JONE Moral Theology #110 (TAN books, Imprimatur 1961)
Intemperance in drinking which has as its immediate effect the loss of the use of reason is a graver sin than immoderation in eating.
Intoxication that results in a partial loss of reason is only a venial sin.
It may be a mortal sin because of scandal, injury to health, harm to one’s family, etc.
Intoxication that ends in complete loss of reason is a mortal sin if brought on without a sufficient reason.
Complete loss of reason is presumed in him who can no longer distinguish good from bad, or if, after the drunkenness has passed, he cannot remember what he said or did while under the influence of drink, or if one does a thing which he never would have done when sober.
A sufficient reason to deprive oneself temporally of his use of reason would be to cure a disease or to counteract blood poisoning and the like. Merely to drive away the blues is not adequate reason.
To make another person completely drunk is also a grave sin, unless there is a sufficient excuse, e.g., to prevent him from committing a great crime. It is more readily permissible to be the occasion of another’s intoxication, e.g., at a banquet.
Since morphine, opium, chloroform and similar drugs can also deprive one of the use of his reason temporarily, that which was said of intoxicating drinks holds also for narcotics (Cf. 165, 4).
To use narcotics in small quantities and only occasionally, is a venial sin if done without a sufficient reason. Any proportionately good reason justifies their use, e.g., to calm the nerves, dispel insomnia, etc.
Such use becomes gravely sinful if it creates an habitual craving for “dope” which is more difficult to overcome than dipsomania and more injurious to health.
To use drugs in greater quantities so as to lose the use of one’s reason is in itself a mortal sin; but for a good reason it is permissible.
Such a good reason is had in case of operations, i.e., that the patient be rendered insensible to intense pain, or that one might remain calm under the knife. In like manner one may administer opiates to one who is suffering greatly in order to alleviate his pain.
In general it is forbidden to make a patient unconscious by the use of drugs in non-lethal doses in order that he may have a painless death (therapeutic euthanasia 211).
Such action is lawful if the sick person is well prepared for death and there is danger that he might otherwise fall into sin. Some authors allow such a procedure if the dying person is thus spared unusually great suffering and if one has reason to presume his consent. — According to the general opinion such a practice is not allowed merely to remove the ordinary anxieties that accompany the death agony. If the patient asks for such drugs in good faith and if there is no hope of teaching him otherwise, he should be left in good faith.
Such a practice is never allowed if the sick person is not prepared for death, and hope remains that he might eventually prepare for it. In such a case one must oppose as far as he can the doctors and relatives who desire to effect his dying while unconscious.
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