Pope Francis raises end-of-life issues with French MPs

Pope Francis is reaching out to French lawmakers and talking to them about end-of-life issues, hoping the message will also reach his Italian colleagues, where the debated and divisive issue of assisted suicide has reached the Palazzo Madama. This morning, the Pope received a group of French parliamentarians at the Vatican, and much of his speech was devoted to the defense of life and the wider use of palliative care for terminally ill patients. «I hope that the debate on the important issue of end of life will be conducted in a real way. It is about accompanying life to its natural end through the broader development of palliative care. As we know, people at the end of life need the support of caregivers who are faithful to their calling of providing care and relief even when they cannot always recover. Words are not always needed, but holding a sick person’s hand, holding each other’s hand, does a lot of good not only for the sick person, but also for us,” the Pope said.

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The topic is sensitive and has always aroused opposition from the Church, which in its 2,000-year history has always defended human life from conception to natural death, with particular emphasis on the fragile stages of existence. No to euthanasia and therapeutic persistence fit into a moral framework based on the defense of the dignity and rights of a person: incurable, according to the Magisterium, does not mean incurable. And people affected by terminal illness, such as those born with a limited prognosis of survival, have the right to be welcomed, cared for and loved. The Church opposes therapeutic persistence in practice, but repeats as its “final teaching” that “euthanasia is a crime against human life.”

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On November 26, the hearings on the draft bill on the end of life in the Senate ended before the Justice and Social Affairs committees. Consideration of the bill – in the first reading – has not started yet. As a result, his appearance in the House, originally scheduled for mid-September and then updated to late November, will likely be postponed again. So far, the process of creating a law on medically assisted suicide is progressing slowly due to the large number of hearings (around ninety, mainly at the request of the center-right).

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The general discussion in the Commission may begin again soon, perhaps as early as next week. The first step is to define a single basic text, given that there are five laws on the table: two of the PD, signed first by Alfredo Bazoli and Dario Perrini; one of the M5 by Elisa Pirro; one from AVS group leader Peppe De Cristofaro; and one from FI presented by Adriano Paroli. In September, after the first postponement, and in order to avoid the bill being left in both committees without a date in the House calendar, the start of consideration of the bill was postponed to November. A common solution seems almost impossible due to the divisions, although for such an important bill it is required that the Parliament comes to a formulation consistent with the Constitution, where the right to life takes a central place. In any case, for the first time, such an option would be introduced on very limited terms to help those who request it die.

Euthanasia of a couple, Jan and Els decide to die together: they have known each other since kindergarten and have been married for almost 50 years