Vatican City (Vatican), 22 June (LaPresse) – “Medicine must never become the servant of a planned death.” Pope Leo XIV made this statement whilst receiving members of the ‘Fondation Jérôme Lejeune’ in audience. “Professor Lejeune,” the Pope emphasised, “was aware that, although technology can assist medicine, it cannot replace it. He also knew that technology can be used against medicine – which, by its very nature, is at the service of life – as happens when technology escapes any essential ethical control and considerations of efficiency, profitability or utility prevail. However, a person’s value does not depend on what they achieve or produce. For this reason, a doctor should never presume, on the basis of laboratory algorithms, to decide the fate of an embryo or an elderly person.”
End-of-life care, Pope Leo XIV: “Medicine must not be the servant of planned death”
Vatican City (Vatican), 22 June (LaPresse) – “Medicine must never become the servant of a planned death.” Pope Leo XIV made this statement whilst receiving members of the ‘Fondation Jérôme Lejeune’ in audience. “Professor Lejeune,” the Pope emphasised, “was aware that, although technology can assist medicine, it cannot replace it. He also knew that technology can be used against medicine – which, by its very nature, is at the service of life – as happens when technology escapes any essential ethical control and considerations of efficiency, profitability or utility prevail. However, a person’s value does not depend on what they achieve or produce. For this reason, a doctor should never presume, on the basis of laboratory algorithms, to decide the fate of an embryo or an elderly person.”
