MONSON — Powerful pain killers, ventilators, cloning, artificial conception:

Modern options in medical science and technology may have contemporary Catholics wondering if the church’s position on biological ethics has been challenged or compromised.

"The church’s teaching has been the same for twenty centuries," said Conventual Franciscan Father Germain Kopaczynski, director of education for the National Catholic Bioethics Center in Boston.

Father Kopaczynski spoke to about 50 people who gathered in St. Patrick Church in Monson on Dec. 10 for the last segment of a three-day Advent retreat held at the parish. With an instructional style that included equal parts humor and reverence, the friar discussed topics such as euthanasia, physician-assisted suicide, and the freezing of human embryos.

In a program that lasted an hour and 45 minutes, he captured his audience’s attention with his focus on God as the ultimate regulator of human life — and death.

To emphasize the church’s prohibition against euthanasia, Father Kopaczynski used the Gospel, the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), and his order’s patron, St. Francis, as sources clarifying this issue for Catholics.

Quoting several lines from St. Francis’ "Canticle of Brother Sun," he noted that "Death is to be feared only when it is the death of the soul."

He stressed that the CCC calls euthanasia "a murder gravely contrary to the dignity of the human person" and to God. And referring to the Gospel teachings about the sanctity of life, he noted, "Never once did the Lord suggest death as an end to the suffering of life."

The church’s view on physician-assisted suicide is essentially the same, Father Kopaczynski said. "It is contrary to the moral law."

In addressing the issue of terminal illness, Father Kopaczynski emphasized that the dying person, if able, should determine his or her end-of-life treatment, as long as it doesn’t involve euthanasia. This end-of-life care may include use of technology to prolong life.

Painkillers, even if they may, as a side effect, hasten death, are acceptable, as long as the intent is to relieve suffering. However, if medical treatment, such as a respirator or chemotherapy, is invasive, it does not have to be used.

"We don’t have to use technology just because we have it," he said, asking, "Is this technology our Lord or our servant?"

One of the most frequent questions received at the bioethics center, Father Kopaczynski said, is about the moral implications of removing life-support equipment from a terminally ill patient. Again, he emphasized, if the technology is invasive, or the patient has previously expressed a wish not to receive it, the church does not object to removing the equipment.

Life-support equipment should be used, he said, as long as it is of sufficient benefit to outweigh the burdens to the patient. If one is not sure about the risks and benefits, he advised, then the presumption to preserve life should prevail.

He referred several times to the U.S. bishops’ 1995 document entitled "Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services," which stated that Catholics are not morally required to use technology which imposes excessive risks or burdens.

In response to a question from an audience member, Father Kopaczynski also stated that DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) orders are not contrary to the Catholic faith.

Drawing on the bishops’ document, he said caregivers must take into account the well-being of the entire person when determining an intervention, and a procedure which could cause harm is justified by a proportionate benefit to the patient.

He distinguished between medical interventions, however, and providing hydration and nutrition. Providing food and water is recommended for a dying patient up to the point where it becomes counterproductive, causing a patient to vomit, etc.

Quoting from the Kenny Rogers song, "The Gambler," he said, "You got to know when to hold ’em; and know when to fold ’em."

In contemplating one’s own end-of-life care, Father Kopa-czynski recommends use of a legal power of durable attorney document instead of a living will, because the living will refers to decisions about conditions which cannot be known in advance while the latter establishes a personal proxy to deal with an actual situation.

Above all, he said, Catholics should keep in mind the church’s focus on the relationship between humans and God; and the preference for life or "the bias for bios," as he calls it.

"We are not the owners of our lives," he said. "We do not have absolute power over (life)."