Overview
- Pope Leo XIV received members of the Jérôme Lejeune Foundation in the Vatican and used the centenary to praise Lejeune’s scientific and moral leadership.
- The pope warned that doctors must not let laboratory algorithms or efficiency calculations decide life and death and said medicine must never become the 'servant of programmed death.'
- Lejeune is credited with discovering trisomy 21 in 1958 and spent his career opposing prenatal eugenic uses of testing, a stance the pope framed as defending human dignity.
- The pope urged the Foundation to expand its international work in research, clinical consultations and the International Chair in Bioethics to train health, legal and philosophical professionals.
- The audience on Monday renewed Vatican-level backing for Lejeune’s cause and could sharpen the Foundation’s influence in public debate and policy on prenatal testing, disability care and medical ethics.