Holy See: "Euthanasia is a crime, thanks to those who legislate"

"The Church believes that it must reiterate as a definitive teaching that euthanasia is a crime against human life because, with this act, man chooses to directly cause the death of another innocent human being".

This was stated by the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in the Letter "Samaritanus bonus".

"Those who approve laws on euthanasia and assisted suicide - he adds - therefore become accomplices in the grave sin that others will carry out. They are also guilty of scandal because these laws contribute to deform the conscience, even of the faithful".

Euthanasia, explains the former Holy Office, "is an intrinsically evil act, in any occasion or circumstance".

"This doctrine is founded on the natural law and on the written Word of God, is transmitted by the Church's Tradition and taught by the ordinary and universal Magisterium", he reiterates, and "any immediate formal or material cooperation in such an act is a grave sin against human life ".

"Therefore, euthanasia is a murderous act that no end can legitimize and that does not tolerate any form of complicity or collaboration, active or passive", he adds.

"Incurable does not mean incurable"

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is never synonymous with 'incurable'".

This is the concept placed at the premise of the document "Samaritanus bonus. Letter on the care of people in the critical and terminal phases of life", approved by the Pope last June 25 and published today, with which the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith - before to legislative initiatives in various countries on the subject - reaffirms the doctrinal and magisterial principles against euthanasia and assisted suicide, considering that "the inviolable value of life is a basic truth of the natural moral law and an essential foundation of the juridical order" .

According to the former Holy Office, an obstacle "that obscures the perception of the sacredness of human life is an erroneous understanding of 'compassion'. Faced with a suffering qualified as 'unbearable', the end of the patient's life is justified in the name of 'compassion'. In order not to suffer it is better to die: it is the so-called 'compassionate' euthanasia. It would be compassionate to help the patient die through euthanasia or assisted suicide. In reality, human compassion does not consist in causing death, but in welcoming the sick, in supporting him in difficulties, in offering him affection, attention and the means to alleviate suffering ".

Thus, "the Church, in the mission of transmitting to the faithful the grace of the Redeemer and the holy law of God, already perceptible in the dictates of the natural moral law, feels the duty to intervene in this forum to once again exclude any ambiguity about the teaching of the Magisterium on euthanasia and assisted suicide, even in those contexts where national laws have legitimized such practices ".