Criteria for Withholding or Withdrawing Treatment
Introduction: My purpose here is to set forth the criteria for withholding or withdrawing treatment. To put it another way, it is concerned with distinguishing treatments which the Catholic tradition has called "ordinary" or, more recently, "proportionate" (morally obligatory means of preserving life) and treatments which the Catholic tradition has called "extraordinary" or, more recently, "disproportionate" (morally nonobligatory means of preserving life). But before discussing these criteria, it will first be helpful to set forth briefly some guiding principles and presuppositions relevant to the question of caring for the sick and dying. I will then note relevant Church teaching on the distinction between "ordinary" and "extraordinary" means of treatment, following this with a critique of some influential contemporary interpretations of this teaching which I believe are very mistaken and mischievous, and finally set forth objective criteria for distinguishing between "ordinary" and "extraordinary" means, i.e ., criteria for withholding or withdrawing treatment.