Note from the Pontifical Academy for Life: «The question remains whether the most adequate response in the face of a provocation» such as that of “Mario” is to encourage them to end it all; ethics committees need to be more correctly involved
VATICAN CITY. The story of the tetraplegia of “Mario”, who got the go-ahead for death from the ethics committee, disturbs the Sacre Stanze – «we cannot in any way minimize the gravity of what he experienced – and pushes the Vatican to express itself. Assisted suicide is a “delicate and controversial terrain, the right choice is palliative care”, states in a note the Pontifical Academy for Life, presided over by Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia, who in August gave an interview to La Stampa on the case stating that «Therapeutic fury should be avoided but the Church will never accept euthanasia. Palliative care reduces the request for assisted death, is free for all “.
Not having “precise medical information on the clinical situation, it is necessary to limit oneself to some general relief”, reads the Oltretevere communiqué. First of all, the suffering caused by such an incapacitating pathology as quadriplegia, which has been going on for a long time, is certainly understandable: we cannot in any way minimize the seriousness of what “Mario” experienced. However, the question remains whether the most adequate response to such a provocation is to encourage people to take their own life. The “principle” legitimacy of assisted suicide, or even of consenting murder, does not pose any questions and contradictions to a civil community that considers failure to provide relief as a serious crime, even in presumably the most desperate cases, and is ready to fight against the death penalty, even in the face of repugnant crimes? ». and then, “painfully confessing one’s exceptional powerlessness to heal and recognizing the normal power to suppress, do they not deserve more worthy languages to indicate the seriousness of our oath to take care of our vulnerable, suffering, desperate humanity?” Vatican bioethical body. All that “we manage to express is the request to make the gesture of our mutual suppression normal”. In other words, the question arises – at least the question, if only in order not to lose the love and honor of the oath that is at the top of all care practices – if there are other ways to go for a community that makes itself responsible for the life of all its members, thus fostering the perception in each one that his own life is significant and has a value also for others “. According to the Dicastery led by Paglia, “the story also raises a question about the role of the territorial ethics committees. It cannot be excluded that the difficulty of the answer was also determined by the difficulty of clarifying the role to play ». In fact, “the diction used is not the usual one (so far there has been talk of Committees for clinical experimentation of Committees for clinical ethics)”, highlights the Pontifical Academy. In the sentence «of the Constitutional Court n. 242/2019 a task is required that does not correspond to what is foreseen for both types known so far: it is a question of making a binding judgment of compliance of the particular clinical situation with the four conditions established by the Constitutional Court Sentence “.
A task “that is, that could more adequately be carried out by a technical committee (medico-legal) that verifies the existence of the prescribed conditions. An ethics committee could be more correctly involved in a consultation prior to the patient’s decision. “
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