The Use of Painkillers at the End of Life
In Evangelium Vitae, number 65 , Pope John Paul II deals with the morality of using painkillers in the final stages of illness, which could involve the risk of shortening life. His solution is one that is found in previous teaching of the Magisterium and in the writings of Catholic moralists generally. The shortening of life for the dying person, if it were to happen, would not be intended but would be the side-effect of the intended action, which is pain relief. There would be a proportionate reason for the shortening of life, again, the relief of pain . If serious pain can be relieved only through permanent loss of lucidity, then the person should have taken care of his or her religious, moral , family and social obligations prior to the administration of the medicine. This seems to us so clear and evidently correct that it needs no further commentary. I Within this same section, however, the Pope makes a statement which gives rise to two questions. He writes: