Case IX: The Duty to Preserve One’s Life

Case.—Father John has a penitent, David, the son of a widowed mother and a man in ordinary circumstances of life, who has developed consumption. David is in very poor health at present, and has been told by many reputable physicians, who have carefully examined him, that he cannot live more than one year unless he remove himself from this climate and betake himself to the Rocky Mountains, where, if his health improves, he would have to stay for four or five years. There is no certainty, however, that even there he will recover his shattered health. Now David is not inclined to follow the advice of the doctors. He feels that it would be imposing too great a hardship on himself and upon his mother. He dreads the life he will be compelled to lead in the mountains, and declares that he prefers to remain, and die, if must be, at home, where he can receive some consolation from his parent, and where he can be of help to her.

Question.—Is there any obligation on his part to go to the mountains? Does he commit sin by not going?

Solution.—The solution of this case must depend upon circumstances. Of course, it goes without saying that we are obliged to preserve the life that God has given us. We are not free to do anything that will shorten our lives directly. But this is only a general principle which arises from the binding force of the Fifth Commandment. In practice it may be modified by many conditions. When we claim that we are obliged in conscience to use the means necessary to the preservation of life, we must be held to be referring only to the ordinary means the use of which are required for the maintenance of God-given life. To exemplify this, we assert that a man is bound in conscience to take food, to take medicines, to take fresh air, exercise, etc., because these are the ordinary means which enable him to conserve his life. It follows that a man who would when sick refuse all medical aid, and who from prejudice or obstinacy would allow himself to pass out of this world rather than consult or follow the advice of clinical experts, would be guilty of sin. But we are not obliged by any law of God to use extraordinary means. Such means would be those that entail very great expense, very great pain, or very great hardship. Should one’s life be necessary for the good of society or of the community, then extraordinary means become ordinary, and such a one is bound to use all means at his disposal to preserve his life. Do not forget then that what is extraordinary for one man is ordinary for another, and that what is ordinary under one set of circumstances may be extraordinary under another. It is our view that the conditions under which David labors, and which beget in him a repugnance to a change of climate and a long residence in the mountains, with consequent separation from home and his mother, may rightly be looked upon as out of the ordinary. Therefore we hold that he is not obliged to submit himself to them, and consequently he does not sin by refusing to accept the dictum of his physician. He may be counselled to go, but he cannot be compelled to do so under pain of sin. The hardship, the expense, the mental pain, the loneliness and the fact that after all he may not ultimately recover, all these conspire to make the remedy an extraordinary one,