BETWEEN A “PASSION FOR THE PERSON” AND A “CULTURE OF WASTE” – END OF LIFE: CONVERSATION IN THE LIGHT OF SENATE DRAFT LAW 2553
In collaboration with the Pubblica Agenda Network “Ditelo sui tetti”.
Domenico Airoma, Prosecutor of the Republic of Avellino; Msgr. Piero Gallo, 1st Class Secretary Officer, Secretariat of State, Vatican City; Marco Maltoni, Director of the Romagna Palliative Care Unit, Forlì; Andrea Manazza, Palliative Oncologist ASL Torino 4; Domenico Menorello, Pubblica Agenda Network “Ditelo sui tetti”. Introduced and moderated by Lorenza Violini, Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Milan.
The ‘end of life’ issue hides an underlying anthropological connotation. Faced with frailty, we can desire to have the humanity of Francis of Assisi, for whom every moment of life reveals a “passion for the person”, which is always a sign of a much bigger question, that, especially in the case of an irreversible condition, leads to the “care for what is weak” (Laudato sii, par. 10). Or, in front of those who suffer, we can look away, up to the point of considering a life not worth living. This attitude supports the ‘culture of waste’ decried on several occasions by Pope Francis. In this seminar we therefore want to reflect on the conditions that can sustain life even in times of suffering, both from a legislative and from a medical care standpoint.