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If we ask ourselves what human life is, we could answer that it is the capacity of a person to be born, breathe, develop, procreate, evolve, and die. It is the period of time that elapses from the conception of a human being until their death. This period can end sooner due to illness or accident. But we can also end it through abortion , suicide , and euthanasia . Life is a right, as is the right to live and die with dignity, but dying is not a right.
Another necessary question that I wish to answer in order to understand the content of this article is the following: What is human dignity? The concept of dignity is, in itself, problematic, but so is the concept of personhood, as the philosopher Francesc Torralba states in his book, What is Human Dignity? Dignity is an inviolable right inherent in every person that cannot be lost, but can be harmed. The greater a person’s helplessness and need for assistance, the greater the possibility that they will feel their dignity has been violated.
When it comes to human life and its dignity, society sometimes fails to behave as it should. Two years ago, a news outlet ran a headline that read: “The government is preparing a law to protect great apes while it disregards human life.” I ask myself: Why is a bacterium considered life on Mars when a prenatal heartbeat isn’t considered life on Earth? Quino, the creator of Mafalda , perfectly captures this disregard for dignity in one of his cartoons when Mafalda sees a sign in a garden that says: “Keep off the grass,” and she wonders: “And what about dignity?”
A society like ours that refuses to condemn acts that our common sense tells us are destructive, such as abortion, suicide, and euthanasia, is a society that has lost the capacity to confront evil. It is a society that deprives people of life and dignity.
In 1994, Pope John Paul II said: “Our contemporary civilization threatens the lives of the unborn. […] Today this threat extends equally to the elderly and the sick. Institutions, democratically elected parliaments, usurp the right to determine who has the right to life.” The writer, philosopher, and politician Edmund Burke (1729-1797), the father of British liberal conservatism, already said: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing .” And Albert Einstein, Nobel Prize winner in Physics in 1921, alluded to this issue when he said: “The world is a dangerous place to live. Not because of the people who are evil, but because of those who don’t do anything about it.” Will we continue to do nothing, sitting back and watching what happens?
As a palliative care physician and president of VIVE Association that gives life for every life, I wish to share some thoughts on euthanasia and abortion.
We shouldn’t consider a dignified death as our sole objective, because a dignified death is much more than a particular style of dying; it’s a broad concept, a philosophy of dying based on respect for the person’s dignity, preserving it until the very end. Undoubtedly, the best end to a life is to die with dignity. The help we can offer, those of us who accompany you in the dying process, is to preserve your dignity and guarantee you a serene, peaceful death, free from suffering.
But let us remember that alleviating a person’s suffering should not consist of eliminating the one who suffers. It is true that when it is not possible to offer the sick person relief from their suffering, some may wish for hastened death because they see it as the solution to ending their suffering. When someone asks for death as a solution to their suffering, we must understand that they are actually asking for something else; they do not wish to suffer. Behind the request “I want to die,” there is an underlying meaning that, most of the time, signifies “I want to live or die in a different way .” In my opinion, euthanasia is not a sign of civilization. The way we treat vulnerable people, the way we welcome and support the frail, the elderly, and the sick, and the way we approach the final moments of our lives, are what demonstrate the level of civilization of a society.
As a Christian, I am attentive to Church doctrine regarding my professional activity as a physician. From the Declaration of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, ” Infinites Dignitas on Human Dignity ,” published in 2024, I share the following ideas on abortion and euthanasia.
In the case of abortion, there is a noticeable spread of ambiguous terminology, such as “ termination of pregnancy,” which tends to obscure its true nature and downplay its gravity in the public eye. Perhaps this very linguistic phenomenon is symptomatic of a malaise in our consciences. But no words can change the reality: induced abortion is the deliberate and direct elimination, however it is carried out, of a human being in the initial phase of its existence, from conception to birth. The unborn children are the most defenseless and innocent of all, and today their human dignity is being denied so that people can do with them as they please, taking their lives and promoting legislation to ensure that no one can prevent it.
There is a particular, more subtle, but increasingly prevalent form of violation of human dignity. It is characterized by its use of a flawed concept of human dignity to turn it against life itself. This confusion, so common today, becomes apparent when euthanasia is discussed. For example, laws that recognize the possibility of euthanasia or assisted suicide are sometimes called “right to die laws.”
I hope that, in this last paragraph of the article, I can convey some hope to you, but at the same time ask for a certain commitment from you.
I believe that in addition to a healthy society, we can build a compassionate one when we are all capable of helping those in need, preserving their lives and dignity. This is a true commitment for everyone who makes up this society. We must achieve a healthy and compassionate society because it is made up of people who interact with other people and need each other. Caring for people’s lives and dignity is the responsibility of all of society, of all of us.
Dr. Jacinto Bátiz Cantera. Director of the Institute for Better Care. San Juan de Dios Hospital of Santurce
