Vatican City

Pope Francis has warned doctors and ethicists on several hot-button social issues, attacking abortion, embryonic stem cell research and euthanasia as playing with life and a sin against God.

In a strongly worded address that marked a departure for a pope who tends to focus more on social justice issues, Francisdenounced what he called the false sense of compassion that was used to promote abortion and those who regarded euthanasia as an act of dignity.

We are living in a time of experimentation with life. But a bad experiment, the pope told members of the Association of Italian Catholic Doctors at the Vatican Saturday.

Francisalso condemned in vitro fertilization, which he said promoted children as a right rather than a gift to welcome, and embryonic stem cell research, which used human beings as guinea pigs to presumably save others.

This is playing with life, he said. Be careful, because this is a sin against the Creator: against God the Creator, who created things this way.

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Francis has spoken out several times against the assisted suicide movement, which he considers to be a symptom of todays throw-away culture that views the sick and elderly as a drain on society.

On Saturday, the pope said it was unlawful to take a life and warned of the dangers posed to the elderly by hidden euthanasia in our culture of waste.

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Pope warns against the false sense of compassion in euthanasia