Roy Exum: Pope Decries Euthanasia

  • Tuesday, November 18, 2014
  • Roy Exum
Roy Exum
Roy Exum

Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who was once a nightclub bouncer as a young man in Buenos Aires before he joined a Jesuit order and later became the world’s wonderful Pope Francis, is doubtlessly a good man. He has displayed kindness and humility as he has juggled his way through a time of same-sex marriage, abortion, and other issues that divide Christians the world over and he is quite admired.

So it was with keen interest I read over the weekend that he is adamantly opposed to the “death with dignity” movement – or any form of euthanasia – as well as in vitro fertilization and embryonic stem cell research.

“We're are living in a time of experimentation with life. But a bad experiment… (we're) playing with life," he told about 4,000 members of the Association of Italian Catholic Doctors in the Vatican this weekend.

And so the argument of how modern medicine should meld with religious teachings gets even muddier. I have a friend who is undergoing stem-cell treatment in order to live and I have another acquaintance who is pondering following the late Brittany Maynard to Oregon where physician-assisted euthanasia is not only accepted but quite legal.

The Pope said euthanasia “does not reflect dignity but is, in fact, a sin against God and creation and a false sense of compassion, adding, "Be careful, because this is a sin against the Creator: against God the Creator.

The Pontiff warned against creating a “throw-away” culture that might view the sick or the elderly as some type of burden on society. “It's like telling God, ‘At the end of life I do it like I want.' It's a sin against God. Think well about this."

He carefully instructed the gathered physicians not to diminish their ability “to 'take care' of the person, especially when they are suffering, fragile and defenseless." Instead he urged his audience to make the “courageous and against-the-grain" decisions that are in harmony with what the church teaches in dire situations. "Your mission as doctors puts you in daily contact with so many forms of suffering."

On Monday Pope Frances announced he would make his first official trip to the United States next September and would take part in the World Meeting of Families congress, which is held every three years. Among discussion items, predictably, are premarital sex, homosexuality, infertility and celibacy.

* * *

A taxi driver in Egypt decided to be sly several weeks ago when time came for his drug test, so he secreted some of his wife’s urine to substitute for his own. Soon he was called in and asked if the specimen he had given was really his. He swore that it was before hearing a classic reply: “Then congratulations are in order … you are pregnant!”

* * *

I just heard Barbra Streisand’s new album, “Partners,” and the collection of duets is phenomenal. What is better is that when the album debuted in late September, it was No. 1 on the Billboard 200 charts, giving Streisand a No. 1 album in each of the last six decades. It is her 10th Top 1 album, tying her with Elvis Presley for the most in a lifetime. She actually does a digitalized duet with Elvis (“Love Me Tender”) and another with her son, 47-year-old Jason Gould (“How Deep Is the Ocean?”), that is absolutely dazzling.

* * *

Put me down as “disheartened” over the news Chattanooga’s postal processing station on Shallowford Road is scheduled to be closed sometime next year. That will severely muddle our postal services, reportedly kill 270 jobs and put a $5.5 million dent in our local economy. Our politicians need to fight that, else mail with zip codes beginning with 370 to 372 will have to go to Nashville while zip codes with 302, 303, 311 and 339 will be routed through Atlanta.

* * *

The Environmental Protection Agency is on track to control the natural waters in America and a new set of rules has caused the subject to be hotly contested. It could affect the property rights of individual landowners and there is a huge groundswell of opposition brewing in both federal and state governments over the Clean Water Act Expansion. The prediction is it will spawn into a huge mess, just so you’ll know.

royexum@aol.com

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