Thank you for promising to be there for me even if in your eyes I am a sinner, Archbishop Paglia.
Dr M. R. Rajagopal, Chairman of Pallium India, writes:
Most of us in palliative care do not justify euthanasia, whether or not you call it assisted suicide. We believe that every request for assisted suicide is a call for help, “I cannot bear this suffering. Make my life liveable.”
If I am in that sick bed crying out to someone to kill me, I know many will add to my suffering by preaching ideology and by adding to my emotional burden. If in my pain and agony, I take a decision that is sin by their ideology and belief systems, and yet in my last minutes I call out for help, those who made the speeches may walk away from me. But I know Jesus would not have. And I know you would not, Archbishop Paglia.
That simple message, “I will not abandon you whatever be the circumstance”; is the ultimate message of love and peace. Thank you for being in this world.
Read: Debate over Vatican official’s assisted suicide remark driven more by ideology than reality