The Committee for Life, the Laity, and the Family of the Argentine Bishops’ Conference ex-pressed its opposition to four bills introduced in Congress to legalize euthanasia. The committee said the country is facing “a new manifestation of the culture of death and the throwaway culture.”
In an Aug. 18 statement, the committee said that “the Gospel commits us not to be indifferent in the face of discussions on the beginning and end of life.”
There are currently four bills to legalize euthanasia: two introduced last year and two this year.
In its statement, the Church in Argentina warned that “we are facing a new manifestation of the culture of death and the throwaway culture” and at the same time, “we are a people that wants such important needs as health, work, housing, and land” to be taken care of.
“Although a society cannot eliminate suffering, it can always commit itself with all its energies to the lives of those who suffer,” the committee said, noting that Argentina “has a rich history of doing so” with multiple alternatives “to accompany physical and spiritual pain with science and humanity.”
“In the hospices and in the cottolengos (homes for the physically and mentally disabled), we see a great example of this,” the committee said.
In its statement, the Committee for Life, the Laity, and the Family pointed out that “even in cases of diseases that have no cure, all patients must be cared for and accompanied so that their lives are respected until natural death. We are not the masters of life and therefore we place our-selves at its service.”
The bishops’ committee call-ed for valuing “palliative and comprehensive care, which relieves pain in serious illness and helps those who suffer and bears much fruit in the human person and in their family.”