Final Statement on Dignity of the Dying
by Pontifical Academy for Life
The Fifth General Assembly of the Pontifical Academy for Life was held in the Vatican from 24 to 27 February. During this session we reflected on the theme: "The dignity of the dying". We were assisted in this task by a group of experts from various nations, representatives of various disciplines (biology, psychology, medicine, philosophy, theology, jurisprudence and others), who presented the results of their studies conducted during a year of research on a special task force set up for this purpose.
At the end of our work, we would like to communicate the following concluding convictions:
1. First of all we want to reaffirm that human life is sacred and inviolable at every stage and in every situation. A human being never loses his dignity regardless of the physical, psychological or relational circumstances in which he finds himself. Every dying person thus deserves and requires the unconditional respect which is owed to every human person.
2. "We never celebrate and exalt life as much as we do in the nearness of death and in death itself. Life must be fully respected, protected and assisted in those who are experiencing its natural conclusion as well" (John Paul II, 25 August 1990). When a doctor is aware that it is no longer possible to prevent the patient's death and that the only result of intensive medical treatment would be to add suffering to suffering, he must recognize the limits of medical science and of his personal intervention and accept the inevitability and unavoidability of death. At this point respect for the dying more than ever demands that any kind of "aggressive medical treatment" be avoided, and the acceptance of death be encouraged.
The efforts of doctors and other health-care workers must nevertheless continue, with an attentive and effective application of so-called "proportionate treatment and palliative care".
3. Pain control and the human, psychological and spiritual support of patients are tasks belonging to doctors and health-care personnel, and are as noble and essential as therapeutic interventions.
A greater effort, then, must be devoted to the training and formation of health-care workers, especially the young, so that they can carry out these serious duties with the proper human and professional competence.
We therefore invite health-care workers to consider carefully the true meaning of their vocation and mission in giving support to human life and in the fight against disease and pain.
The age-old practice of the Hippocratic Oath can still inspire and guide them in their personal life and in the exercise of their noble profession.
4. The dying person should never be deprived of the comforting presence of his relatives and of all who lovingly assist him, of their precious and varied human aid, regardless of whether he can understand their fraternal sympathy and support in his suffering.
5. In today's culture, especially in the more developed countries, along with the authentic values of solidarity and love of life, there are currents of thought and practical attitudes, the result and symptom of an ideological and practical secularism, which tend to exert a hedonistic, efficiency-oriented and technocratic influence on society, so that in the absence of any hope, death is considered meaningless, completely ignored and hidden from public life.
In this context it is necessary to promote and encourage an authentic culture of life, which should also accept the reality of the finiteness and natural limits of earthly life. Only in this way can death not be reduced to a merely clinical event or be deprived of its personal and social dimension.
6. With absolute conviction we vigorously reject any kind of euthanasia, understood as recourse to those actions or omissions which are intended to cause a person's death in order to prevent suffering and pain.
At the same time, we wish to express our human and Christian closeness to all the sick, especially to those who know they are approaching the end of their earthly life and are preparing to meet God, our Beatitude. We ask that these brothers and sisters of ours be spared the "therapeutic neglect" which consists in denying them the treatment and care that alleviate suffering. Nor should this treatment and care be lacking for financial reasons.
In the allocation of financial resources, the treatment and care owed to the seriously ill and dying must be given attentive, supportive consideration.
7. We invite legislators and the leaders of governments and international institutions to reject the legalization or depenalization of euthanasia or assisted suicide. To legalize the voluntary killing of one member of society by another would radically undermine one of the fundamental principles of civil society.
8. Moreover it is easy to foresee that such legal approval would result in patients losing the necessary trust in doctors and would open the way to every kind of abuse and injustice, particularly against the weakest.
Every citizen must be able to rely on medical practice that is inspired not only by scientific knowledge (which continues to advance) but also by the observance of the natural law, which Christian Revelation confirms and illumines.
9. In all societies, primitive and developed, the celebration of death is meant as a sign of respect for the memory of the deceased person and as an implicit affirmation of life after death.
Those who believe in God and in eternal life know well that despite its human tragedy, death, the consequence of human sin, must also be the gateway to their final and eternal union with God, their Creator and Father. In this regard, let us remember what the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council said to Christians in their Message to the Poor, the Sick and the Suffering in December 1965: "Christ did not do away with suffering. He did not even wish to unveil to us entirely the mystery of suffering. He took suffering on himself and this is enough for you to understand all its value". Thus the Christian sees suffering and death itself as the opportunity to unite himself inwardly with the sufferings and death of Christ, who died and rose for us.
We therefore wish that funeral celebrations for the deceased would retain their public and religious nature, which will also be very educational for those who are pilgrims in the world.
10. Lastly, as members of the Pontifical Academy for Life, we would like to renew our full and filial loyalty to His Holiness John Paul II and to his magisterial teaching. We also express our sincere gratitude for his constant work on behalf of human life.
May our renewed commitment to the promotion and defence of the dignity of the dying be an expression of our gratitude.
© L'Osservatore Romano, Editorial and Management Offices, Via del Pellegrino, 00120, Vatican City, Europe, Telephone 39/6/698.99.390.
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