Pope Francis has, throughout his pontificate, raised his voice to counsel the faithful and the world to reject what he has called the “throw-away culture.” As is often the case, one uses a negative image as a means of highlighting and strengthening a call for a positive good. So too with Pope Francis.

With this image, Pope Francis touches especially the conscience of the developed world where, for example, plastic bottles are mass-produced. Water is consumed and the bottles thrown away, only to overwhelm our landfills and clutter our highways and waterways. Underlying this reality is a mentality that uses and consumes for pleasure or convenience and then disposes of what is left, heedless of the consequences or the resulting damage.

Pope Francis has used this image to give us a healthy understanding of the meaning of creation and the human person. He has commented, “The throw-away culture says, ‘I use you insofar as I need you. When I am not interested in you anymore, or you are in my way, I throw you out’. It is especially the weakest who are treated this way: unborn children, the elderly, the needy and the disadvantaged. But people are never to be thrown out; the disadvantaged cannot be thrown away! Every person is a sacred gift, each person is a unique gift, no matter what their age or condition. Let us always respect and promote life! Let’s not throw life away!” (Angelus, January 29, 2023).

Pope Francis has constantly reminded the world of the highest calling of the human person, which is to recognize the image and likeness of God in ourselves and in every other person. In doing so we fulfill what Jesus has told us is the greatest commandment: “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
(Mt 22:38).

This part of the teaching of the Holy Father is particularly helpful in our own time and place. That is especially because of increasing reports that soon, in the State of Illinois, there will be a move to follow some other states by legalizing assisted suicide. This possibility should be alarming to all of us.

The very basis and foundation of justice and love requires respect for human dignity. That means respect for the gift of human life.

Reason recognizes the mystery of the gift of life. Our special gifts of intellect, free will and the ability to love do not come from ourselves but point to our transcendent nature. In faith, we recognize human life as sharing the image and likeness of God.

For that reason, as Pope Francis said, we give special respect for the unborn, the elderly and the disadvantaged. Most especially, in times of illness and the approach of death, we must offer even greater care, seeking to alleviate suffering, loneliness or despair. The management of pain, which is a benefit of advances in medicine and science, is possible and available at such moments.

Euthanasia and assisted suicide, even if well intended, cannot be justified. They put into practice a mentality that seeks to control and end life. It lessens that part of our human nature that offers compassion and which joins us more closely to those whom we have loved or whom we serve in their completion of the gift of life entrusted to them.

Experience has also shown that promises of deceptively worded “death with dignity” routinely slide down a slippery slope where medical coverage and payments are adjusted to encourage death over care at the end of life, and the qualifying conditions for life terminating procedures are expanded. The result is pressure on the dying to make themselves “less burdensome.”

“Every person is a sacred gift, each person is a unique gift, no matter what their age or condition,” said Pope Francis. He is calling us to a greater response of freedom and dignity by assisting and not throwing away those close to death. That is the better path for the good of the State of Illinois and its citizens.