by his own admission, thought of suicide many times. While we did everything we could to make him “comfortable”, there is no way I would have ended his life, or helped him end his own. As a previous poster noted, that’s up to God.

What I tried to do then is take comfort in knowing that my father’s suffering was, as I’ve heard some people say, either his time in purgatory done on earth, or at the very least added to the treasury of the faith I think they call it, to be used for someone else.

He received the Last Rites, including absolution for his sins, and now he suffers no more. I don’t know how either him or me would’ve made it through everything if weren’t for the Catholic faith. I can’t imagine going through it as an atheist.
 
I think that first duty must be to find the way to save life not to finish it.
 
Athanasiy said:
I think that first duty must be to find the way to save life not to finish it.
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Soldier is trapped under several tons of steel. Not only can’t you lift it but can even get close to him because of the flames that surround him. He pleads with you to end his life because he is about to burn to death. What do you do? Take his life? Watch him burn? Walk away so he dies alone? Stay with him?

Not sure what I would do but I’m sure that people, especially soldiers, have found themselves in these type of situations.
 
In the times of war , there were situations when the hospitals did not have enough medications and some hardly injured soldiers who were about to die were begging to finish them up , or where searching the way to end up their lives.
Its a hiurrible to think about it or to even imagine that.
But , to help some one die by mercy-killing ?
There are circumstances which diminish the guilt of some one , but those circumstances do not justify the act itself.
To do the best to let your neighbour - to live, that’s how I think , but God forbid to witness the things like those ones.
 
Ending this man’s life also removes all possibility of God working a miracle. Sure it’s a slim chance, but the chance is still there. And “from the eyes of heaven, even the most painful, horrible earthly life will seem like nothing more than a single night spent in an inconvenient hotel.” Even though the pain he is enduring seems great at the time, his few minutes of physical pain are worth less than either his or your immortal soul surely.
 
Sir_Knight said:
Soldier is trapped under several tons of steel. Not only can’t you lift it but can even get close to him because of the flames that surround him. He pleads with you to end his life because he is about to burn to death. What do you do? Take his life? Watch him burn? Walk away so he dies alone? Stay with him?

Not sure what I would do but I’m sure that people, especially soldiers, have found themselves in these type of situations.
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Going back to the original post for discussion. It is really impossible to know what any of us would actually do, whether we believe it is right or wrong, under the kind of duress that soldiers or vicitims of disaster find themselves. People do things they would never consider doing when faced with extremes. I can’t say for sure, not being an apologist, but I believe that the mortal sin would, to some extent unknown, be mitigated by the conditions under which the decision was made.
 
I agree (please see my other post in answer to the original question). As a physician, I have sat at the bedside, holding the hand of many patients at the end of life, either due to injury, disease (cancer) or age. (A little unusual, perhaps, I have always been old fashioned in my approach to the social aspects of medicine). I have given enormous doses of intravenous morphine to those with cancer whose pain was so great that doses that would easily kill a person not in pain seemed barely to affect them. Under those circumstances I would continue to increase the morphine drip until a tolerable state of comfort was achieved. I have sometimes wondered if knowing that, while the intent of the medication was to alleviate pain, a side effect could be that it would hasten death; was a sin. I feel firmly now that this is not the case.

I have, however, had to tell a patient, on more than one occasion that “if you tell me you do not want life saving treatment, or that you want no more treatment at all, in that, I have no choice. If you tell me that you want me to act in any way to intentionally end your life, in that I have no business.” When the law changes and requires me to be a part of physician assisted suicide, I will have to leave the practice of the healing arts which I so love.
 
I ran into a story in Our Sunday Visitor that was somewhat of an update on “mercy killing”, which is gaining popuarity and which becoming accepted by some courts/legislatures. I did a bit more research on the topic and posted about it today at acts17verse28.blogspot.com/2009/05/euthanasia-path-to-dignity.html.

I’d be interested in hearing what your opinions are on care at the end of life. Is there ever a time when you believe that “mercy killing” is justifiable? How do you feel about withholding nutrition (tube feedings) from someone who is unable to eat? Is it ever OK to take someone off a ventilator? What about “living wills” - do you believe that it’s a good idea to have one? Do you? Do you believe that the medical community is (or should be) legally bound to honor living wills? Should there be legal penalties is the next of kin or the medical community doesn’t abide by the instructions in the document?

All interesting questions. I’d like to hear from you.
 
I believe that it is entirely up to God when to take life and as doctors who take the Hippocratic Oath, they promise to preserve life. God can take our life at any moment so as a person who was suffering in that position I would have to pray to God to take my life rather than ask another person to do so. I think sometimes death occurs because people lose the will to live although God may not always take a person’s life at their own whim.
 
Sir_Knight said:
As I was changing the channels I saw a war film where apparently a plane had crashed and one of the soldiers was trapped in the wreckage and the plane was on fire and they couldn’t get him out and him begged his buddies to kill him so that he wouldn’t be burned alive.
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I think each and every one of us here can quote Catechism until the cows come home, but I’m willing to bet that if any of us were in this situation, not one of us would walk away from our friend.
 
baylee said:
I think each and every one of us here can quote Catechism until the cows come home, but I’m willing to bet that if any of us were in this situation, not one of us would walk away from our friend.
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You’re right - I doubt we’d simply walk away from our friend. But the situation described is quite different from a mercy killing, though. In the case of mercy killing, active steps are taken to cause another’s death.

I find it very distressing to think that doctors have rewritten the Hippocratic oath so that now abortion & euthanasia aren’t specifically condemned.

acts17verse28.blogspot.com/2009/05/euthanasia-path-to-dignity.html
 
lizaanne said:
There is no mercy in murder.

Now - if they had the ability to induce a state of unconsciousness in him so that he did not suffer, then I think that would be acceptable. But we do not have the ability to murder someone, even if they wish it.

God gives life, God takes it away. Period. Even when it’s not pretty.

~Liza
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I believe you have given the correct answer here, Liza. And it is surely in accord with the teachings and the intention of the Church.

The unspoken assumption in the question is that the only way to show mercy would be by killing the person to save him from his suffering. But, as you point out, the way to relieve him of his suffering would be to focus on the suffering and relieve that. To kill him would not only subject him to further trauma and violence, even if he was overdosed. And then there is the horrible act of murder and the punishment due that the perpetrator would incur.

Spare him suffering, don’t kill him. He’s not a horse or a dog. We don’t shoot people to put them out of our misery, whether with drugs or bullets. (And yes, I did mean to type “our” misery, because that is often what we are concerned about, our own suffering.)
 
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