Pope strongly criticizes assisted dying, calling it ‘fake compassion’

(London = Yonhap News) Correspondent Kim Ji-yeon = Pope Leo

According to the Associated Press and AFP news agency, on the 27th (local time), the third day of his visit to France, the Pope visited a patient care facility in the Catholic holy city of Lourdes and emphasized the dignity of human life while comforting those in pain.

“No man-made law can lead to loss of dignity,” the Pope said. “We must reject the temptation to cause death under the guise of false compassion.”

“It is impossible to regard as normal something that causes death,” the Pope continued, emphasizing that “what is legal is not necessarily moral.”

Assisted dying is when a terminally ill patient chooses to die artificially on their own with medical help. Australia, Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, Switzerland, and some U.S. states allow assisted dying, and the French parliament also passed it this summer.