In an address on Monday, Pope Francis condemned the “throwaway culture” of abortion and euthanasia that treats the unborn, the sick and the elderly as “waste”.
Pope Francis tackled abortion and euthanasia head-on this week, also addressing the underlying culture that leads to individuals, deemed “of no use” by some, being treated as “waste material”.
Abortion, “the discarding of children”, which “sends [babies] to the dispatcher and kills them directly”, is “very ugly”, said Pope Francis.
“In many parts [of the world], there is also the law of ‘hidden euthanasia’”, he continued. “‘Medications are expensive, only half of them are needed … people say… This means shortening the life of the elderly [through euthanasia or assisted suicide].”
“This is a road down which we cannot go: the road of discarding.”
What abortion and euthanasia do, apart from killing the vulnerable, the Pope concluded, is “deny hope… the hope of children who bring us the life that keeps us going and the hope that is in the roots that the elderly give us”.
SPUC comment
A SPUC spokesperson said: “As Pope Francis points out, not only does ‘throwaway culture’ rob individuals of their own lives, through assisted suicide and abortion, but it also robs all of us of the joy, solace and hope that these people gift us, simply by living and partaking in life.
“When we treat people as disposable objects, welcoming and even championing their deaths, we also harm ourselves and our society. Ugliness breeds ugliness.
“We should take this into account and remind others of this essential understanding as we face down the latest effort to impose assisted suicide in Scotland.
“Assisted suicide will lead us down a very dangerous, hopeless road.”
Find out more about SPUC’s campaign against assisted suicide at Lives Worth Living.
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