Abstract

In two addresses given during 1957, Pope Pius XII gave key magisterial teach regarding ordinary and extraordinary means of treatment. The Pope carefully worked out that the duty of providing necessary treatment for the preservation of life and health relates to the ends for which one acts, and the liceity of providing or withdrawing treatment is contingent on whether this transgresses a moral obligation related to these ends: those that concern life and health and those that are spiritual. Thus, caring for the seriously ill should be for one’s life on earth and with God now and in eternity, and the means of treatment must be able to achieve these good purposes and be suitable to the conditions of the ill person and caregivers.