Bishop Doran said it addresses a wide range of circumstances in which particular actions, or failures to act, by individuals or by the State, would contradict the dignity of a person or a whole group of persons.  These include sexual abuse, human trafficking, abortion, discrimination against migrants or people with disability and violence against women.

He particularly highlighted the document’s words on euthanasia and assisted suicide that “helping the suicidal person to take his or her own life is an objective offense against the dignity of the person asking for it, even if one would be thereby fulfilling the person’s wish”.

The document adds: “We must accompany people towards death, but not provoke death or facilitate any form of suicide. Remember that the right to care and treatment for all must always be prioritized so that the weakest, particularly the elderly and the sick, are never rejected.”