A cardinal in Uruguay has criticised the passage of a bill to legalise and regulate euthanasia in the country’s lower house. Source: CNA.
“A clear setback in the recognition of the dignity of all human life has just won the votes of the majority of representatives. The throwaway culture and the culture of death advance,” Cardinal Daniel Sturla tweeted after the vote in the House of Representatives.
The house passed the bill on Thursday by a vote of 57 to 39. Now it must be debated and voted on in the Senate in the coming weeks.
The bill’s text states that the law seeks to “regulate and guarantee the right of persons to go through the process of dying with dignity in the circumstances determined by the person”.
Only adults who are “psychologically fit” and who suffer from “one or more pathologies or chronic, incurable, and irreversible health conditions” qualify for euthanasia.
The cardinal called the bill “lamentable” and trusts that “there may be room in the Senate for further reflection”.
“Hopefully, caring for life takes precedence a little more,” he stressed.
Cardinal Sturla also pointed out that the Senate should vote in favour of the bill on palliative care, which has already passed in the House of Representatives.
“That’s how we can take care of people in critical situations. We can treat them to have their last days without pain, with dignity, accompanied. Don’t make people feel that they’re a burden, a weight. With love and respect until the last moment,” he said.
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Cardinal deplores passage of euthanasia bill by Uruguayan House of Representatives (By Diego Lopez Marina, CNA)
