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   HEALTHCARE CANNOT DIVORCE ITSELF FROM MORAL RULES   
      
   VATICAN CITY, 18 NOV 2010 (VIS) - Benedict XVI has written a Message to   
   Archbishop Zygmunt Zimowski, president of the Pontifical Council for Health   
   Pastoral Care, and to participants in the council's twenty-fifth international   
   conference which is currently being held on the theme: "Towards egalitarian and   
   human healthcare in the light of 'Caritas in veritate'".   
      
   In his Message the Pope highlights "the need to work with greater commitment at   
   all levels in order for the right to healthcare to be effective, facilitating   
   access to primary medical assistance. In our own time", he continues, "we are   
   witnessing, on the one hand, a care for health which risks turning into   
   pharmacological, medical and surgical consumerism, almost a cult of the body   
   while, on the other hand, we see the difficulties millions of people face as   
   they seek to obtain minimal subsistence and the medicines they need to cure   
   themselves".   
      
   After highlighting the importance of "establishing true distributive justice   
   which guarantees everyone adequate care on the basis of objective needs", the   
   Pope insists that "the world of healthcare cannot divorce itself from moral   
   rules, which must govern it in order to ensure it does not become inhuman".   
      
   "Justice is promoted when we welcome the life of others and take responsibility   
   for them, answering their expectations because in them we see the face of the   
   Son of God, Who became man for us. The divine image impressed in the features   
   of our brothers and sisters is the basis of the exalted dignity of each   
   individual and arouses in each of us the duty to respect, care and serve".   
      
   The Holy Father writes that "healthcare justice must be one of the priorities   
   on the agendas of governments and international institutions. Unfortunately,   
   along with positive and encouraging results, opinions and schools of thought   
   exist which harm this justice. I am thinking of questions such as those   
   associated with so-called 'reproductive health', the use of artificial   
   procreation techniques that involve the destruction of embryos, and legalised   
   euthanasia. Love for justice, the defence of life from conception until natural   
   end, must be supported and proclaimed, even if this means going against the   
   tide. Fundamental ethical values are the shared heritage of universal morality   
   and the basis for democratic coexistence", he says.   
      
   "Only by looking at the world with the gaze of the Creator, which is a gaze of   
   love, will humanity learn to live on earth in peace and justice, equitably   
   sharing the planet and its resources for the good of each man and woman. For   
   this reason", the Pope concludes, "I would advocate the adoption of a model of   
   development based on the centrality of the human person, on the promotion and   
   sharing of the common good, on responsibility, on a realisation of our need for   
   a changed lifestyle, and on prudence, the virtue which tells us what needs to   
   be done today in view of what might happen tomorrow".   
   MESS/VIS 20101118 (490)   
      
   SUMMARY   
      
   --- MPost/386 v1.21   
    * Origin: Sursum Corda! BBS =Meridian, MS= bbs.sursum-corda.com (1:396/45)