‘The answer to suffering is not to offer death,’ cardinal says of assisted suicide bill in Italy

Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, president of the Italian Bishops’ Conference (CEI, by its Italian acronym), reaffirmed this week the Italian bishops’ opposition to any legislation that would legitimize assisted suicide or euthanasia while also calling for greater investment in palliative care and support for the sick.

“The answer to suffering is not to offer death but to guarantee forms of social support, health care and continuous home-based health care, and social services so that the sick person doesn’t feel alone and families can be supported and accompanied,” the cardinal stated during the opening session of the CEI’s Permanent Council, which met through Jan. 28.

“Human dignity is not measured by efficiency or usefulness,” Zuppi emphasized, as reported by the Catholic newspaper Avvenire.

According to Zuppi, laws that legitimize assisted suicide or euthanasia “risk weakening the public commitment to the most fragile and vulnerable, who are often invisible.”

The cardinal also warned that decisions about the end of life cannot be considered a purely private matter. “We strongly feel the duty to remind everyone that choosing an early death, even because one believes there are no alternatives, is not an individual act but deeply affects the fabric of relationships that constitutes the community, undermining the cohesion and solidarity on which civil coexistence is based,” he declared on behalf of the Italian episcopate.

The president of the CEI also emphasized the central role of palliative care, which, he pointed out, is still not fully guaranteed in Italy despite existing legal provisions.

“It must be guaranteed to everyone, without social or geographical distinctions, while it is still not being implemented as established,” he said, emphasizing that this care “represents a true antidote against the thinking that considers assisted suicide or euthanasia as viable options.”

Zuppi’s words come at a crucial moment in the political debate in Italy surrounding the medically assisted suicide bill, which is going through one of its most uncertain phases since it was introduced in the Legislature.

The bill, promoted by Sens. Pierantonio Zanettin (of the Forza Italia party) and Ignazio Zullo (of the Fratelli d’Italia party), remains held up in the joint Justice and Social Affairs committees of the Senate, awaiting the opinion of the Budget Committee.

The legislative text is formally scheduled to reach the full Senate on Feb. 17.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.