Pope Francis denounced physician-assisted suicide, urging doctors to put "more heart into your hands" and reject the notion of "false compassion" since "the dignity of human life ...and the medical vocation is at stake."

Addressing officials of the Medical Orders of Spain and Latin America in the Apostolic Palace on Thursday, the Pope criticised "those who hide behind an alleged compassion to justify and approve the death of a patient," the Catholic News Agency (CNA) reports.

"True compassion does not marginalise anyone, nor does it humiliate and exclude – much less considers the disappearance of a person as a good thing," he said.

"You are well aware of the meaning of the triumph of selfishness, of this 'throwaway culture' that rejects and dismisses those who do not comply with certain canons of health, beauty and utility," he said.

Pope Francis said true compassion is "the just response to the immense value of the sick person."

This response, he said, is characterised by "respect, understanding and tenderness" to an ailing person "so that the sacred value of the life of the patient does not disappear or become obscured, but instead shines with greater splendour precisely in suffering and helplessness."

The Pope reminded doctors that compassion is a necessary part of their profession.

"The doctor's identity and commitment depends not only on scientific knowledge and technical competence, but principally on the attitude of compassion and mercy towards those who suffer in body and spirit. Compassion does not mean pity, it means 'suffering with'," he said.

The Pope acknowledged that the "frailty, pain and infirmity" of seriously ill patients pose a "difficult trial for everyone, including the medical staff."

Despite this, doctors must not give in to the "functionalist temptation to apply rapid and drastic solutions, moved by false compassion or by mere criteria of efficiency or cost-effectiveness," he said.

"Nothing must prevent you from 'putting more heart into your hands'," the Pope told the medical leaders, adding that "the dignity of human life is at stake. The dignity of the medical vocation is at stake."