Quality-of-Life Judgments in the Catholic Tradition: Their Proper Place and Related Duties

I draw from the secular bioethics literature, Roman Catholic teaching, and empirical studies to delineate the proper place and related duties of quality-of-life judgments in the Catholic tradition. Individuals have duties to be reasonably informed about the various dimensions of their lives, to form their consciences, and to work to change things within their control to improve the quality of their lives. Health care professionals have duties to inform patients about aspects of their health regarding which they have expertise, to have epistemic humility and refrain from judging the quality of their patients’ lives, and to work to improve the quality of their patients’ lives. In the context of these duties, quality-of-life considerations rightly factor into medical treatment decision making: the specific ways that a treatment improves quality of life are counted among its benefits; the specific ways that a treatment detracts from quality of life are counted among its burdens.