Suspended lives

Faith and bioethics, medicine and new evangelization, biotechnology and the Catholic roots of Europe were the themes addressed by European experts, convened at the Catholic University in Rome, November 17-18, on the occasion of the joint congress of the European Federation of associations of Catholic doctors (FEAMC) and by the Association of Italian Catholic doctors on the theme "Bioethics and Christian Europe". Acknowledging similitude. "Life begins with conception, heartbeat starts only 18 days later", said Croatian paediatrician Neda Aberle: "From one to 53 trillion cells – she explained – the person remains the same". To have an idea the complexity of the human person "it suffices to believe that the typization of a genoma requires 80 years, 856 100-page volumes for its transcription". Biotechnology and bioethics are "fruits of Christian Europe" said Hans-Bernhard Wuermeling, bioethicist, member of the Scientific Committee of the European Academy for culture and society. "Technicizing nature" is something begun in Greece, and through Plato, Pico della Mirandola and Decartes it was passed down to Decartes, whose "capacity of judging directly accuses nature". The human person, he said, "claims the right to be engendered and not to be made", and "while technology entails a rapid procedure", the same cannot be said for "the underlying vision of man when meaningful questions are considered". In fact, "compromises becomes all the more difficult the more they relate to the human person". Christians have the duty to "lead bioethics towards knowledge and towards the similitude of the human person to God. Faith cannot be compelled. Rather, we ought to transmit the acknowledgement of such similitude".Before the limits of survival. Filippo Boscia, Italian gynaecologist and andrologist, said: "Every year premature births in Europe amount to 350 thousand, and as many are the ‘suspended lives’. With time, assistance to preterm infants has improved, but the phenomenon is still growing – he explained – owing to assisted fertilization and the rise of multiple births". In these cases there is "no guideline that responds globally to the complications that arise" and, therefore, there is the need for "conscientious customization". For the expert, it is necessary to find "compromise between the necessary respect for human life", and the principle of "never harming the patient", pondering "each decision accordingly", avoiding "the suffering inflicted unnecessarily to the young patient" and evaluating the "proportionality of treatment" compared to the benefits. Humanizing prenatal cure. "An alliance and the parents’ involvement is necessary", Boscia continued. "And when there is nothing more left to do in medical terms, the doctor is faced with the most demanding task: to assist the preterm infant accompanying him/her compassionately to the life termination. Extending intensive care just because is technically possible would be a mistake", and in this light the hospital organization should ensure the humanization of prenatal care "and accompaniment to a dignified death, allowing parents to stay as close as possible to the child", a practice that helps the elaboration of mourning. Harmonising profession and faith. The "challenge of the new evangelization conducted by doctors" was the theme addressed by Bernard Ars, founded by the European Institute for Bioethics in Brussels. "After the cultural revolution of 1968, and with pluralism, in order to avoid being accused of wanting to impose themselves, Christian Catholics renounced spreading the Word of the Gospel – he said – as they "lived in the misunderstanding of the respect of other identities, until they ended up losing their own". In the meantime "laicity grew from a working method into an intolerant religion, where there is no place for faith". The "relationship between God’s absence in our societies and the de-humanization of medicine – he added – makes it impossible to separate the latter from the new evangelization", thus for Ars, "the doctor is called to live his profession in harmony with the path of faith". "Having to choose between concordism and discordism, the scientist will opt for the empirical realm and theology", thus gaining " a valid theological formation that matches up with his scientific formation". He will thus work "in the full respect of the human person, especially of the fragile life, which begins or which nears its termination" and finally, "he will see Christ in each one of his patients", without forgetting "to proclaim salvation, an extraordinary richness that must be shared".