Pope Francis: prenatal diagnosis
no excuse for abortion
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| Pope Francis greets participants in the "Yes to life!" conference during an Audience at the Vatican (Vatican Media) |
Pope Francis addresses participants at a conference in the
Vatican entitled “Yes to Life! - Caring for the precious gift of life in its
frailness”.
By Vatican News
The conference was organized by the Dicastery for Laity,
Family and Life, and the “Heart in a Drop” Foundation, which works to welcome
“children born in conditions of extreme fragility”, who the culture of waste
sometimes defines as “incompatible with life”.
Every child is a gift
The Pope received conference participants in audience on
Saturday morning and told them “no human being can ever be incompatible with
life”. Every child is “a gift that changes the history of a family…and this
child needs to be welcomed, loved and cared for”.
Prenatal diagnosis
The Pope went on to speak about modern techniques of
prenatal diagnosis that can detect the presence of malformations and diseases
from the first weeks of pregnancy. Often the “mere suspicion of disease”, he
said, can “change the experience of pregnancy”, and even risk “throwing women
and couples” into a state of “deep despair”. Yet, the Pope continued, “the
evolution of every disease is always subjective and often not even doctors know
how it will manifest itself in the individual”.
Small patients
Pope Francis described children in the womb who have
pathological conditions, as “small patients”. Advances in pharmacology and
surgery have reduced “the gap between diagnostic and therapeutic possibilities,
which for years was one of the causes of voluntary abortion and abandonment of
care at the birth of many children with serious diseases”.
The medical mission
The Pope also spoke about the role of doctors. The medical
profession, he said, is “a mission”: doctors should be “capable of entering
into a relationship”, and of “committing themselves to always finding solutions
that respect the dignity of every human life”. This is especially important in
the case of children who are likely “to die immediately after childbirth”, said
the Pope. Taking care of these children “helps parents to process mourning…
That child will remain in their lives forever”.
Abortion never the answer
“Abortion”, said Pope Francis, “is never the answer”. “Human
life is sacred and inviolable and the use of prenatal diagnosis for selective
purposes must be strongly discouraged, because it is the expression of an
inhuman eugenic mentality, which deprives families of the possibility of
welcoming, embracing and loving their weakest children”, he said
Pope Francis concluded by thanking those families, mothers
and fathers, who have welcomed fragile lives, and are now supporting and
helping other families. “Your witness of love”, he said, “is a gift to the
world”.
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