Educational Resource
Guidelines on Life Sustaining Treatment
Guidelines for Legislation for Life-Sustaining Treatment
National Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee for Pro-Life Activities
Our Judeo-Christian heritage celebrates life as the gift of a loving God, and respects the life of each human being because each is made in the image and likeness of God. As Christians we also celebrate the fact that we are redeemed by Christ and called to share eternal life with Him. From these rootc; the Roman Catholic tradition has developed a distinctive approach to fostering and sustaining hum an life. Our tradition not only condemns direct attacks on innocent life, but also promotes a general view of life as a sacred trust over which we can claim stewardship but not absolute dominion. As conscientious stewards we see a duty to preserve life while recognizing certain limits to that duty, as was reiterated most recently in the Vatican Declaration on Euthanasia.