Dutch bishops refuse Church burial to assisted suicides. (Holland).Utrecht--The Catholic Church cannot give religious burials to those who plan assisted suicide assisted suicide: see euthanasia. . In the Netherlands, where physician-assisted suicides Noun 1. physician-assisted suicide - assisted suicide where the assistant is a physician assisted suicide - suicide of a terminally ill person that involves an assistant who serves to make dying as painless and dignified as possible and euthanasia euthanasia (y  'thənā`zhə), either painlessly putting to death or failing to prevent death from natural causes in cases of terminal illness or irreversible coma. are now legalised, the bishops are preparing pastoral guidelines to ensure that clergy and laity realize that these life-terminating procedures are totally unacceptable in Church teaching. Recently a Dutch Catholic woman who had planned her death was refused a Catholic burial. Cardinal Adrian Simonis of Utrecht, speaking on Vatican Radio Vatican Radio (in Italian language: Radio Vaticana) is the official broadcasting service of the Vatican. April 1, the day the law went into force, said that the Dutch bishops had tried in vain to have the law overturned, a law which was a worrisome sign that Europeans were losing their sense of respect for life. He said that the law would create an "environment in which patients would feel themselves a burden to the system, pushing them to ask for help in dying" (Cath. Reg., April 14/02). |
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