Pope Francis is speaking out against euthanasia calling it a “sin against God” and saying that anyone who endorses it supports a “false sense of compassion.”
“We’re are living in a time of experimentation with life. But a bad experiment… (we’re) playing with life,” the Pope said to a conference of 4,000 doctors. “Be careful, because this is a sin against the Creator: against God the Creator.”
The Pope’s remarks are seen to have been a response to a woman who ended her life in Oregon after being diagnosed with terminal brain cancer.
The Pope also blasted abortion as being the same as euthanasia. He said it was like telling God “I do it, like I want.’ It’s a sin against God. Think well about this.”
The Pope acknowledged the doctors can be placed in a tough situation.
“Your mission as doctors puts you in daily contact with so many forms of suffering,” he said.
However, the Pope said, they need to be “courageous and against-the-grain” in standing for live and refusing to participate in euthanasia and abortion.
A researcher with the Family Research Council says that euthanasia is going to be an issue that the pro-life movement in the United States needs to be prepared to fight.
Arina Grossu of the FRC’s Center for Human Diginity told the Christian Post that euthanasia both at home and around the world is something that is a matter of life and that it should get more attention.
“In the pro-life movement, we’re for all human life from conception to natural death. And so we need to cover that, and especially because I think it is an up-and-coming fight for us,” Grossu said. “I think that as more cases come out where parents are trying to kill their children, or the elderly or the disabled, and we see the shortage in federal funds for healthcare, we are going to see the effect of this. And we’re going to step in. But I am hoping that people will take a proactive stance instead of a defensive stance on the issue.”
Grossu noted that in Oregon, their report for assisted suicides each year cannot guarantee that all of the assisted suicide deaths were voluntary.
She also noted that around the world, euthanasia is increasing. In February, Belgium passed a law that allows the assisted suicides of terminally ill children.
