Bogotá, Colombia, Oct 4, 2007 / 09:24 am
The president of the Bishops’ Conference of Colombia, Archbishop Luis Augusto Castro, issued a statement this week emphasizing that “death with dignity cannot be understood as the right to end life through conditions created artificially by medical personnel or by a mistaken sense of mercy for the patient,” he said, in reference to a Senate bill regarding euthanasia.
In his statement entitled, “Death with dignity is not the same as euthanasia,” Archbishop Castro noted that the “true meaning of death with dignity is in the natural conclusion life,” accompanied by “medical, family and spiritual support.”
After explaining that “pain and suffering are not obstacles for the life of the human person, but rather, the experience of all human beings tells us that this reality is an integral part of the person seen in his integrity and totality,” Archbishop Castro emphasized that suffering “is the great opportunity to recognize human fragility and the natural challenge to overcome it.”
“The dignity of a human being is not in conflict with his own nature, such that aging, suffering and dying are not phenomena that degrade the dignity of the human being,” he stressed.