The Commonwealth of Virginia Legal Code requires informed consent for medical treatment. Ethical informed consent requires free will. Coercion by whatever means destroys free will so ethical informed consent is impossible.
Consent may be coerced by administrative mandate such as mandated vaccination for COVID-19 for state workers, mandates by private business that force employees to be vaccinated or lose his or her job, or travel or entry mandates that force a traveler to be vaccinated to fly or travel to a given destination. These mandates all constitute coercion that eliminates free will and destroys ethical consent.
Government might make such mandates legal, but government cannot make them ethical. The justification for such mandates generally rests on the goal of promoting the common good. However, the evidence for benefit and the evidence of harm if the mandate is not imposed must be considered.
In the case of COVID injections, the evidence for good is poor. Data are incomplete as the injections have not been subject to long-term safety testing, and the short-term results show high rates of breakthrough infection after injection and rapid degradation of measured immunity.
The evidence for harm is evident with thousands of deaths in the U.S. within 72 hours of injection reported on the CDC’s own website and tens of thousands of adverse reactions. Published analysis of Medicare and Veterans Administration data show many more deaths.
There is no information yet on long-term risks, as these injections have not yet completed long-term safety testing. The sacrifice of the citizen’s right to free will is not justified.
Another potential coercion of free will and consent is seen with assisted suicide. Severe pain or suffering with terminal illness or treatment with mind-altering pain relief drugs destroy free will and therefore ethical consent. Again, government might make assisted suicide legal, but it cannot make it ethical.
Everyone has compassion for the pain or the injury of spirit that accompanies many terminal illnesses. It is precisely this pain and suffering that prevents ethical informed consent.
Alternative powerful pain relief and spiritual support are available, and while some argue that assisted suicide allows for a “dignified death,” the use of modern pain relief also can allow for a dignified death. I have cared for patients dying with severe pain.
I cared for a 36-year-old woman dying of widespread breast cancer — including bone spread that caused her constant severe pain. The medications given to her provided substantial relief.
She could not have given free informed consent for assisted suicide. Surrogate decision makers can be authorized by the patient, but these decision makers are also coerced by their witness of the patient’s suffering.
Our Catholic faith teaches that it is a mortal sin to deliberately take a human life, including your own. It is an intrinsic evil. Rare circumstances where you are acting in self-defense or to save the life of another might justify a killing, but the death of the individual cannot be the primary goal.
Assisted suicide must be seen as an intrinsic evil, and the person assisting is cooperating with intrinsic evil no matter the technical process used. Assisted suicide endangers the eternal soul of at least two individuals.
Government might make it legal, but it cannot make assisted suicide ethical or moral.
Dr. Seeds is emeritus professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Maternal and Fetal Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University, and member of St. Benedict Parish, Richmond.