Sanctity of life, quality of life, and social justice.

In two areas of moral theology, the Catholic tradition has had an asset in its flexibility: the responsibility to sustain individual human lives, and the just distribution of the material and social resources which contribute to the "common good." Moral analysis in the former area is newly tested by medical technology which prolongs life in four related instances: seriously abnormal newborns; adults who are critically ill, comatose, or dying; the withdrawal of artificial nutrition and hydration; and the special case of a competent adult, Elizabeth Bouvia, who demands medical cooperation in refusing artificial sustenance. In all cases an important consideration is whether "quality of life" is a morally defensible criterion for withdrawing, withholding, or providing treatment, and if so, what that criterion means and how it is to be applied. These issues of health care are seen increasingly to involve the just distribution of scarce resources, and to manifest the inevitable interdependence of the "indi-