Pope: justice and charity demand that everyone be guaranteed the right to health
Vatican City (AsiaNews) - "Love of justice, the protection of life from conception to natural death, respect for the dignity of every human being should be sustained and witnessed, even against the tide: these core ethical values are the common heritage of universal morality and the basis of democratic society". In accordance with this principle, which Benedict XVI affirms that "justice in healthcare must be among the priority of governments and international institutions. Unfortunately, alongside positive and encouraging results, there are opinions and ways of thinking that wound: I am referring to issues such as those related to so-called 'reproductive health', with the use of artificial reproductive techniques involving the destruction of embryos, or legalized euthanasia".
The XXV International Conference organized by the Pontifical Council for healthcare workers, held in the Vatican today and tomorrow, gave the Pope the occasion to reaffirm the fundamental values that the social doctrine of the Church must also be applied to the world of healthcare.
In a message addressed to the President of the council, Mgr. Zygmunt Zimowski, Benedict XVI writes that the theme of the meeting, Caritas in Veritate - For a just and humane health care, "is of particular interest to the Christian community, in which health care is central to the human being, for his transcendent dignity and their inalienable rights. "
"In our era – he also points out – on the one hand there is a focus on healthcare that risks turning into a consumption of drugs, medical and surgical treatment, becoming almost a cult of the body, and on the other hand, the difficulty of millions of people with minimal access to basic resources and drugs essential for treatment. In the field of healthcare, an integral part of one's existence and the common good, it is important to establish a just distribution, to assure appropriate care to everyone, on the basis of objective needs,. As a result, the world of healthcare may not evade the moral rules that must govern it to avoid it becoming inhuman".
As stated in the Encyclical "Caritas in Veritate, "the Church's social doctrine has always stressed the importance of distributive justice and social justice in the various fields of human relations (35). Justice is promoted and when one welcomes the life of his brother and assumes responsibility for him, responding to his expectations, because in him we see the very face of the Son of God who became man for us. The divine image imprinted in our brother founds the lofty dignity of each person and awakens in each of us the need for respect, care and service. The bond between justice and charity, from the Christian perspective, is very close: "Charity goes beyond justice, because to love is to give, to offer what is “mine” to the other; but it never lacks justice, which prompts us to give the other what is “his”, what is due to him by reason of his being or his acting. [...]If we love others with charity, then first of all we are just towards them. Not only is justice not extraneous to charity, not only is it not an alternative or parallel path to charity: justice is inseparable from charity, and intrinsic to it. Justice is the primary way of charity (ibid., 6)”.
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