A symposium taking place at the Vatican has challenged society to accompany the weak, the ill and the elderly in the face of a growing “culture of euthanasia”, and has called proper palliative care a “human right”.

Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, President of the Pontifical Academy for Life, said that the “terminally ill and elderly, especially those affected by mental health issues, are being pushed to the margins of society” as if “they have nothing more to offer, they are not necessary, they are a burden on society”, and added, “This is a cruel society”.

The Archbishop made the comments in an address to open a two-day symposium on religion and medical ethics at the Vatican organised by Qatar’s World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH), the British Journal of Medical Ethics, and the Pontifical Academy for Life.

While pro-euthanasia campaigners have championed the so-called ‘right to die’, Archbishop Paglia countered this notion by saying that every man and every woman had a right to live in the human family. “Palliative care is a human right,” he said.

He went on to call for a renewed understanding of medicine that does not regard it as a failure if a patient cannot be healed. “It is not true that there is nothing more to do,” he said.

“Presence is important, accompanying is important, relieving people from suffering, showing love, holding the person’s hand,” he said.