“The need for care becomes divine"

Earlier this week, Pope Leo was asked about the passing of “Deb’s Law” in Illinois. Signed into law earlier this month by Governor JB Pritzker, this law legalizes medically assisted killing in the pope’s home state.

Leo said he was “very disappointed” that this bill was passed and that he spoke “very explicitly with Gov. Pritzker” about it the month before when the fellow Catholic and Chicago-native visited the Vatican.

I was happy to hear that Pope Leo discussed it with Governor Pritzker because, as a Catholic and as a mental healthcare professional, I was also disappointed by the passing of this bill. While I believe supporters are motivated by compassion, I think that legalizing physician assisted suicide opens the door to new levels of exploitation of the poor and vulnerable.

Capitalism has been so ingrained in our culture and medically assisted killing reveals the ugly utilitarianism at its foundation. This is an anthropology that values individuals on the basis of their productivity or, at the very least, how little of a burden they are on others.

We see this utilitarianism present in our country’s dehumanization of migrants, our failure to value the labor of caregivers (our failure to value laborers in general), our marginalization of those with mental illness or disabilities, etc, etc. As Pope Francis described it in his book, Let Us Dream, this “is a mindset that despises the limit that another’s value imposes.”

We, as a society, have been so indoctrinated that the fear of losing autonomy and being a burden on others has seeped into our bones, and it’s within that culture that we’re introducing medically assisted killing. Catholic theologian and bioethicist, Charles Camosy, has expressed that when individuals seeking assisted suicide were surveyed about the reasons why they wanted to end their life, the desire to avoid physical pain was never at the top. Instead, the most common reasons were fearing the loss of autonomy, not wanting to be a burden on others, or fearing the loss of enjoyable activities.

As a mental-health counselor, I have layers of training and safety procedures around caring for clients who are at-risk for suicide. Not to demonize or stigmatize the desire to die that can manifest as a coping mechanism in the midst of very real emotional suffering, but because suicide is always a tragedy. Every human being is infinitely valuable, a universe of relationships and creativity. Death is always a loss.

At the heart of my profession is the desire to accompany others through the most challenging and impossible situations they’re in so that they know they are seen and valued in them. At the heart of my faith is the belief that in accompanying others I’m accompanying Christ.

In his comments about the Illinois law, Pope Leo said, “I would invite all people, especially in this Christmas feast days, to reflect upon the nature of human life, the goodness of human life. God became human like us to show us what it means really to live human life.”

And in his Christmas Eve homily, Leo drew the Church’s attention to exactly that. Without mincing words, he said, “While a distorted economy leads us to treat human beings as mere merchandise, God becomes like us, revealing the infinite dignity of every person.”

But the mystery of the incarnation is even deeper than that. God not only gave all of humanity infinite dignity, but he made himself especially present in the most vulnerable and marginalized. In the light of the Nativity, Leo said, “the need for care and warmth becomes divine.” Being dependent on others doesn’t diminish my dignity, in fact, in some way, it’s a doorway to experiencing Divinity.

That’s the Good News of Christmas, that under God’s Reign it’s the most powerless who are exalted.