Vatican official says, especially on kids, assisted suicide is murder

Published: 2004-09-03

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- While the Catholic Church believes assisted suicide is murder, it is even more clearly the case when discussing patients under the age of 12 who, in no way, can be said to make an informed request for help in dying, a Vatican official said. Bishop Elio Sgreccia, vice president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, wrote a half-page article for the Vatican newspaper Sept. 3 condemning attempts to extend the Netherlands' assisted suicide law to patients under the age of 12. Italian newspapers in late August reported that a judge had authorized the pediatrics clinic at the University of Groningen to extend assisted suicide to children, something outlawed under the terms of the Dutch law enacted in 2002. In his article in L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, Bishop Sgreccia said he could not find a copy of the new ruling, but said the reports are, "unfortunately, believable."

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