Archbishop Fernando Chomali of Santiago, Chile. / Credit: Marco Mancini/ACI Stampa

ACI Prensa Staff, Jun 11, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

While the government of Chile moves forward with pledges made by President Gabriel Boric to expedite pro-abortion and euthanasia legislation, the Church in that South American country remains steadfast in its defense of life from conception to natural death.

The archbishop of Santiago and cardinal primate of Chile, Fernando Chomali, authored a column titled “Dying in Peace” in which he reflected on the latter issue. “Euthanasia is a form of social eugenics in the face of the inability to empathize, accompany, love, and respond to others,” Chomali stated.

On June 5, the administration of Boric introduced new amendments to the euthanasia bill, which was first introduced almost 14 years ago in the country’s Chamber of Deputies (lower house).

The initiative, titled “Bill on the Right to Voluntarily Opt to Receive Medical Assistance to Hasten Death in the Case of a Terminal and Incurable Illness,” is currently under consideration by the Senate health committee, according to the BioBio website.

Among the amendments proposed by the government are the elimination of the right of patients to receive spiritual guidance in accordance with their faith, the elimination of conscientious objection by institutions, and the expansion of the places where the procedure can be carried out, including the home.

The bill also incorporates new formal requirements, such as the patient’s written and reiterated wishes and a case evaluation committee, but proposes “medical assistance in dying” as a regular service within the health care system.

If the bill is passed, Chile will join the roster of countries that allow euthanasia, which includes Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands, Spain, and Australia. It would become the third country in Latin America to have legislation on the subject, along with Colombia and Ecuador.

In the context of the current situation in Chile, characterized by violence, corruption, insecurity, and long waiting lists for medical treatment, Chomali warned: “A bill that allows for the direct elimination of a human being in the final stage of life has resurfaced and is being processed immediately: the euthanasia bill.”

Behind the idea of ​​“death with dignity,” Chomali stated, “is the idea of ​​disposing of the lives of others in their terminal stages.” In his critique of the bill, Chomaili took aim at the haste with which the legislation is now moving.

“Could someone explain the urgency? Will there be time to hear from experts on the subject and for legislators to study the matter and learn about the disastrous experiences of some countries that have introduced this practice?” the cardinal asked.

The bill, the cardinal noted, “is ambiguous because it extends to people in complex health situations, who, according to the bill’s proponents, since their lives are not worth living, the state cannot prevent them from ending them.”

The legislative initiative “appeals to autonomy and individual freedom as an absolute right that must be respected, even knowing that, in these circumstances, it is what is most lacking,” Chomali observed.

The proposal, the cardinal noted, “is the practical response to the torpidity of the state and society in caring for the sick, in most cases elderly adults, many of whom end their days old, alone, sick, and poor. Many of them are in public hospitals, and in places we cannot imagine, bedridden and abandoned in dire conditions.”

“Euthanasia is referred to as an act of compassion,” he lamented, and warned: “Let us not be mistaken; it is an act of compassion to benefit Western society, which measures everything in terms of productivity, joy, success, and profit, and which cannot tolerate anything related to pain and suffering, much less take responsibility for it.”

“This bill is the sunset of the sense of responsibility toward the weak that belongs to all of society and the triumph of the logic of force over the logic of reason,” he reflected.

A bill detrimental to the poor 

According to Chomali, “with euthanasia, the plight of a seriously ill person is resolved with violence — covered in the cloak of kindness, compassion, autonomy, etc.”

Furthermore, he pointed out that it is a measure that works against the lower classes because, especially for the poor, there is the possibility that “third parties may decide for them to end their days.”

“The truth is that those who are accompanied feel loved and well cared for; they don’t ask to end their days; on the contrary, they cling to life and their loved ones as a great treasure until the end,” the cardinal emphasized.

As an example, he mentioned the Las Rosas Foundation — which provides shelter for the poorest and most vulnerable elderly — “where it has never even occurred to a resident, even a bedridden one, to ask for their life to be ended.”

As if that weren’t enough, the cardinal warned, “medical students, who often enter university motivated by the desire to heal, accompany, and care for others, will be taught how to end the life of an innocent human being.”

“Chile is impoverished by a law like this because the character of a society is measured by the capacity of the social fabric — of which we are a part — to care for the defenseless and vulnerable,” Chomali insisted.

Finally, the cardinal called on the promoters of this “unjust law” to focus their attention on the elderly in lamentable situations — hidden away in homes evading state regulations, without social life, and abandoned — while encouraging them to “take legislative action to promote the specialty of palliative care in hospitals and clinics and places where they end their days, as well as to promote solid public policies in favor of older adults in terms of pensions and access to mental health and palliative care.”

“Let us propose laws that allow the sick to die in peace. Let us care for them with the ordinary means available to them through medicine … together with their families and with adequate medical, spiritual, and human assistance,” he proposed.

Chomali then urged: “Let us seriously ask ourselves what lies behind the obstinacy of promoting laws that attack the weakest in society, such as human beings in the womb and on the sickbed, and at the same time.”

“Are we not promoting the law of the jungle and violence to resolve human tragedies, sometimes dramatic ones, which is nothing more than abandoning the rule of law that has cost so much to establish?” the cardinal asked in conclusion.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.