What does the Catholic Church teach about assisted dying?

The Church holds that euthanasia and assisted suicide are never morally permissible. Directive 59 of the Ethical and Religious Directives, in the seventh edition approved in November 2025, states that "Catholic health care institutions may never condone or participate in euthanasia or assisted suicide in any way," and that patients who request it "should instead be given loving care, psychological and spiritual support, and appropriate remedies for pain and other symptoms."

Less well known is how the tradition reads the request itself. The 1980 Vatican declaration says that "the pleas of gravely ill people who sometimes ask for death are not to be understood as implying a true desire for euthanasia; in fact, it is almost always a case of an anguished plea for help and love."

Palliative medicine reaches a similar conclusion from a different direction. When people with advanced cancer say they want to die, the reasons found most often are uncontrolled symptoms, depression, fear, loss of control, and the belief that they have become a burden. Each of those has something that can be done about it.

If you are thinking about ending your life, tell your oncology team, or in the United States call or text 988.