DOCTORS CRITICIZE EUTHANASIA OF CHILDREN:  
A public statement is issued from The World Federation of the Catholic Medical Associations
September 6, 2004 (Posted, October 13, 2004)
NewsMax.com, Zenit.org ­ The World Seen From Rome 

ROME -- Catholic doctors warned that the new practice in Holland to euthanize children is another step towards a society in which life is not respected. 

The World Federation of the Catholic Medical Associations published a statement in response to the decision to allow Groningen University Hospital to euthanize children under 12 when their suffering is intolerable, or if they have an incurable illness. 

The document states that this initiative "is another violent laceration of the very fundamentals of our social coexistence." 

“Officially aimed at putting an end to 'unbearable suffering,' in fact it permits the killing of human beings without their consent," the statement continues, signed by Dr. Gian Luigi Gigli, president of the federation. 

“This happens in a society, as the Dutch one, in which euthanasia on adults has been legally performed even on depressed persons and where, as documented by official studies, there is already an illegal but tolerated euthanasia performed by physicians" on patients who            have not given their consent, the statement adds. 

The "decision proposes a death solution in situations which could be addressed by modern palliative care," the Catholic doctors stress. 

Moreover, "the decision raises the suspicion of a financial interest of the public authorities, since it decreases the 'burden' of prolonged and expensive care in clinical conditions for which any extension of life duration is considered meaningless," the statement continues. 

Worse yet, "it opens the door on a national scale to the 'mercy killing' of other mentally incompetent persons, to be eliminated without their consent for reasons based on an external appreciation of their quality of life," said the federation. 

The statement appeals to "medical doctors still committed to the Hippocratic Oath, to feel the moral imperative to contrast the slippery slope that, step by step, is permitting the public authorities to take decisions on which lives are worthy to be lived." 

“The next steps will be the mental capacity bill under scrutiny by the British Parliament, and the attempt by local authorities to change the ethical code of Belgian doctors," the statement stresses. 

“The risks of such an attitude, in terms of violence and discrimination, should be evident for physicians and call them to resist and fight," the  statement concludes.