Euthanasia, morning after pill part of ‘throwaway culture’, bishops warn

Calls for the legalisation of euthanasia and the morning-after pill form part of a “throwaway culture” in which humans are discarded as waste, the bishops of Malta and Gozo have warned.

In a joint pastoral letter, Archbishop Charles Scicluna and Gozo bishop Mario Grech insisted that euthanasia can never be in a patient’s best interests and that the morning-after pill can be abortifacient. They also added that the “throwaway culture”, a term coined by Pope Francis, is part and parcel of a system that prioritizes money over people and exploits the environment.

Over 1,300 people have signed an online petition launched by the wife of ALS sufferer Joe Magto, urging MPs to legalise euthanasia so that her husband can die in dignity.

However, the bishops argued that the value of human life doesn’t depend on whether a person is healthy or satisfied with the quality of his or her life.

“Every person has a right to treatment and society has the moral obligation to provide medical services in defence of this right to life,” they wrote. “Every person reserves the legal and moral right to refuse medical treatment that does not offer any hope, which involves exorbitant costs or inconvenience, or incurs severe pain and suffering. At the same time, however, every care must be provided to alleviate psychological and physical pain until the process of death takes its natural course.”

The bishops also reiterated their warnings against the morning-after pill, a topic that has been pushed onto the national agenda following a judicial protest filed by women’s rights activists to demand its importation and licensing in Malta.

The Women’s Rights Foundation has argued that reproductive freedom is a fundamental right, but the bishops sounded warnings that the pill threatens human life.

“Life can be threatened when pills or other medicine are taken with the aim that the life that has been conceived in the womb is prevented from developing, or rather destroyed,” they wrote. “The effect of certain pills in certain circumstances can be abortifacient. A person who is seriously living according to his or her Christian beliefs has the moral obligation to inform herself fully about all the effects of these medicinal products in order to take responsible decisions in favour of life.

“In case of scientific doubt on how these medicinal products work, the decision must always be in favour of the protection of life. The conscience of healthcare professionals, who have objections to prescribe or to sell these medicinal products because of scientific doubts about their effects, must be respected.” 

The bishops invoked Pope Francis who condemned the “throwaway culture that “kills unborn babies, abandons the old, forsakes people with disabilities, values people according to their potential contribution to the economy and their consumption, and is unjust to the poor”

“We must always protect life, everywhere and at every stage and must work together to improve the quality of life in every aspect,” they wrote. “We Christians have a special duty to cherish life because for us, human life is a gift from God, who alone is its master from the beginning to the end. No human being can therefore assume or himself the right to directly destroy the innocent life of another or to regard some people as having no value or as obstacles.”