Catholic doctors tell International Bioethics Society: palliative care is alternative to euthanasia

Madrid, Spain, May 24, 2007 / 10:43 am

The president of the International Federation of Catholic Doctors Association, Jose Maria Simon, told Europa Press this week, “Euthanasia is an evil that has an effective vaccination which is palliative care.” 

Simon’s comments came in response to the president of the International Society of Bioethics, Marcelo Palacios, who expressed his support for euthanasia, understood as helping a terminally ill patient to die who is not expected to survive more than six months.

“A terminally ill person is one thing, a person at his end who feels his life has no meaning is another,” Palacios explained. 

Simon warned that by “popularizing” euthanasia “the sense of security in health care facilities will disappear and families will never know if a loved one was taken by illness or by the system.”  “When a person dies at a health care facility the assumption is he or she died of natural causes.  Police never have to investigate,” Simon said.

He warned that by legalizing euthanasia, with the way society current is ordered, the sick will be killed with impunity.  “Euthanasia screams out to politicians to reduce health care expenses,” Simon stated.  “Why spend money on someone who is going to die or ought to die,” he asked.

Euthanasia, he added, “suffocates” confidence in justice and in the authorities. “There won’t be enough police to assure that it is not administered for any reason whatsoever.”