What do you think of a person refusing chemotherapy and other forms of treatment for cancers etc? Is one in sin if one refuses such treatment?
I do not think it's a sin. Chemo and modern treatment is no guarantee of healing. I know a lot of people who have gone that route and died anyway. And I believe it actually made things worse in the long run. Even if the chance of recovering is high, I don't think there is a moral obligation to submit to chemo, radiation, and other treatments. It should be left to the patient to decide and the family and doctors ought to respect the person's decision.
When my mother was dying of cancer I advised her not to take any of this, although it was offered. It would only have kept her alive maybe an extra six months with increased pain and very diminished quality of life. In Catholic Moral Theology I believe such medical interventions are called, 'Heroic' and Catholics are perfectly to refuse them. A good life is not about how long we live but how well we live. A good example might be someone who was told by Doctors he needed to get both legs amputated. That would be an heroic intervention and we don't have to buy into it. There really are much, much , much worse things than death. https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/li...ons-ordinary-versus-extraordinary-means-12733 Catholic Teaching on Ordinary & Extraordinary Means The natural law and the Fifth Commandment* requires that all ordinary means be used to preserve life, such as food, water, exercise, and medical care. Since the middle ages, however, Catholic theologians have recognized that human beings are not morally obligated to undergo every possible medical treatment to save their lives, even very ordinary ones. Treatments that are 1) unduly burdensome or 2) sorrowful to a particular patient, such as amputation, or 3) beyond the economic means of the person, or 4) which only prolong the suffering of a dying person, become morally extraordinary for that person, even if they are otherwise medically ordinary or common. They may choose to use them, but they are not morally obliged to do so. The many advances in medicine during recent decades have greatly complicated the decision whether to undergo or forego medical treatment, since medicine can now save many people who would simply have been allowed to die in the past. Further, having saved them, many people continue to live for long periods in comatose or semi-conscious states, unable to live without technological assistance of one kind or another. This means that great care is required in applying the moral law to particular cases, and each person should consider how they will do so, and how they will ensure that they receive morally appropriate care when they are not able to decide for themselves. *The 5th Commandment (Dt. 5:17), 6th in Protestant usage (Ex 20:13), says "Thou shalt not kill." The implicit corollary is that one must save life, one's own and others by reasonable care (not driving too fast, not taking drugs, seeing a doctor if home care cannot effect a cure of sickness, etc.). (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church 2268-2269).
Doctors generally keep people alive far, far too longer than they should. As if keeping people alive were all in all. It's not. Death is just a curtain we pass through. Also I think keeping relatives alive too long and suffering can be a kind of selfishness, because we don't want to loose them. Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 "For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: 2a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; 3a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; 4a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; 5a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; 6a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to throw away; 7a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; 8a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace"
I don't think there's a simple yes or no answer. How effective is the treatment expected to be. Do the doctors reckon it has more than a fifty percent chance of beating the cancer? If the treatment is expected to be, say, eighty or ninety percent effective, then is the person's rejection of the treatment a kind of suicide by cancer? I don't know. How could anyone know? I knew a young woman who took all the treatment and died. That influenced her mother who later developed cancer and refused all treatment except the homeopathic stuff. She died too. Both suffered greatly. May God rest their souls. One of my family was diagnosed with cancer about 20 years ago, She took the treatment, fully recovered only for the cancer to return, She will be on treatment for the rest of her life. The treatment does limit her activities but she prefers a restricted life to dying before her time. Everyone is different and only God knows our hearts.
No not at all Is it a sin. People are often given false hope in certain situations. My mom, my Uncle, another Uncle too . It is a personal decision.
I am inclined to think that when the time to go comes the Good Lord very often knocks on the door of hearts in advance to let us know. I was reading a story recently about a Spiritual Child of Padre Pio who came to him asking him for a miracle to save his elderly father who was dying of Congestive Heart Failure. Padre Pio replied that his own father had died recently he knew it was time to let him go. That he should do the same. I think if people prayed to understand God's Will in such things, especially the ill person, it would be a big help.
There are Miracles of course. Of course there are. But they are not all the time and are not meant for everyone.
My grandmother was 92 when she passed. About 6 months prior to that, it was found she had bone cancer throughout. It had metastasized from earlier, undetected breast cancer. I was blessed to help look after her towards the end. I always wondered how she could have lived so long in what must have been great pain, without ever going to a doctor. Since then I wondered if we spend too much time worrying about "getting sick"..
Maybe so, but maybe it only happens to people like Padre Pio who are so spiritually in tune with God. There's a whole lot of things to take into account where serious illness is concerned, especially cancer. If the treatment were just a straightforward blood transfusion, then I believe it would be wrong to refuse the treatment. With cancer treatment, a lot can depend on how much support the person can rely on. Chemo can drain all their energy, leaving them too exhausted to eat never mind reheat food or cook it. There are times the treatment may leave the person feeling that they can't face another day. And radium treatment can mean daily visits to the hospital for weeks on end. Getting to the hospital can be a chore for some people Much probably depends on the type of cancer and level of treatment required to treat it. There are so many factors to take into account as to the rights and wrongs of a person's decision to accept or refuse treatment that there can't possibly be a one size fits all answer to the question.
My mother in law refused a mastectomy for breast cancer. She was very old by then and was told the cancer spreads more slowly. She was given tablets. The cancer went away. Sometimes the body's immune system is up to the job. I thought she was very brave. My father in law was in the navy during WW2 and got his arm caught in a hawser. It was badly broken and the surgeon wanted to remove it. He refused, and his arm healed perfectly well. Cancer treatment can be so unpleasant and with such unpredictable results that it isn't a sin to refuse it. The Church says that we aren't obliged to undergo extraordinary means to stay alive. In some cases it is heroic, such as Gianna Molla's decision not to have chemo to save her unborn child.
I seem to recall that Conchita's (Garabandal) husband R.I.P. refused cancer treatments and instead left everything up to God's will
Yes of course it's a matter of horses for courses and there is no one in all fix for all situations. But I do think because of the profound lack of Faith in the World today (including the Medical Profession) in a Life after death that it gives birth to deep ingrained bias to keeping people alive at all costs. No matter that God might be clearly calling people home. Everyone, including Medical Staff need to be praying to discern the Will of the Good God in the matter. But how rarely this ever happens. There is funny ,sad story about the death of Padre Pio's mother. She was very elderly and had been living nearly next door in the village under the care of one of the saints Spiritual Daughters. She died rather suddenly without Padre Pio getting any premonition of its coming. Padre Pio understood afterwards that God had hidden this future event from him so he could not intercede that she would live longer. God did not want the hassle of saying, 'No'. So kinda funny and kinda sad at the same time. Death is as natural a part of the order of things as Birth in this Fallen, sinful World. But people have long, long since forgotten this. When I contemplate the Death of Christ in knowing that the Gateway through which He passed I will pass too. That just as I die with Christ so I will live with Him Ecclesiastes 3:19 For the fate of the sons of men and the fate of beasts is the same. As one dies so dies the other; indeed, they all have the same breath and there is no advantage for man over beast, for all is vanity.
Thank you for all your answers. I asked because a very close relative died refusing treatment for cancer some years ago and in prayer for them I never felt they were at peace. In continuing this thread, a very good friend had cancer for the last number of years. They had a huge desire to live, tried all the treatments over years and whenever we met, we would always pray for healing. In one of the last times we met we again prayed for healing. The following night the person had a dream in which Our Lady came to them, told them she wanted to take them home and for us to stop praying for their healing. I visited them again soon after. We stopped praying for healing and I noticed the person had changed their mind about wanting to live, and instead we prayed for a happy death and they promised to let me know when they were in heaven. They died within a couple of days after. May they rest in peace.
I find portions of that video problematic for a Catholic. Especially about the 7:40 - 7:50 point. Not giving my faith up right at the finish line!
Its depends if the person genuinely thinks the chemo wont work, if he\she is offering up the suffering as a redemptive act or (this is bad) the person has a guilt complex and thinks suffering is deserved. its a case by case situation ,in the matter of refusing a treatment
Of course alongwith everybody else here, I agree that you don't have to submit to all these invasive procedures and extreme treatments, which in many cases are not likely to work well anyway. But can I just say I don't really think we should encourage the medical profession to 'let people go' early or whatever. I think by far a worse problem out there is unofficial euthanasia, there are many medical professionals all too keen to talk about a person suffering a bad 'quality of life' anyway etc, and then quietly administering an overdose of morphine. I think any involvement by people in that practice is definitely not ok morally.
This is how they justified legalizing euthanasia where I live. It was carried out by stealth at first, because of a perceived lack of "quality of life". Then the shouts came, very similar to "my body my choice". Every time I hear those words "quality of life", a shudder goes right through me. The whole culture of death, imho, has been predicated by the elusive "quality of life". Who defines what a "good quality" life is? That's not the same thing as prayerfully accepting the suffering the Good Lord sends us though.
