Pope Leo firmly set out the Catholic Church’s opposition to assisted dying initiatives in a speech in France on Friday, two months after the country created a legal right to die for those with incurable illnesses after years of intense debate.
The first US pope did not specifically mention France’s new law, which drew heated opposition from local Catholic bishops, but criticized assisted dying alongside surrogacy and genetic manipulation, which he suggested could be promoted for profit.
“I firmly reiterate that the protection of the right to life constitutes the indispensable foundation of every other human right,” the pope said in an address to French President Emmanuel Macron and other politicians at the Elysee.
“I am concerned at times by those trends in society that risk turning science and technology into profit-driven ventures promoting genetic manipulation, surrogacy, the trade in human organs or the possibility of arranging one’s own death,” he said.
There is broad public support for the assisted dying measure in France, with backers saying it gives people facing incurable illnesses and unbearable suffering at the end of their lives more autonomy over how they die.
The new legislation allows, under strict conditions, a person to request a lethal substance that can be self-administered or administered by a doctor or nurse if a person is physically unable to do so.
The Catholic Church, some other religious groups and some in the medical profession argued that legalising assisted dying could put pressure on already vulnerable people, with one bishop threatening to deny communion to any lawmaker who supported the legislation.
Assisted dying is already permitted in several European countries and some US states.
The practice of surrogacy —under which a woman carries and gives birth to a child on behalf of other intended parents— is banned in France.
But the country’s top court has ruled that children born via surrogacy abroad should be recognised in France as the children of their intended parents.