Pope Benedict Reiterates Teaching Against Euthanasia
(25 Feb 08 - RV) Pope Benedict XVI addressed members of a conference on the care
of the dying Monday, reiterating that the Church has always taught that direct euthanasia
is a moral evil.
Pope Benedict XVI called for doctors and medical personnel
to respect the dignity of the ill and dying when he addressed the participants of
the Pontifical Academy for Life as they began a two-day international conference today
at the Vatican’s Synod Hall. Under the title, “Close by the Incurable Sick Person
and the Dying: Scientific and Ethical Aspects,” the 73 members of the academy along
with professors and theologians meet to discuss human fragility and define what is
and is not licit in the therapeutic sphere.
Joseph Capizzi is the Associate
Professor of Moral Theology at The Catholic University in Washing DC and presented
his paper today on secularization in the face of pain, suffering and death. He discussed
how conceptions of life and death changes between cultures.
“Catholics have
a conception of death where they see death as something to be suffered – as a kind
of penalty for sin – it is a consequence of human transgression. It is something
to be avoided, typically. In our secularized culture death can be presented almost
as a good, in part because it becomes a kind of freedom of the misery of life. So
you have a very stark contrast, potentially, between these two conceptions.”
Archbishop
of Utrecht Williem Eijk is a member of the directive council of the Pontifical Academy
for Life and was the moderator for today’s first session.
“So the value of
our body, the value of we as a human person, remains always, and cannot be sacrificed
in order to end suffering.”
He spoke with us about the Christian duty to
assist in the relief of suffering.
We as Christians, we have the duty to relieve
suffering as much as possible, to be like the Good Samaritan. For instance, palliative
care is a means of relieving suffering. In this way we can prevent people from coming
into such a bad situation that they will ask for euthanasia, they will ask a doctor
to terminate their lives.”
Euthanasia was also addressed by Pope Benedict XVI.
He said that it displayed a utilitarian vision of the human person, and he reiterated
the church’s firm and constant condemnation of every form of direct euthanasia.