While welcoming hundreds of people who suffer from a rare degenerative neurological condition known as Huntington’s Disease in the Paul VI Hall last week, Pope Francis pleaded with scientists searching for cures not to contribute to the “throw away culture” by using, and then destroying, human embryos.

Vatican Radio is reporting on the reception that occurred last Thursday when he welcomed hundreds of sufferers of Hungtington’s disease along with their family members, the person in charge of the in home caregiver and researchers to Rome.

Huntington’s disease is a fatal genetic disorder that causes the progressive breakdown of nerve cells in the brain. This degeneration causes a person’s physical and mental abilities to deteriorate, usually while in the prime of their life between the age of 30 and 50. There is no cure for the condition which is passed on from parent to child. Although everyone is born with the gene that causes Huntington’s disease, only those that inherit an expansion of the gene will develop the disease in their lifetime.

“I know that some of you have had to brave a very long and difficult journey in order to be here today. I thank you and I am happy you are here,"the pope said. "I have listened to your accounts and the difficulties you must face each day; I understand how much tenacity and dedication your families, doctors, health care workers and volunteers have as they support you in a journey that poses many uphill climbs, some of which are extremely difficult.”

He continued: “For far too long, the fears and difficulties that characterize the life of people affected by Huntington’s Disease have surrounded them with misunderstandings and barriers, veritably excluding them. . . In many cases the sick and their families have experienced the tragedy of shame, isolation and abandonment. Today, however, we are here because we want to say to ourselves and all the world: ‘HIDDEN NO MORE!’”

He went on to promise the support of the Church to sufferers, saying, “May none of you ever feel you are alone; may none of you feel you are a burden; may no one feel the need to run away. You are precious in the eyes of God; you are precious in the eyes of the Church!”

He then turned his attention to the geneticists and scientists who were also in attendance and thanked them for dedicating themselves to researching a treatment for the disease.

“Clearly, there is a great deal of expectation surrounding your work: resting on your efforts are the hopes of finding the way to a definitive cure for the disease, but also of improving the living conditions of these brothers and sisters, and of accompaniment, especially in the delicate phases of diagnosis, at the onset of the first symptoms.”

After calling upon the Lord to bless their work, he went on to encourage them to always pursue their work with means that do not contribute to fueling that “throw-away culture” that at time infiltrates the world of scientific research.

“Some branches of research, in fact, utilize human embryos, inevitably causing their destruction. But we know that no ends, even noble in themselves, such as a predicted utility for science, for other human beings or for society, can justify the destruction of human embryos.”

He ended the address with a prayer: “May the life of each of you — both of those who are directly affected by Huntington’s Disease and those who work hard every day to support the sick in their pain and difficulty — be a living witness to the hope that Christ has given us. Even through suffering there passes a path of abundant good, which we can travel together.”

 

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