Pope: Health Justice Should Be a State Priority

(Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI is calling for justice in health care, highlighting it as a priority of governments and international institutions.

The Pope stated this in a message sent to Archbishop Zygmunt Zimowski, president of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Ministry, for an international conference that began today in Rome.

This two-day academic event will focus on the topic “For Equitable and Human Health Care in the Light of the Encyclical ‘Caritas in Veritate.'”

“Health justice should be among the priorities of governments and international institutions,” he said.

“Important also in the field of health, integral part of each one’s existence and of the common good, is to establish a true distributive justice that guarantees to all, on the basis of objective needs, adequate care,” the Pope affirmed.

He continued, “Consequently, the world of health cannot be subtracted from the moral rules that should govern it so that it will not become inhuman.”

Wounds

“Unfortunately,” the Pontiff said, “next to positive and encouraging results, there are opinions and lines of thought that wound it.”

He explained, “I am referring to questions such as those connected with so-called reproductive health, with recourse to artificial techniques of procreation entailing the destruction of embryos, or with legalized euthanasia.”

“It is necessary to work with greater commitment at all levels,” the Pope said, “so that the right to health is rendered effective, favoring access to primary health care.”

Full text: www.zenit.org/article-31001?l=english