Cardinal Vincent Nichols has told Catholic medical students that they must bear a “strong and courageous witness” to the sanctity of human life. In an address to the Catholic Medical Association conference for healthcare students on Saturday, the Archbishop of Westminster said: “As evangelists in the world of healthcare you confront incredibly complex ethical questions. You need to give strong and courageous witness to the inviolable and instrinsic worth of every human life from conception to natural end. You will, and already do, face determined and sometimes aggressive opposition. "Never let this deter you from engaging in debates about euthanasia, abortion, fertility, the just provision of care for all irrespective of financial means, age, or illness.” The cardinal also encouraged the students to maintain a good prayer life. He said: “As healthcare students, you can certainly be contemplatives, your gaze fixed adoringly on the face of Jesus; yet that doesn't mean your contemplation follows the pattern or a Carthusian monk or Carmelite nun.” The full text of Cardinal Nichols’s address can be found here.