Section V. On Physicians and Notaries

(St. Alphonsus, Theologia Moralis, book IV, nn. 291, 230 and 231.)

I. A physician is bound to possess sufficient knowledge, and in the exercise of his office to apply diligence proportionate to the gravity of the illness or operation. Hence he ought to furnish the sick person the remedy which seems safer to him. "But if there is no hope concerning the health of the sick person, nor is there present any remedy except a doubtful one, namely one concerning which it is doubted whether it will be useful or harmful, they can, indeed they ought to, apply it. The reason is that thus the business of the sick person is managed usefully; and if death follows, it will not be imputed to them, since otherwise he has no hope of life" (St. Alphonsus IV, 291).

Corollary. It is unlawful to use a means solely for the sake of experiment, except in the case in which the means to be applied is certainly not going to be harmful, and the consent of the sick person is added.

II. A physician should abstain from useless visits and remedies. Observe, however, that those are not plainly useless if they conduce in some way to consoling the sick person or alleviating his pains; nevertheless he should take care that the expenses do not become greater than is just.

III. He can ask the honorarium which, considering the labor and condition of the sick person, is customary to be asked in those regions. If he excels in skill, he can ask what the most skilled are accustomed to ask in circumstances of this kind. The reason is that the service furnished is deservedly said to be worth so much, and that those whose interest it is consent to an honorarium of this kind.

IV. Finally, the physician is also bound, either by himself or through another, to warn the sick person in a timely way concerning danger to life, so that he can provide for the salvation of his soul, receive the sacraments rightly, and arrange temporal affairs. If, however, he is morally certain either that the sick person is in the state of grace, or that the warning will not be useful, at least a grave obligation under this heading is not had (St. Alphonsus VI, 664).

I add these grave words of St. Alphonsus: "O how miserable it is to see so many sick persons (and especially you who are of distinguished dignity) reduced to the final straits of death, so that they may prepare the accounts of life soon to be rendered to God, at a time when they are almost lifeless, when they can scarcely then form words, scarcely hear others, scarcely conceive the state of their own conscience and sorrow for their sins! And all this happens through the fault of those physicians who, lest they displease the sick or their relatives, do not make them certain concerning the danger; indeed they go on flattering them until they themselves altogether despair of life" (Praxis Confessarii, n. 57).

V. With respect to notaries it suffices to treat the question insofar as a notary is bound to restitution toward the treasury if, with the parties consenting explicitly or implicitly, he writes down a price of the thing lower than the true one for this end, that the tax to be paid may be diminished.

Response 1. If there is a custom of writing down a lesser value, and the notary follows that custom, he is not bound to restitution, nor does he sin; indeed, by oath he can affirm that all things have been duly declared.

Response 2. If the notary goes beyond the custom, and deprives the treasury of a tax to which the client is not obliged, likewise he is not bound to restitution; nor does he sin by writing down the lesser value, because he can use a broad mental restriction: Such is the value, insofar as it is subject to a just tax.

Response 3. If the notary goes beyond the custom, and deprives the treasury of a tax (or part of a tax) to which the client is bound, he is obliged to restitution, because by an unjust means, namely a lie, he impedes the state from a good legitimately to be obtained (n. 996). Note, however, that the obligation of restoring belongs primarily to those in whose name the notary acted.