Family & Life

Italian Bishops: ‘Nothing is More Inhuman than Eugenic Selection’ : 15th Dec 06

The Inviolability of Life is a Natural Instinct and Constitutes the "Irrenounceable Principle" and Foundation of Justice, Equality and Peace

In one of the strongest anti-eugenics statements from the Catholic Church since the end of the Second World War, the Catholic bishops' conference of Italy has prepared a document for Italy’s Day of Life that identifies euthanasia as part of a resurgence of that discredited philosophy.

Titled “Life to be Desired and Loved” the document was prepared for the first Sunday of February 2007. The bishops' statement warns against the "diabolic deceit" that attempts to legitimise euthanasia, "masking it with a veil of human mercy." The bishops speak of the resurgence of eugenics that is becoming more and more invoked as a solution to suffering, and in some places actually practiced.

The one who loves life, they said, "does not remove it but donates it, does not take control of it but puts it to service of the others." To love life "means also not to deny it to some, not even to the smallest and most defenceless newborn, much less when it suffers a serious disability."

The purpose of human life is to love and be loved, and euthanasia, abortion and genetic manipulation are opposed to that purpose: "From love, life gushes and life wishes and asks love. For this, human life can and must be donated, for love, and in this gift it finds the fullness of its meaning; it never can be despised and much less destroyed."

"The plague" of abortion, the attempt to legitimise euthanasia and the consequent degradation of human life is a concern for "all men of good will," said the bishops. Referring to embryonic research and cloning, the bishops state that human life cannot be used at its earliest stage as a means to cure illness.

The Italian bishops write that the "unborn child, even the child with serious a disability" is to be treasured and protected as a gift from God. They caution that the currently popular philosophies that reduce human life to a thing subject to ownership will end as they have in the past, with "massacres and homicide."

The inviolability of life, the bishops say, is a natural instinct and constitutes the "irrenounceable principle" and foundation of justice, equality and peace. Human life, the bishops say "originates from an act of love on the part of the One Life must be loved with courage, not only respected, (but) protected. Zenit/LifeSiteNews.com. END.

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Family & Life

Italian Bishops: ‘Nothing is More Inhuman than Eugenic Selection’ : 15th Dec 06

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