Euthanasia, ‘bankruptcy’ of humanity” “

“Pro-Life Week 2004” opened in Aachen, in Germany, on 24 April. The event is being promoted on the national level by the Catholic Church and the Evangelic Church in Germany. The theme of the week this year is “The dignity of the person to the end of life”. Declared aim of the week is to “reinforce the opposition of the Churches to active euthanasia and ask for the consolidation of palliative medicine and the hospice movement”, as explained on the website of the German Evangelic Church. The action makes express reference to euthanasia, legally permitted in neighbouring countries, such as Belgium: its legalization – called “a mistake” by Cardinal Lehmann, president of the German episcopate, and “a declaration of the bankruptcy of humanity” by the president of the Evangelic Church, Wolfgang Huber – is now being discussed by the European institutions. “HELPING IN THE MOMENT OF DEATH, noT HELPING A PERSON TO DIE!”. The position expressed by Cardinal karl Lehmann in the homily he gave during the service opening the event can be summed up in these words. “Suffering, pain and death”, he declared, “belong to us all and are part of our life”. Lehmann emphasized the difference between the justified attempt to mitigate or eliminate suffering and “the temptation to wish to control or manipulate from outside the process of death”. “Even the experience of the weakness of human life” forms part of the human being, according to Lehmann. “At the end, is it only the person who is healthy and active who has the full right to live?”, provocatively asked the cardinal. Lehmann also warned of the “manipulation” deriving from therapeutic persistence in the terminal phase: “technically retarded death cannot vanquish human death”. In emphasising the role of the human relationship between doctor and patient, Lehmann expressed the hope that it would prevent “the invalid becoming a mere “object” or the patient asking merely for treatment”. CHRIST, HOPE OF LIFE. Churches that are ready “not only to speak out” but also to “litigate” to defend human dignity were called for by Christoph Kähler, vice-president of the Council of the Evangelic Church, during his intervention, thus explaining the reason for the inaugural ecumenical service: “In spite of some uncertainties, questions and grey areas, one thing we do know for sure: we will only truly succeed in serving the person if we abstain from trying to be masters of life and of death and try instead to honour He who is the one lord of life and of death, He alone who has passed beyond, indeed broken, the confines between life and death. That’s why we as Christians believe that man ought not to become the master of the life and death of other people”. “The dignity acquired in a person’s whole life cannot be squandered in this terminal phase”, declared Kähler, underlining the role of the hospice movement for those who are approaching death” “CulturE OF DEATH”. It’s an anniversary that provides an “occasion to reflect once again on this scandal that is happening in broad daylight day after day in Germany”, writes Cardinal J. Meisner in an article published in the daily “Die Welt” of 26 April, to mark the thirtieth anniversary of the introduction in Germany of the terms within which abortion is depenalized. Thirty years of this law, adds Meisner, means “eight million children killed in their mothers’ wombs. Can I really be accused of exaggeration if I see Germany involved in a culture of death?”, asks the cardinal. “We increasingly forget that each child, irrespective of his/her utility, capacity and ability, has a human dignity: an antecedent dignity and hence not subject to our evaluations and manipulations”. “The ‘culture of death’, that is also reflected in the intolerably high number of abortions, has led us into a blind alley”, declares Meisner, who ends his piece as follows: “Our destiny will be decided by the question whether the State and the social authorities are willing and able today to safeguard and promote marriages and families, including children (born and unborn)”. ecumenicAL INITIATIVES. The Pro-Life Week began with an ecumenical celebration in Aachen Cathedral in the presence of Cardinal Karl Lehmann and the Evangelic bishop Christoph Kähler. The representatives of the political world present at the service included Ulla Schmidt, Minister for Health and Social Welfare. Numerous church and social projects will be presented until 1st May in what is billed as a “market of possibilities”. Various events and meetings dedicated to the theme of death are taking place in Evangelic and Catholic parish communities, and in the offices of Caritas and Diakonie (Evangelic counterpart of Caritas) throughout Germany.