ROME, JULY 4 (ZENIT.org)

    The celebrations for the Jubilee of Doctors began yesterday in Rome. They will culminate in a meeting with the Pope on July 7. This great event was preceded by the International Congress on "Medicine and Human Rights."

    More than 5,000 people from 42 countries are participating in this special Jubilee. In addition to the Congress' sessions, the program includes a spiritual journey that includes the Roman Basilicas, as well as several cultural and leisure events.

    At the end of this Jubilee, a "Charter of Human Rights for Medicine," written by a group of scientists, theologians, and moralists, will be published. Domenico Di Virgilio, president of the Italian Association of Catholic Doctors and one of the initiative's promoters, explained the reasons for writing a "new" document of this kind.

-- Professor Di Virgilio: It might seem strange that 50 years after the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we still feel the need to address this topic. But, in fact, the testimonies that we receive from all over the world prove that this Declaration is not kept in mind. Although on one hand we have had exciting scientific and technological progress, on the other we have witnessed unheard of violence against the right to life, including tortures, and millions of dead resulting from racial hatred. Many national legislatures have accepted the Declaration yet, at the same time, have promulgated laws against life, such as abortion, euthanasia, and genetic manipulation. Because of this, as doctors and Catholics, we consider it indispensable to remind those who govern, and we shall do so in the final document, about the need to respect human rights: the right to life, to adequate and equal health care for all; the right to a just death, the right to family life, the right to respect the dignity of every human being.

-- Can you explain what it means to live every day in the double role of doctor and Catholic? In humility we, Catholic doctors, say that we most certainly are not better than the rest. However, we must distinguish between scientific training, which must be the highest for all doctors, and ethical-moral formation, which should also be the common denominator of all doctors. We who have the gift of faith, through no merit of our own, try to foster contact between the patient and health agents (even if they are not doctors). We request greater dedication to the patient: patients must be heard, conversed with, and respected; this dimension must never be missing. In a word, we foster daily testimony that medicine must be at the service of man. We want to reaffirm the right of all people to their own dignity, independent of faith, of his own ideological belief, race, and economic situation.

-- The Doctors' Jubilee is taking place shortly after a decisive scientific announcement: the codification of the map of the human genome, which at present can virtually be completely reconstructed in a laboratory. What is your judgment on this both as a professional and a believer?

-- Scientific progress cannot be halted. It is not even vaguely true that the Magisterium of the Church and Catholics in general are opposed to scientific progress; this must be stated categorically. However, scientific progress must be directed to the service of man. This latest announcement must not raise hopes too high. Concrete results will not be seen for another year or so. Moreover, it is important to recall the need to exercise great prudence, both in carrying out genetic tests (some could be carried out today), as well as in their interpretation, in order not to create easy illusions but, above all, serious errors. I will give you a very recent example: a qualified Genetics Institute in Rome accepted 6 women diagnosed with genetic defects; they were ready to abort. Five of these genetic tests were mistaken. Thank God the Institute encouraged them and helped them to continue their pregnancies. which ended successfully. ZE00070405

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