(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."