"The whole of society, through its health-care and civilian institutions, is called to respect the life and dignity of the seriously- and terminally-ill people". This is the powerful appeal made today by the Pope, who received in audience the participants in the Congress held by the Papal Pro-Life Academy called: "At the side of terminally-ill and dying people: ethical and operational guidelines". Starting from the awareness that "it is not science that redeems men", according to Benedict XVI, "the whole of society and in particular the areas of medical science are bound to express the solidarity of love, the protection and respect of human life in every moment of its earthly development, especially when it suffers a state of disease or is at its terminal stage". Basically, for the Pope, "this means ensuring necessary support to everyone who may need it, through appropriate intervention and treatments, outlined and handled in accordance with the criteria of medical proportionality, always bearing in mind the moral duty of administering (by the doctor) and receiving (by the patient) those life-preserving means that in concrete are the ordinary ones" (continued).
