To the II
International Conference
of the Pontifical Council for
Pastoral Assistance to Health Care Workers
PROMOTING AND DEFENDING LIFE
12 November 1987
1.Ladies and Gentlemen, it is with deep joy
that I extend my deferential greeting to you as you participate in the
international conference on the humanization of medicine sponsored by the
Pontifical Commission for the Apostolate of Health-Care Workers. This is a
fundamental theme, one whose importance is being recognized more and more
today.
2.Life is a gift of God. Man is not its lord, but rather its responsible
administrator. It is the
Creator of
the world who shaped the beginning of
man and devised the origin of all things (cf. 2 Mac 7:23). In all the
expressions of his life, then, man belongs to God, to whom he must respond (is this not perhaps the
etymological root of the term “responsible”?) concerning the use he has made of
this great gift.
It is from this that the nobility of
medicine, which is by definition service to human
life, derives. As such, it involves
an essential and inalienable reference to man as a spiritual and material whole
and in his individual and social dimensions; medicine is at the service of the
person, of the whole person, of every person.
Of this truth you are profoundly convinced,
following the lines of a most ancient tradition having its roots in the first
intuitions of Hippocrates. However, it is precisely this conviction which gives
rise to your concerns as scholars, scientists and researchers, due to the
snares to which modern medicine is exposed. In fact, “the new frontiers…opened
by the progress of science and by its possible technical and therapeutic
applications touch the most delicate spheres of life at its very sources and in
its most profound meaning” (Dolentium hominum, 3).
It is partly these concerns which
have moved you to gather for this conference, as you desire to contribute your
expertise in the formation of strategies to safeguard more effectively the
fundamental gift of life and promote it more consistently.
Moving from the general to the
particular, the questions dealt with in the conference, wisely begin with a
reflection on life and the right to life; hence with man and health, and,
finally, with man and medicine. Discourse about man and health, about man and
medicine, in fact presupposes a clear conception of life, of the right to it
and its quality.
3.Since it is obviously impossible
for me to consider all the many particular questions addressed by your
conference, I wish to offer some reflections on the central theme, around which
all other questions revolve: the theme, that is, of the humanization of medicine. It reaches the very heart of the
right-duty to defend and to promote life and its dignity. There can in fact be
no authentic promotion of human life without a growing humanization of
medicine, one which extends beyond merely scientific and technological
contributions. In fact, ”science and technology are valuable resources for man
when placed at his service and when they promote his integral development for
the benefit of all; but they cannot of themselves show the meaning of existence
and of human progress. Being ordered to man, who initiates and develops them,
they draw from the person and his moral values the indication of their purpose
and the awareness of their limits” (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith,
Instruction on Respect for Human Life in
its Origin and on the Dignity of Procreation, 2).
Your conference aims to place within
an organic framework the various problems regarding the notion of life and the
right to life, the questions posed by the great development of pharmacology,
the expectations aroused by the urgent need to safeguard the environment, the
tensions connected with the growing imbalances between industrialized nations
and developing nations, the prospects for a political strategy defending and
promoting human life on earth.
This is a vast and stimulating
assortment of questions, which I urge you to examine in depth. I wish to point
out, however, that the necessary criterion would be lacking if the various
questions were treated without an adequate anthropological vision capable of
guiding the discussion towards true progress. In fact there are forms of scientific
advance which do not coincide with the authentic good of man: in such cases
scientific progress becomes a form of human regression which can even be the
prelude to tragic consequences. It is precisely in consideration of this fact
that one must emphasize the axiom that not everything which is technically
possible is morally and ethically acceptable.
4.A truly humanized practice of
medicine cannot remain indifferent in the face of scientific research seen as
an end in itself, ignoring the requirements of an authentic service to man. The
study of life, too, must be translated into service to life. The questions
raised by experimentation, by the relation between population and resources, by
irreversible illness, have become more grave as technological progress has made
available solutions and strategies that offend the dignity of life and of the
human person.
In order to stand firm against
suggestions stemming from such an outlook, it is indispensable to possess
adequate anthropological points of reference; the elaboration of these can be
much enhanced by interdisciplinary dialogue and, in a particular way, by
reflection on the data of Christian Revelation.
The history of these two thousand
years of the new era shows what a contribution can be made to a true
humanization of medicine by the inspiration of the Christian faith. This faith,
by bringing us to see in every person a brother or sister, bases service to
life on the universal commandment of love. This was well understood by Dr.
Giuseppe Moscati, whom I had the joy of declaring a
saint last 25 October. He said: “Not science, but charity has transformed the
world…”. University professor, head physician and researcher, Dr. Moscati had direct experience of the primacy of love in
service to life.
The commandment of love has its
roots in the natural law of human solidarity and draws vitality from the very
Love which is God. Not only this, but in the effort to promote life, love also
becomes the constructive meeting point with those who, due to mysterious
circumstances, have not received or understood the message of Jesus. Even a
superficial look at the history of medicine allows us to note a singular
continuity between human and Christian values, thanks to whose interaction
there has been formed that rich patrimony of civilization and progress which is
the pride of your profession.
5.Insamuch as it draws near to man
in the crucial moment of suffering, when he acutely perceives the need to
safeguard his health, medicine must make of those who exercise it, at all
levels, experts of great human sensitivity. This is true, obviously, in the context of the individual
relationship, where humanization means, among other things, openness to all
that leads to the understanding of man, his interiority, his world, his
psychology, his culture. The humanization of this relationship involves a
simultaneous giving and receiving, that is the creation of that communion which
is total participation. Only in this way does service also become witness and,
being service to life, transform itself into an incentive to love life, to
grasp its truest and deepest meaning in all of its manifestations.
This, however, is true on the social level as well; here the
need for humanization is translated into the direct effort of all health-care
workers, each in his own sphere and according to his sphere of competence, to
promote suitable conditions for health, to improve inadequate structures, to
eliminate the causes of so many illnesses, to foster the just distribution of
health-care resources, to see to it that health-care programmes
throughout the world have only the good of the human person as their end.
6.The humanization of medicine
answers an obligation of justice, one which can never be met by completely
delegating it to others but which requires the efforts of all involved. The
field of operation is immense: it extends from health-care education to the
promotion of greater sensitivity in public authorities; from direct involvement
in one’s own work environment to those forms of cooperation – local, national
and international – which are made possible by the existence of many
organizations and associations that have as part of their statutory purpose the
call to render medicine ever more human.
The Church, which considers solicitude
for those who suffer an integral part of her mission (Dolentium Hominum, 1), and which sees man as her
“own way” (Salvifici Doloris, 3),
is close – as the recent Synod has rightly pointed out and emphasized – to the
laity who, personally or in associations, work for a growing humanization of
medicine. Through individuals and institutions, she is directly involved in the
world of suffering and of health, with the enlightened and generous
collaboration of health-care workers. Whence emerges, in fact, a special and
decisive challenge in our day: we cannot remain passive in the face of a
continuing situation in which entire populations suffer from ills that medical
science in now able to treat and overcome.
To humanize medicine is to accept
this challenge and to work generously for the construction of a world in which
every human being is guaranteed the means necessary for the full appreciation
and use of the fundamental gift of life, which has its origin and its ultimate
end in God “who lovest the living” (Wis 11:26).
In exhorting you to do everything in
your power to respond to this most noble task, I invoke upon you and your work
the illuminating and consoling blessing of Almighty God.