BE INSPIRED BY ETHICAL VALUES, POPE TELLS DOCTORS

VATICAN CITY, MAR 23, 2002 (VIS) - The Holy Father this morning welcomed a delegation of doctors who are in Rome for a Congress to sensitize public opinion to the problem of the prevention of cancer in the digestive tract. He thanked them for their service and said he hoped their profession "will always be inspired by the perennial ethical values which give it its solid foundation."

The Pope noted "the growing availability of technical and pharmacological resources that allow for quickly discerning, in the majority of cases, the symptoms of cancer and thus intervening with greater rapidity and efficacy." He urged doctors "to continue with trust and tenacity in both research and therapy, using the most advanced scientific resources."

"Certainly," he underlined, "we cannot forget that man is a limited and mortal being. One must approach a patient with a healthy realism that avoids arousing in the person who suffers the illusion of the omnipotence of medicine. There are limits that are not humanly possible to overcome; in these cases one must know how to serenely accept one's own human condition, that the believer knows how to read in the light of the divine will."

John Paul II observed that "the complexity of the human person demands that, in giving the necessary treatments, the spirit, as well as the body, be taken into account. It would be presumptuous to count on technology alone. ... The concept of health, very dear to Christian thought, contrasts with a vision of it that reduces it to a purely psycho-physical equilibrium. Such a vision neglects the spiritual dimensions of the person and would end up jeopardizing the true good."

"Informing citizens with respect and truth, especially when they have pathological conditions, constitutes a true and proper mission for those who care for the public health."

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