To the participants in a meeting of
the
NO MEDICAL SOLUTION WHICH VIOLATES NATURAL LAW
AND OPPOSES REVEALED TRUTH
WOULD BE TRULY COMPASSIONATE
On Thursday, 8
September, the Holy Father received in audience at
Ladies and Gentlemen,
1.
It is a pleasure to welcome today the participants in the Tenth Annual Meeting
of the European Academy of Anaesthesiology.
I am pleased that you have wished to include this audience in the
programme of your meeting in
In a
particular way, I wish to express my appreciation of the goals of your Academy, such as your commitment to improving the
practice and theoretical training of those who are preparing to serve in the
field of anaesthesiology. I am thinking,
too, of your promotion of scientific research in this and related fields of
medicine and of your desire to facilitate fruitful dialogue with institutional
and political authorities on topics of mutual interest and concern. Another contribution of special significance
would be your efforts to develop greater collaboration between medical personnel
of all the countries of
The reality of pain
and suffering
2.
The medical profession, like the Church herself, places itself at the service of
the human family, and more particularly at the service of people who are sick
and suffering. It is in light of this
exalted mission of yours that I share with you some reflections on the ethical nature of your vocation.
As
anaesthetists, you seek to relieve the pain of those persons who have been
injured in an accident or who for some other reason must undergo a medical
operation, or receive other medical care.
In you work, you are always collaborating with other specialists, making
possible surgical interventions or some other form of medical treatment. In every case, you are placing your talents
and expertise at the service of people
who are ill and suffering.
However, as you know well, no matter how dedicated and effective your
efforts, you can never overcome completely the reality of pain and
suffering. You can suspend it for a
certain length of time; in many cases,
you can reduce its intensity to a significant degree, but suffering and pain
remain an inevitable part of the earthly experience of every human person. This means that your professional work
compels you again and again to face the mystery of human suffering.
3.
In my Apostolic Letter on the Christian Meaning of Suffering I wrote of how Christ, by becoming
a man and especially by taking suffering upon himself, gave meaning and redemptive value to the pain
and suffering of human life. For it was
precisely by means of his own suffering that Christ accomplished our eternal
salvation. Suffering was the means God
chose for expressing his eternal love for us and for offering us the gift of
the Redemption.
By
his own example, Jesus taught us to care for our brothers and sisters who
suffer; and he told his disciples, when
he sent them forth, “heal the sick...and
say to them, 'The Kingdom of God has come near to you'” (Lk 10:9). To relieve pain, then, and to care for the
sick is a profession of great moral value.
At the same time, it is a profession that demands both high moral standards and courageous ethical conduct, especially at a time in history when
fundamental moral truths are being called into question. For example, some of our contemporaries are
advocating the termination of human life through euthanasia as a supposedly compassionate
solution to the problem of human suffering.
4.
You who work in the field of anaesthesiology are perhaps particularly sensitive
to the pleas of those who clamour for the so-called compassionate solution of
euthanasia, precisely because your profession aims at reducing the pain that
others are suffering. This is especially
true in instances of intense and prolonged suffering. While being sympathetic to the subjective
feelings which may prompt these pleas for euthanasia, you must not lose sight
of the objective facts and ultimate truths which necessarily enter
into the question.
In
this regard, I would like to call your attention to the guidelines contained in
the “Declaration on Euthanasia” issued
with my approval by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. In this document, the question at hand is
dealt with in readily understandable terms.
It states: “It may happen that,
by reason of prolonged and barely tolerable pain, for deeply personal or other
reasons, people may be led to believe that they can legitimately ask for death
or obtain it for others. Although in
these cases the guilt of the individual may be reduced or completely absent,
nevertheless the error of judgement into which the conscience falls, perhaps in
good faith, does not change the nature of this act of killing, which will
always be in itself something to be rejected.
The pleas of gravely ill people who sometimes ask for death are not to
be understood as implying a true desire for euthanasia; in fact it is almost always a case of an
anguished plea for help and for love” (No. 11).
When
confronting this grave moral evil and other serious threats to the dignity of
the human person, we must remain steadfast in the conviction that no medical solution could be truly compassionate which would violate the
natural law and stand in opposition to the revealed truth of the word of God. In the end, we must recall that no doctor, no
nurse, no medical technician, indeed no human being, is the final arbiter of human life, either of one's
own life or that of another. This realm
belongs only to God, the Creator and
Redeemer of us all.
5.
There are many other difficult ethical questions which you inevitably face in
your noble profession, questions which require careful judgement of conscience
in addition to your well-informed medical insights. That is why there is an increasingly evident need for a serious ethical formation of all those engaged in the
medical field. Such formation is
appropriate and necessary in light of the fact that your aim is not only to
serve each patient by your professional diligence and competence but also to
provide a “fully human” care that meets the needs of the whole person. In this entire field, I want to secure you of
the interest and concern of the Church, which is eager to offer you assistance
through the guidance of her moral teaching and the wealth of her spiritual
patrimony. It is in mutual collaboration
that we can best serve those who suffer.
Along these lines I wish to recall a point which I emphasized a few years
ago, in an address to the World Medical Association: “One cannot but render homage to the immense
progress achieved...by the medicine of the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries. But, as you are aware, it is
necessary now more than ever to overcome the separation between science and
morality, to rediscover their profound unity.
It is man whom you are dealing with, man whose dignity it is precisely
the province of morality to safeguard” (
My
words this evening are intended, dear friends, to be, above all, an expression
of esteem and encouragement in your generous efforts to assist those in
pain. I gladly commend you and your work
to the Lord of Life, the God and Father of all.
May he grant his abundant blessings to you and to all your dear ones.