Euthanasia, CEI: “Serious concern over the collection of referendum signatures”

The bishops: “Anyone who finds himself in conditions of extreme suffering must be helped to manage pain, to overcome anguish and despair, not to eliminate his own life” “Serious concern” was expressed by the CEI presidency, which met yesterday afternoon in extraordinary online session, “for the collection of signatures for the referendum which aims to decriminalize the murder of the consenting party, effectively opening up to euthanasia in our country”. “Anyone who finds himself in conditions of extreme suffering must be helped to manage pain, to overcome anguish and despair, not to eliminate his own life – underline the bishops – Choosing death is the defeat of the human, the victory of a individualistic and nihilistic anthropological conception in which neither hope nor interpersonal relationships find more space. There is no expression of compassion in helping to die, but the Magisterium of the Church recalls that, when the end of earthly existence approaches, the dignity of the human person is specified as the right to die in the greatest possible serenity and with the human and Christian dignity that is due to him ‘”.