This story discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, please contact the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988 or 800-273-TALK (8255).
Pope Leo XIV called for an end to medically assisted suicide during a visit to medical facilities in Lourdes, France, on Sunday.
The pope gave Mass in Lourdes before addressing a large crowd who cheered as he emphatically affirmed the dignity of all human lives and admonished listeners to reject the “false compassion” of assisted suicide.
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“It is precisely in the name of this inalienable dignity of the human person that we must reject the temptation to cause death under the guise of false compassion,” the pope said, speaking in French.
“It is impossible to regard causing death as something normal. What is legal is not necessarily moral,” he continued. “Here in Lourdes, the city of the sick and of hope, I appeal to the entire healthcare community to remember the profound meaning of your vocation, which is to care for a suffering person, not to eliminate that person.”
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“No one ever has the right based on laboratory algorithms to decide the life of a given embryo or elderly person. Medicine must never become the servant of programmed death,” he said.
Assisted suicide is legal in many Western countries, including France.
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The practice has come under heavy criticism, particularly in Canada where it has seen widespread use.
Last week, the family of an 83-year-old Canadian woman demanded answers after she died through the country’s medical assistance in dying program despite allegedly becoming distraught when told the procedure would end her life.
The Daily Mail reported that 83-year-old Christian grandmother Brigitte Stegemann was killed under Canada’s physician-assisted suicide program, called Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID), on July 10.
Her granddaughter, Brigitte Kranendonk, said that she was her grandmother’s primary caregiver and that her family had decided to place Stegemann at The Pearl care home in Cannifton due to physical and mental decline.
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But according to Kranendonk, her grandmother still had a good appetite even following a stomach cancer diagnosis, and rejected the idea of using MAID when it was presented as an option.
Kranendonk said she was present for Stegemann’s second MAID assessment, and said that the doctor used “really loose terms, never using the words death or dying.”
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“She explains MAID to my grandmother by saying: ‘We’re going to give you medicine, you’re going to feel at peace. And I just want you to know that you won’t have a bowel movement,'” Kranendonk said.
When Kranendonk interjected and said, “She doesn’t understand what you’re saying,” the doctor allegedly looked at Stegemann and said, “We’re going to make sure you won’t have any more pain.”
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According to a doctor, Stegemann was “deemed fit for MAID, and we’re going to proceed,” The Daily Mail reported.
Kranendonk said that two days before Stegemann’s death, she asked her grandmother directly whether she understood that the scheduled procedure meant she would die.
According to Kranendonk’s account to the outlet, Stegemann began crying and said she had “made a mistake.”
Stegemann was allegedly told by the doctor her grandmother could “deny” MAID on the day of the procedure, but Stegemann was already unsure if her grandmother had actually consented to it, did not want to cause her more stress, and wanted to enjoy what could be the last few days she had left with her grandmother.