Genetic
Manipulation

Fertility
Control

Artificial
Procreation

II.-Life

Beginning
of Life & birth

Value of life:
Unity of body
and soul

Indisposability
& inviolability
of life

Right to life

Prevention

Sickness

Diagnosis

Prenatal
Diagnosis

Therapy &
Rehabilitation

Analgesia &
Anesthesia

Informed
Consent

Research &
Experimentation

Organ Donation
& Transplantation

Dependency

Drugs

Alcoholism

Smoking

Psycho-
pharmaceuticals

Psychology &
Psychotherapy

Pastoral Care
& Sacrament of
Anointing

III.-Death

Terminal
illnesses

Death with
dignity

Painkillers
for the
terminally ill

Telling the
truth to the
dying person

The moment
of death

Religious
assistance
for the dying

Suppression
of life

Abortion

Euthanasia

Endnotes
87-147

Endnotes

1. John Paul II, during his visit to Mercy Maternity Hospital in Melbourne, Nov. 28, 1986, in Insegnamenti IX/2 (1986) 1734, n. 5. "Life and physical health are precious gifts entrusted to us by God. We must take reasonable care of them, taking into account the needs of others and the common good" (CCC 2288). [Back]

2. John Paul II, To the participants at two congresses of medicine and surgery, Oct. 27, 1980, in Insegnamenti III/2, p. 1010, n. 6. [Back]

3. "In exercising your profession, you are always dealing with the human person, who entrusts his body to you, confident of your competence as well as your solicitude and concern. It is the mysterious and wonderful reality of the life of a human being, with his suffering and his hope, that you are dealing with." John Paul II, To the participants at a surgery congress, Feb. 19, 1987, in Insegnamenti X/1 (1987) 374, n. 2. [Back]

4. Cf. John Paul II, To the participants at a medical congress on tumor therapy, Feb. 25, 1982 in Insegnamenti V/1, 698. Cf. also John Paul II: "None of you can be merely a doctor of an organ or an apparatus, but you must look to the whole person," To the World Congress of Catholic Doctors, Oct. 3, 1982, in Insegnamenti V/3, pp. 673-674, n. 4. [Back]

5. Cf. John Paul II, To the Congress of Italian Catholic Doctors, Oss. Rom. Oct. 18,1988. [Back]

6. John Paul II, Motu Proprio "Dolentium hominum," Feb. 11,1985, in Insegnamenti VIII/1, p. 474, n. 2. "Care for the health of its citizens requires that society help in the attainment of living conditions that allow them to grow and reach maturity: food and clothing, housing, health care, basic education, employment, and social assistance" (CCC 2288). [Back]

7. John Paul II, To the participants at a medical congress on tumor therapy, Feb. 25, 1982, in Insegnamenti V/1, p. 698, n. 4. Cf. To the participants at a scientific congress, May 21, 1982, in Insegnamenti V/2, p. 1792, n. 5. [Back]

8. "As I have said many times in my meetings with health care workers, your vocation is one which commits you to the noble mission of service to people in the vast, complex and mysterious field of suffering" John Paul II, To representatives of the Italian Catholic Doctors, March 4,1989, in Insegnamenti XII/1, p. 480, n. 2.) [Back]

9. John Paul II, To the Association of Italian Catholic Doctors, Dec. 28. 1978, in Insegnamenti I, p. 436. "You are aware of the close relationship, the analogy, the interaction between the mission of the priest on the one hand and that of the health care worker on the other: all are devoted, in different ways, to the salvation of the person, and care for his health, to free him from illness, suffering and death, to promote in him life well-being and happiness" (John Paul II, "Discourse for the 120th anniversary of the foundation of the 'Bambin Gesu' hospital," March 18, 1989, in Insegnamenti XII/1, 605-608, n. 2). [Back]

10. Cf. John Paul II, Apost. Letter Salvifici doloris, in Insegnamenti VII/1, 353-358, nn. 28-30; To an international group of scientists, April 27, 1984, in Insegnamenti VII/1, 1133-1135, n. 2: To the Catholic health organizations of the United States, Sept. 14, 1987, in Insegnamenti X/3 (1987) 506. [Back]

11. "The very personal relationship of dialogue and trust established between you and the patient requires of you a level of humanity which, for the believer, is found in the richness of Christian charity. This is the divine virtue which enriches all your actions and gives to your gestures, even the simplest of them, the power of an act performed by you in inner communion with Christ": John Paul II To the Association of Dental Doctors, Dec. 14, 1984, in Insegnamenti VII/2, 1592-1594, n. 4. "You bring to the sick-room and to the operating table something of God's charity, of the love and tenderness of Christ, the great Doctor of the soul and the body": John Paul II, To the 'Fatebenefratelli' hospital, April 5, 1981, in Insegnamenti IV/1, p. 895, n. 3. [Back]

12. Cf. John Paul II, To the 'Armida Barelli' training school for professional nurses, May 27, 1989, in Insegnamenti XII/1, p. 1364, n. 3. "What a stimulus for the desired 'personalization' of medicine could come from Christian charity, which makes it possible to see in the features of every sick person the adorable face of the great, mysterious Patient, who continues to suffer in those over whom your profession bends, wisely and providently!" (John Paul II, To the participants at two congresses of medicine and surgery, Oct. 27, 1980, in Insegnamenti III/2, p. 1010, n. 7). [Back]

13. Cf. John Paul II, To the Association of Italian Catholic Doctors, Dec. 28, 1978, in Insegnamenti 1, 437-438. [Back]

14. Cf. John Paul II, To the staff of the 'Fatebenefratelli' hospital, April 5, 1981, in Insegnamenti IV/1, p. 895. n. 3. [Back]

15. John Paul II, To the Association of Italian Catholic Doctors, Dec. 28, 1978, in Insegnamenti 1, p. 437. [Back]

16. John Paul II, To the Italian Federation of Orthopedic Technology Workers, Nov. 19, 1979, in Insegnamenti II/2, p. 1207, n. 4; cf. To the participants at a scientific congress, May 21, 1982, in Insegnamenti V/2, p. 1792, n. 5. [Back]

17. "Your work...can become a religious act" (John Paul II, To the participants at a surgery congress, Feb. 19, 1987, in Insegnamenti X/1 (1987) 375, n. 3; cf. Paul VI, Insegnamenti di Paolo VI, vol. 1, 1963, p. 141). [Back]

18. John Paul II, Motu Proprio Dolentium hominum, Feb. 11, 1985, in Insegnamenti VIII/1 (1985) p. 475. [Back]

19. "Every concern for illness and suffering is part of the life and the mission of the Church" (John Paul II, To the Catholic health organizations of the United States of America, Sept. 14, 1987, in Insegnamenti X/3 [1987] 502-503, n. 3). "Allowing herself to be guided by the example of Jesus the 'Good Samaritan' (cf. Lk 10:2937) and upheld by his strength, the Church has always been in the front line in providing charitable help: so many of her sons and daughters, especially men and women religious, in traditional and ever new forms, have consecrated and continue to consecrate their lives to God, freely giving of themselves out of love for their neighbor, especially for the weak and needy" (John Paul II, Encyclical Evangelium vitae, March 25, 1995, n. 27). [Back]

20. Cf. John Paul II, To the world Congress of Catholic doctors, Oct. 3 1982, in Insegnamenti V/3, p. 676, n. 3. "The Lord Jesus Christ physician of our souls and bodies, who forgave the sins of the paralytic and restored him to bodily health, has willed that his Church continue, in the power of the Holy Spirit, his work of healing and salvation even among her own members. This is the purpose of the two sacraments of healing: the sacrament of Penance and the sacrament of Anointing of the Sick (CCC 1421). [Back]

21. "Your presence at the sick-bed is bound up with that of those—priests, religious and laity—who are engaged in apostolate to the sick. Quite a number of the aspects of that apostolate coincide with the problems and tasks of the service to life rendered by medicine. There is a necessary interaction between the exercise of the medical profession and pastoral work, because the one object of both is the human person, seen in his dignity of a child of God, a brother or sister needing, just like ourselves, help and comforting" (John Paul II, To the World Congress of Catholic Doctors, Oct. 3 1982, in Insegnamenti V/3, p. 676, n. 6). [Back]

22. "You, while you alleviate sufferings and try to cure them, at the same time are witnesses of the Christian view of suffering and of the meaning of life and death, in the way it is taught by your Christian faith" (John Paul II, To the Catholic Health Organizations of the United States of America, Sept. 14, 1987, in Insegnamenti X/3 [1987] pp. 502 and 505.) [Back]

23. John Paul II, Apost. Exhort. Christifideles laici, Dec. 30, 1988, in Insegnamenti XI/4, p. 2160, n. 53. [Back]

24. Cf. John Paul II, To the participants at the International Congress for Assistance to the Dying, in Oss. Rom. March 18, 1992, n. 6. "Every individual, precisely by reason of the mystery of the Word of God who was made flesh (cf. Jn 1: 14), is entrusted to the maternal care of the Church" John Paul II, Encyclical Evangelium vitae, March 25, 1995, n. 3). [Back]

25. John Paul II, To the participants at a surgery congress, Feb. 19,1987 in Insegnamenti X/1, p. 375, n. 3. "The advance of science and technology, this splendid witness of the human capacity for understanding and for perseverance, does not dispense humanity from the obligation to ask the ultimate religious questions. Rather it spurs us on to face the most painful and decisive of struggles, those of the heart and of the moral conscience" John Paul II, Encyclical Veritatis splendor, n. 1). [Back]

26. Cf. John Paul II, Motu Proprio Dolentium hominum, Feb. 11, 1985, in Insegnamenti VIII/1 (1985) p. 475. "Especially significant is the reawakening of an ethical reflection on issues affecting life. The emergence and ever more widespread development of bioethics is promoting more reflection and dialogue—between believers and non-believers, as well as between followers of different religions—on ethical problems, including fundamental issues pertaining to human life" (John Paul II, Encyclical Evangelium vitae, March 25, 1995, n. 27). [Back]

27. Cf. John Paul II, To the Association of Catholic health care workers, Oct. 24, 1986, in Insegnamenti IX/2, p. 1171, n. 3. "In today's cultural and social context, in which science and the practice of medicine risk losing sight of their inherent ethical dimension, health-care professionals can be strongly tempted at times to become manipulators of life, or even agents of death" John Paul II Encyclical Evangelium vitae, March 25, 1995, n. 89). [Back]

28. Synod of Bishops, special Assembly for Europe, Concluding Statement, in Oss. Rom. Dec. 20, 1991, n. 10. "It is illusory to claim that scientific research and its applications are morally neutral. On the other hand, guiding criteria cannot be deduced from merely technical efficacy, nor from the usefulness to some to the detriment of others, nor, worse still, from the dominant ideologies. Science and technology require, by their very inner significance, unconditional respect for the fundamental criteria of morality; they must be at the service of the human person, of his inalienable rights, of his true and integral good, in conformity with God's plan and will" Cong. Doct. Faith, Instruct. Donum vitae, Feb. 22, 1987, in AAS 80 (1988) Introduction, 2, p. 73 (cf. CCC 2294). [Back]

29. Ethical committees, composed of specialists in the medical and moral nerds, are also established by governments, which give them consultative and supervisory roles. "The Church is aware that the issue of morality is one which deeply touches every person; it involves all people, even those who do not know Christ and his Gospel or God himself. She knows that it is precisely <on the path of the moral life that the way of salvation is open to all>" John Paul II, Encyclical Veritatis splendor, n. 3. "...No darkness of error or of sin can totally extinguish in the human person the light of God the Creator. In the depths of his heart there always remains a yearning for absolute truth and a thirst to attain full knowledge of it. This is eloquently proved by man's tireless research in all fields and in every sector. His search for the meaning of life proves it even more (ibid., n. 1). Cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Evangelium vitae, March 25, 1995. n. 4. [Back]

30. Cf. John Paul II, To the plenary assembly of the Pontifical Council for Pastoral Assistance to Health Care Workers, Feb. 9,1990, in Insegnamenti XIII/2, p. 405, n. 4. [Back]

31. John Paul II, Apost. Letter Salvifici doloris, in Insegnamenti VII/1, 254-356, n. 29. [Back]

32. Cf. To scientists and health care workers, Nov. 12, 1987, in Insegnamenti X/3 (1987) 1088: "The humanization of medicine is a duty of justice, and its implementation cannot be entirely delegated to others, since it requires the commitment of all. Its operative field is very vast: it goes from health education to the creation of greater sensitivity in those in public authority; from direct involvement in one's own workplace to forms of cooperation—local, national and international—which are made possible by the existence of so many organizations and associations which have among their purposes the call, direct or indirect, for a need to make medicine ever more human." [Back]

33. John Paul II, Encyclical Evangelium vitae, March 25.1995. n. 34. [Back]

34. Ibid., n. 43. [Back]

35. John Paul II, To the World Medical Association, Oct. 29, 1983, in Insegnamenti VI/2, 921. Cf. Allocution to the participants at a congress of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, Oct. 23, 1982, in Insegnamenti V/3, 895-898. [Back]

36. Cong. Doct. Faith, Instruct. Donum vitae, Feb. 22, 1987, in AAS 80 (1988) 85. Cf. John Paul II, Apost. Exhort. Christifdeles laici, Dec. 30, 1988, in Insegnamenti XI/4, pp. 2133-2135, n. 38; cf. Holy See, Charter of the Rights of the Family, Oct. 22, 1983, art. 4. [Back]

37. John Paul II, To the Union of Italian Jurists, Dec. 5, 1987, in Insegnamenti X/3, (1987) 1295. "The Church remains deeply conscious of her 'duty in every age of examining the signs of the times and interpreting them in the light of the Gospel, so that she can offer in a manner appropriate to each generation replies to the continual human questionings on the meaning of this life and the life to come and on how they are related"' (John Paul II, Encyclical Veritatis splendor, n. 2). [Back]

38. John Paul II, To the World Medical Association, Oct. 29 1983, in Insegnamenti VI/2,921-923. Cf. Cong. Doct. Faith, Instruct. Donum vitae, Feb. 22, 1987, in AAS 80 (1988) 90-92. [Back]

39. Cf. Ecum. Coun. Vatican II, Past. Constit. Gaudium et spes, n. 50; Paul VI, Encyclical Humanae vitae, in AAS 60 (1968) p. 487. [Back]

40. John Paul II, Encyclical Evangelium vitae, March 25, 1995, n. 43. [Back]

41. Cf. Paul VI, Encyclical Humanae vitae, in AAS 60 (1968) p. 487, n. 10. [Back]

42. Ecum. Coun. Vatican II, Past. Constit. Gaudium et spes, n. 51. [Back]

43. Cf. Paul VI, Encyclical Humanae vitae, in AAS 60 (1968) p. 488, n. 12. [Back]

44. "The inner structure of the marriage act is such that, while it profoundly unites the partners, it fits them for the generation of new life, according to laws inscribed in the very being of the man and the woman" (Paul VI, Encyclical Humanae vitae, in AAS 60 [1968] pp. 488-489, n. 12). [Back]

45. Cf. Cong. Doct. Faith, Instruct. Donum vitae, Feb. 22, 1987, in AAS 80 (1988) 91. [Back]

46. Cf. Paul VI, Encyclical Humanae vitae, n. 12; John Paul II, Apostol. Exhort. Familiaris consortio, in AAS 74 (1982) p. 118, n. 32. "Consequently, 'the one who wishes to understand himself thoroughly—and not just in accordance with immediate, partial, often superficial, and even illusory standards and measures of being—must with his unrest, uncertainty and even his weakness and sinfulness, with his life and death, draw near to Christ...."' (John Paul II, Encyclical Veritatis splendor, n. 8). [Back]

47. Natural methods "are diagnostic means for the fertile periods of the woman, which make it possible to refrain from sexual relations when legitimate motives of responsibility dictate the avoidance of conception" (John Paul II, To the participants at a course for teachers of natural methods, Jan. 10, 1992, in Oss. Rom. Jan. 11, 1992, n. 3). [Back]

48. Cf. Paul VI, Encyclical Humanae vitae, in AAS 60 (1968) p. 488, n. 11 and p. 492, n. 16. [Back]

49. John Paul II, Encyclical Evangelium vitae, March 25, 1995, n. 97. [Back]

50. Cf. Paul VI, Encyclical Humanae vitae, in AAS 60 (1968) p. 489, n. 13; cf. also John Paul II, Apostol. Exhort. Familiaris consortio, in AAS 74 (1982) p. 118, n. 32. [Back]

51. John Paul II, Encyclical Evangelium vitae, March 25, 1995, n. 23. [Back]

52. Cf. Paul VI, Encyclical Humanae vitae, in AAS 60 (1968) p. 490, n. 14. [Back]

53. Cf. John Paul II, Apostol. Exhort. Familiaris consortio, in AAS 74 (1982) p. 118, n. 32. [Back]

54. John Paul II, To the participants at a course for teachers of natural methods, Jan. 10, 1992, in Oss. Rom. Jan. 11, 1992, n. 3. [Back]

55. Cf. John Paul II, Apostol. Exhort. Familiaris consortio, in AAS 74 (1982) p. 118, n. 32. [Back]

56. John Paul II, To the participants at two congresses on the problems of matrimony, the family and fertility, June 8, 1984, in Insegnamenti VII/1, 1664-1665. "On the innate meaning which is that of mutual, total donation by the partners, contraception imposes an objectively contradictory meaning, namely that of not giving oneself completely to the other" (Apost. Exhort. Familiaris consortio, 32). [Back]

57. John Paul II, Encyclical Evangelium vitae, March 25, 1995, n. 13. [Back]

58. John Paul II, Apost. Exhort. Familiaris consortio, in AAS 74 (1982) p. 120, n. 32. [Back]

59. Cf. ibid, p. 122, n. 33. [Back]

60. Ibid, p. 125, n. 35. [Back]

61. John Paul II, Encyclical Evangelium vitae, March 25, 1995, n. 14. [Back]

62. Cong. Doct. Faith, Instruct. Donum vitae, Feb. 22, 1987, in AAS 80 (1988) 76. [Back]

63. John XXIII, Encyclical Mater et Magistra, III, in AAS 53 (1961) 447. Cf. Pius XII, To the participants at a congress of the Italian Catholic Union of Obstetricians, Oct. 29, 1951, in AAS 43 (1951) 850. [Back]

64. Cf. John Paul II, General Audience, Jan. 16, 1980, in Insegnamenti III/1 (1980) 148-152. [Back]

65. Cf. Pius XII, To the participants at a congress of the Italian Catholic Union of Obstetricians, Oct. 29, 1951, in AAS 43 (1951) 850. [Back]

66. John XXIII, Encyclical Mater et Magistra, III, in AAS 53 (1961) 447. [Back]

67. Cong. Doct. Faith, Instruct. Donum vitae, Feb. 22, 1987, in AAS 80 (1988) 96. [Back]

68. Pius XII, To the participants at the IV International Congress of Catholic Doctors, Sept. 30, 1949, in AAS 41 (1949) 560. [Back]

69. Cong. Doct. Faith, Instruct. Donum vitae, Feb. 22, 1987, in AAS 80 (1988) 92. [Back]

70. "Homologous FIVET takes place outside the bodies of the partners through the actions of third parties whose competence and technical activity determine the success of the intervention; it entrusts the life and identity of the embryo to the power of doctors and biologists and gives technology dominion over the origin and destiny of the human person" (ibid., p. 93). [Back]

71. Cf. ibid., AAS 80 (1988) pp. 85-86,91-92,96-97. "The origin of a human person is really the result of a donation. The conception should be the fruit of the love of its parents. It cannot be desired nor conceived as the product of the intervention of medical or biological techniques: this would be to reduce it to becoming the object of scientific technology. No one can subject the arrival of a child into the world to conditions of technical efficiency which can be evaluated according to parameters of control and dominion" (ibid, p. 92). [Back]

72. Cf. ibid, AAS 80 (1988) pp. 91, 92-94. [Back]

73. John Paul II, Encyclical Evangelium vitae, March 25, 1995, n. 22. [Back]

74. Cong. Doct. Faith, Instruct. Donum vitae, Feb. 22, 1987, in AAS 80 (1988), p. 93. [Back]

75. Cf. ibid., p. 97. "A child is not something owed to one, but is a gift. The 'supreme gift of marriage' is a human person. A child may not be considered a piece of property, an idea to which an alleged 'right to a child' would lead. In this area, only the child possesses genuine rights: the right 'to be the fruit of the specific act of the conjugal love of his parents,' and 'the right to be respected as a person from the moment of his conception"' (CCC 2378). [Back]

76. Cf. ibid., p. 85 and 84. The "so-called 'spare embryos' are...used for research which, under the pretext of scientific or medical progress, in fact reduces human life to the level of simple 'biological material' to be freely disposed of" (John Paul II, Encyclical Evangelium vitae, March 25, 1995, n. 14). [Back]

77. Cf. Cong. Doct. Faith, Instruct. Donum vitae, Feb. 22, 1987, in AAS 80 (1988), p. 94. "Certainly homologous FIVET is not burdened with all the ethical negativity which is to be found in extra-matrimonial procreation; the family and the marriage are still the ambient of the birth and education of the child." However, it is at variance with the dignity of human procreation, depriving it of the dignity which is proper and connatural to it. [Back]

78. John Paul II, Encyclical Evangelium vitae, March 25, 1995, n. 23. [Back]

79. Cf. Cong. Doct. Faith, Instruct. Donum vitae, Feb. 22, 1987, in AAS 80 (1988), pp. 87-89. [Back]

80. Cf. ibid, p. 88; see also John Paul II, Encyclical Evangelium vitae, March 25, 1995, n. 23. [Back]

81. Cf. ibid, p. 89. [Back]

82. Cf. ibid, pp. 92-94. [Back]

83. Cf. ibid, p. 95. [Back]

84. Cf. ibid, pp. 95-96. [Back]

85. Cf. John Paul II, To the staff of the new 'Regina Marghenta' hospital, Dec. 20, 1981, in Insegnamenti IV/2, p. 1179, n. 3. [Back]

86. Cf. John Paul II, To the participants at the 35th General Assembly of the World Medical Association, Oct. 29, 1983, in Insegnamenti VI/2, 917-923, AAS 76 (1984) 390]; To the Catholic health organizations of the United States of America, Sept. 14, 1987, in Insegnamenti X/3 (1987) 500-507; To the participants at the VII Symposium of European Bishops, Oct. 17, 1989, in Insegnamenti XII/2, p. 947, n. 7. [Back]