Vatican City, Nov 11, 2004 / 22:00 pm
Receiving participants in the international conference on palliative cures at the Vatican this morning, Pope John Paul II issued strong words against the practice of euthanasia as a means to alleviate suffering, saying it is “motivated by sentiments of a poorly understood compassion” and that it “supresses” rather than redeems the person from suffering.
"Medicine," said the Pope, "always places itself at the service of life. Even when it knows it cannot defeat a serious pathology, it dedicates its own capabilities to alleviating suffering.”
“To work with passion to help the patient in every situation means to be aware of the inalienable dignity of every human being, even those in the extreme conditions of a terminal state," he said.
"In fact, there is a directly proportional relationship between the capacity to suffer and the capacity to help those who are suffering," said the Holy Father. He noted that people who are sensitive to the pain of others to helping them "are also more disposed, with the help of God, to accepting their own suffering."