"Man will always be man, with all his dignity, even if in a coma, even if in embryo, but, if he lives only in a biological state, the potentials of his being are not fully accomplished or developed". It was said by the Pope, who, in the sermon at Mass that he celebrated yesterday in the Church of Saint Lawrence "in Piscibus", lingered on the difference between life as "bìos" (bio-cosmos) and life as "zoé" ("the new level of life, in which the being opens up to knowledge"). According to Benedict XVI, "all of science is one single big fight for life; medicine in particular is. After all, medicine is an attempt to go against death, it is the pursuit of immortality". "But can we find the medicine that will guarantee immortality to us?", wondered the Pontiff, according to whom, even if medicine managed "to find the recipe against death, the recipe of immortality, that would still be a medicine that would have its place in the bio-sphere". "It is easy to imagine what would happen if the biological life of man were endless, if it were immortal", challenged the Pope: "we would find ourselves in an ageing world, a world full of old people, a world that would leave no space to the young, to the renewal of life. That cannot be the type of immortality we aspire to". (continued)
