“From the medical point of view, all doctors have the obligation to save lives, and make every effort we have available to do this,” he responded to a question by local media this week on whether he supported a bill that would allow patients with terminal condition the right to end their own lives.
When further quizzed by reporters on which side of the debate he stood, Gonzalez Alvarez said, “I believe we must fight to preserve the quality of life.”
The bill, introduced by legislator Roberto Mendoza Cardenas, is currently under discussion in several State Congress committees.
In the latest edition of Semanario, the weekly publication of the Catholic diocese of Guadalajara, an editorial on the issue said: “All human beings look for answers to suffering. Some (find them) though faith and belief. Others, with a degree of intolerance and daring, by modifying the life of others.
The article criticizes legislators who “wish to organize the lives of others with obscene laws that are contradictory to the natural rights that each person wishes to maintain according to their own beliefs.”
The editorial goes on to (obliquely) censure the promoter of the assisted dying bill for using “controversial issues” for “self promotion.”
Semanario also takes to task activists who appear to value the lives of animals over those of humans.