2008-10-21 13:29:16

Pope Benedict XVI Advice to Surgeons


(October 21, 2008) Pope Benedict XVI is calling for a focus on recovering better relationships between doctors and their patients, saying that this is necessary for humanizing medicine. The Pope affirmed this Monday 20th, during an audience given to members of the Italian Society of Surgery, which is having its 110th international conference. Doctor-patient communication should be the base for an "authentic therapeutic alliance with the patient" that permits defining the strategy to be used for the illness," he said. The Pontiff affirmed that a doctor can do more for his patient if a good relationship is developed: "He can motivate the patient, sustain him, inspire him, and even maximize his physical and mental strength, or, on the contrary, he can weaken him and frustrate his strengths, thus reducing the very efficacy of the treatment given." What should distinguish a doctor, the Holy Father contended, are "those human qualities that, beyond professional competence in the strict sense, make the patient value him." A sick person should not be considered an antagonist, he added, but rather an "active and responsible collaborator in the therapeutic treatment," though "respecting his self-determination." The ill, Pope Benedict XVI continued, "want to be seen with benevolence, not just examined; they want to be listened to, not just exposed to sophisticated diagnoses; they want to perceive with certainty that they are present in the mind and the heart of the doctor who heals them." The Pope acknowledged that the autonomy of the patient must be respected. Every patient, even the gravely ill one, has an unconditional value, a dignity worthy of being honoured." Referring to the theme chosen by the surgeons for their conference: "For a Surgery That Respects the Ill" -- the Pope explained that the foundation of medicine should always be "respect for human dignity. In fact, it demands the unconditional respect of every human being, born or unborn, healthy or sick, regardless of the condition in which they find themselves."







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