The principle of proportionality in therapy: Foundations and applications criteria

Abstract

The topic of therapeutic proportionality represents one of the main emerging issues in the contemporary bioethical debate. This paper intends to outline the development of moral doctrine on the use of therapeutic means. It first presents a synthesis of the reflection produced by moral Tradition with the definition of the concept of “ordinary and extraordinary means”; then the official teaching of the Catholic Church on the subject is summed up briefly up to the present day and finally, on the basis of the main points which will emerge during this itinerary, the author proposes his own attempt to create a new synthesis on the ethics of the use of therapeutic means. Such synthesis, which the author terms as “the principle of ethical suitability in the use of means for the preservation of life”, is an evaluative dynamism which, continuing along the lines set out by classical terminology (ordinary and extraordinary means), tries to apply the contents of moral Tradition to the new emerging perspective (proportionate and disproportionate means), underlining the specificity of each term, in a context of ethical systematization able to provide concrete evaluation criteria, at the service of the practical choices of patients and health care personnel.