A major concern of organizations that monitor the practices of hospitals and other health care providers is the rationing of care based on inappropriate criteria. This article explores examples of this trend in health care. First, a tendency during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic to limit care to patients with a Do Not Resuscitate order even though their condition did not require resuscitation. Next, the article explores two cases where doctors were hesitant to give extensive care to patients whose ‘quality of life’ was considered too low to be worth treating, even though the patients and their families were willing to go through the difficult treatments to have more time together. The stories illustrate a departure from patient-centric health care toward a devaluing of individual lives through dispassionate focus on the physician’s perception of a patient’s ‘quality of life.’

The Catholic perspective on end-of-life care focuses on the value of the individual person, rather than the burden a person nearing death might place on family and health care institutions. In a culture where euthanasia is becoming a more accepted act, the Catholic approach to palliative and hospice care is vital to protecting our most vulnerable brothers and sisters. This article was originally posted on May 21, 2021.