Bombay Archdiocese conducts symposium on “Right To Die”

Mumbai – The archdiocese of Bombay recently conducted a symposium on the “Right to die,” where several ethical issues were addressed, including whether the term “right to life” include the “right to die.”

The symposium was organised by the Diocesan Human Life Committee.

Speaking on the occasion, Bishop Agnelo Gracias, the Auxiliary Bishop of Mumbai and chairperson of the Family Life Apostolate, said, “None of us is the absolute owner of our life; we are trustees to whom God has entrusted the precious gift of life. We have to use ordinary and proportionate means to preserve it.”

As there are many questions in the minds of people regarding euthanasia and the so–called “right to die”, the symposium tried to find a “Christian answer” to these questions, the organizers said.

Each of the three speakers looked at the issue in the light of their own expertise. While Dr. Eustace De Souza, a retired medical practitioner of repute in India and abroad, spoke of the medical aspects, Dr. Luzito D’Souza, chief surgeon at St. Elizabeth’s Nursing Home, Mumbai, looked at the ecological, social and legal implications. Bishop Gracias dwelt on the moral aspects. All the three speakers shared a common view: “My life is not my own, but a gift from the Creator held by me in trust. It is the creator alone who has the right to directly extinguish it.”

About 200 participants, including the clergy, religious and laypersons, were present.

Incidentally, the debate on “right to die” received world media coverage when on March 30, Terri Schaivo passed away in US, following a court order of removal of the feeding tube that kept her alive for the past 15 years. Terri Schaivo, 41, suffered catastrophic brain damage in 1990 when her heart stopped for several minutes because of a chemical imbalance. Ever since, she had relied on life support system, till March 18, when a US court ordered the removal of the feeding tube subsequent to which her health deteriorated rapidly leading to her passing away.