Abstract

A theological and historical background is needed for understanding the terms ordinary and extraordinary regarding the care required for one seriously ill. This background is theological, since one’s care is directed to our life on earth and our ultimate happiness that comes from God. So, one needs the knowledge given by God in revelation and in natural law written in our hearts. Besides our own powers of acting, we need the help of others as well as of God, through his grace and sacraments. The historical view is given because situations change, and so our judgment must change. In God’s law, one must eat to live but not if it becomes a torture. Domingo de Soto gave the name ordinary for the former and extraordinary for the latter. With the arrival of anesthesia and antiseptics, the pain and terrible outcomes, which made amputation an extraordinary means, no longer did so.