In a letter to Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, President of the Pontifical Academy for Life, just released this week, Pope Francis extended his personal greetings to the participants in the European Regional Meeting of the World Medical Association on end-of-life issues, which took place at the Vatican recently.
Pope Francis emphasized that, when faced with the new challenges that arise with regard to “end-of-life” issues, “the categorical imperative is to never abandon the sick.”
The Pope continued: “The anguish associated with conditions that bring us to the threshold of human mortality, and the difficulty of the decision we have to make, may tempt us to step back from the patient. Yet this is where, more than anything else, we are called to show love and closeness, recognizing the limit that we all share and showing our solidarity.”
The Holy Father called for “greater wisdom” in striking a balance between medical efforts to prolong life, and the responsible decision to withhold treatment when death becomes inevitable. “It is clear that not adopting, or else suspending, disproportionate measures, means avoiding overzealous treatment,” the Pope said.
But he insisted: “From an ethical standpoint, it is completely different from euthanasia, which is always wrong, in that the intent of euthanasia is to end life and cause death.”
Pope Francis acknowledged that it is often difficult to determine the proper course of action in increasingly complex cases. “There needs to be a careful discernment of the moral object, the attending circumstances, and the intentions of those involved,” he said, pointing to the traditional criteria of moral theology for evaluating human actions. But in this process, he insisted “the patient has the primary role.”
The Pope concluded that it is important to find agreed solutions to “these sensitive issues.” He, likewise, emphasized the need to recognize different world views and ethical systems, and noted the duty of the state to protect the dignity of every human person, especially the most vulnerable.
Certainly, advances in medical science and technology are providing treatments that were inconceivable a generation ago. In many cases, the life process can be extended well beyond the limits of what in the past would have been considered impossible.
Medico-moral decisions are becoming increasingly complex and the Church certainly needs to provide clear and convincing guidance to patients, family members and doctors as they seek to determine the right and proper course of treatment for those who are at the brink of death.
The Holy Father’s remarks to the Pontifical Academy for Life and the World Medical Association are commendable.
The ethical and moral questions regarding end of life issues will continue to be of concern as science delves more deeply into the biological processes that both determine and extend the life process.
Through it all, the Church must be present and helpful along the pathway of the technological advancements yet to be made.
The Holy Father has highlighted the reality that the line between life and death is becoming thinner with each medical discovery and its attendant treatment.
By insisting the “the patient exercises the primary role” in determining his medical condition and the desire for treatments which may extend life, the Pope has provided a safeguard against end of life decisions being made by others for any number of reasons which may or may not be related to the best interests and care of the patient himself.
In the end, the clearest moral imperative remains, that is, to be comforting and loving to the dying, assisting them with attention and prayer that they depart this life with dignity and grace in the hope of eternal salvation.
This is a message the world at large, not just the medical profession, needs to hear and embrace.
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