As the debate over the legalization of euthanasia continues throughout Europe — and around the globe — Pope Francis is condemning the practice as a result of “throwaway culture.”
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“What is [deemed] useless is discarded,” the pope said during an interview on COPE, a radio station owned by the Spanish bishops’ conference, according to the Catholic News Service. “Not all of them, but, of course, in the collective subconscious of the throwaway culture, the old, the terminally ill, and unwanted children, too; they are returned to the sender before they are born. This throwaway culture has marked us.”
“It marks the young and the old,” he continued. “It has a strong influence on one of the tragedies of today’s European culture.”
In mid-March, lawmakers in Spain voted to become the sixth country in the world, and the fourth in Europe, to allow physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia for patients suffering with incurable diseases as well as those dealing with unbearable permanent conditions.
Health Minister Carolina Darias said at the time the law’s passage was a major step “towards the recognition of human rights,” arguing the legislation meant the country is “heading towards a more humane and fair society,” ABC News reported.
Euthanasia is either legal or allowable by the courts in Belgium, Canada, Luxembourg, Colombia, and the Netherlands.
As of late August, more than 750,000 Italians had signed a petition to decriminalize euthanasia — enough to trigger a referendum vote during the next round of national elections, according to the Agence France-Presse.
Italian writer Roberto Saviano, who signed the petition, said he did so because “without a law to regulate it, euthanasia is not a right accessible to all” and he supports “the free choice of those who do not have the possibility to go to countries where euthanasia is legal.”
The debate over euthanasia has been ongoing for years.
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One of the most outspoken Christian opponents of the practice is Joni Eareckson Tada, a disability rights advocate left entirely paralyzed after a 1967 driving accident.
In a 2019 column for Decision magazine, Tada implored Christians to speak out against physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia, admitting she understands the temptation first-hand as someone who wanted to “end it all” in the wake of her own tragic experiences.
She recalled begging her friends in high school to bring her their parents’ pills and razors and, when they refused, she would “violently jerk” her head in hopes of breaking her neck.
Now, though, Tada wrote she’s grateful she survived, because she’s now content.
The push to legalize euthanasia, she argued, stems from a fear of suffering alongside “an entitlement attitude.”
“People are convinced they have a right to arrange the timing of their own death,” Tada wrote, arguing that’s not the government’s responsibility. “Do we want to help people die a good death? Then, if intractable pain is the issue, let’s pour more research dollars into better pain management. If fear is the issue, let’s surround people with true spiritual community. Most of all, we can help terminally ill people understand what faces them on the other side of their tombstone.”
“Jesus is the only One who conquered the grave and opened the path to life eternal,” she continued. “How awful if people choose [three] grams of phenobarbital in their veins, only to face a Christ-less eternity.”
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