The Nazi program of inflicting
euthanasia on the severely mentally ill in the twentieth century can be
distinguished from cases in which suffering people with incurable diseases desire
to die voluntarily sooner rather than later. In cases in which such people are
mentally ill, the question is more complex, especially if the cause of the
suffering is mental. In 2026, the Roman Catholic Church castigated a court
ruling allowing the euthanasia of a mentally-ill person whose suffering stemmed
in part from severe bodily pain and an incurable diagnosis other than that of
the mental illness. Ironically, the Church discounted the element of compassion
in putting someone out of one’s misery that would only get worse, and instead
focused on “the culture of death” even though Jesus is silent on that issue, as
well as homosexuality and abortion, in the Gospels. This is a case, I contend, of
religion overstepping onto another domains—ethics and medicine in particular—while
shirking its native fauna.
The full essay "Religion Overreaching."