Join the Movement – Help us Oppose Physician Assisted Suicide

Archdiocese of Washington ^ | 07-08-15 | Msgr. Charles Pope

[Salvation]

Join the Movement – Help us Oppose Physician Assisted Suicide

Msgr. Charles Pope • July 8, 2015 • 1 Comment

Here in Washington D.C., the City Council has before it a bill modeled after Oregon’s physician-assisted suicide law. Listed as the “Death with Dignity Act of 2015,” a public hearing will take place this Friday, July 10th at 11:00 AM in the District building.

Experience thus far with legalized assisted suicide should alarm anyone who looks seriously into how it has played out. The “safeguards” of the Oregon law, so highly praised by its supporters, seem to be mere window dressings than actual safeguards. In Oregon, people are getting lethal drugs who live much longer than six months, and with the only data coming from the doctors who prescribe the lethal dose and no governing body charged with investigative oversight, the information coming from Oregon is suspect at best. The 2014 Oregon Assisted Suicide Report indicates a dramatic 44% increase in assisted suicide. It also indicates that only three of the dead had received a psychiatric evaluation.

Thankfully, a rather significant coalition of disabilities advocates, medical professionals, pro-life organizations and faith communities opposes this so-called “right-to-die” legislation. The American Medical Association (AMA) also opposes it, stating, “Physician-assisted suicide is fundamentally incompatible with the physician’s role as healer, would be difficult or impossible to control, and would pose serious societal risks.”

Why should we as Catholics oppose assisted suicide  legislation?  There are many reasons. Some of them are informed by our faith, others are more rooted in natural law or reason, while others flow from the consequences that will ultimately result from legalizing this form of suicide.

Let’s consider first what the Catechism teaches about assisted suicide, or euthanasia:

Those whose lives are diminished or weakened deserve special respect. Sick or handicapped persons should be helped to lead lives as normal as possible. Whatever its motives and means, direct euthanasia [or assisted suicide] consists in putting an end to the lives of handicapped, sick, or dying persons. It is morally unacceptable. Thus an act or omission which, of itself or by intention, causes death in order to eliminate suffering constitutes a murder gravely contrary to the dignity of the human person and to the respect due to the living God, his Creator. The error of judgment into which one can fall in good faith does not change the nature of this murderous act, which must always be forbidden and excluded.

Discontinuing medical procedures that are burdensome, dangerous, extraordinary, or disproportionate to the expected outcome can be legitimate; it is the refusal of “over-zealous” treatment. Here one does not will to cause death; one’s inability to impede it is merely accepted. The decisions should be made by the patient if he is competent and able or, if not, by those legally entitled to act for the patient, whose reasonable will and legitimate interests must always be respected.

Even if death is thought imminent, the ordinary care owed to a sick person cannot be legitimately interrupted (CCC 2277-2279).

Thus the Catechism defines euthanasia as the intentional killing of a patient, usually by direct means such as injection with deadly drugs, and sometimes indirectly by refusing to provide food and/or water. Assisted suicide includes similar means (lethal prescription, etc.) and shares the same end as euthanasia (an act intending to cause death to eliminate suffering); the distinction lies in who initiates the act – self or other. This distinction can often become blurred when one looks at the rising incidences of elder abuse, coercion and isolation experienced by many of our seniors, whether dealing with illness or not.

One cannot emphasize enough that allowing a person to die by refusing or withdrawing burdensome treatments, or by not providing machines such as ventilators that are unlikely to be therapeutic, does not qualify as assisted suicide. Church teaching does not require that one pursue every treatment possible. The patient must discern carefully with information supplied by his medical team along with an assessment of his personal resources – spiritual, psychological, emotional, familial and financial – whether or not a particular treatment is excessively burdensome. However, even for an imminently dying person, basic care (which usually includes nutrition and hydration, even if administered through a tube) must be provided.

Pain management for those with terminal illnesses, degenerative diseases, and the dying is allowed and encouraged, even if the pain medicine has the unintended side effect of shortening life. Arguments that dying is too painful and therefore a patient should be euthanized are not valid, since it is very rare today that pain cannot be managed reasonably through the advancements of the growing specialty of palliative care.

Let’s consider some other reasons, both religious and natural, that we should oppose assisted suicide. I’ll begin with the natural reasons that should concern us all, including those of different or no faith tradition. Then I’ll move to the religious reasons that should influence us who believe.

1. Legalized assisted suicide grants, by government decree, certain citizens, i.e. medical professionals, death-dealing authority; this in turn results in irreparable damage to the doctor-patient relationship. Introducing death as a medical treatment option that can be offered by health care professionals transforms a trusted profession that has been solely dedicated to healing for millennia. It is because of this dedication to healing that doctors have enjoyed such respect and trust from their patients and society as a whole. The idea that government can give death-dealing power to certain individuals means that they can also enforce and regulate it. With an already broken healthcare system plagued with a spending problem, it is not difficult to imagine that assisted suicide will be an easy “fix” to our spending problem and legitimate treatment options will be refused.
   
   In an attempt to limit who “qualifies” for assisted suicide, the legislation states that an individual must have been given a prognosis of 6 months or less left to live. All doctors who deal with terminal illnesses on a regular basis will tell you that these prognoses are an educated “guess” at best. Upon receiving such a prognosis when a patient is justifiably vulnerable and disoriented, it is dangerous and irresponsible to allow patients to make lethal decisions based upon “a guess.”

2. Legalized assisted suicide will likely lead to poorer healthcare and increased pressure on the sick, the elderly, the disabled or those who have suffered traumatic injury. Those who advocate for the physically and mentally disabled have good reason to fear that pressure will be applied to euthanize the disabled and those who have been in traumatic accidents. As the concept of “a life not worth living” grows, and the idea gains traction that disability (even milder forms) is a fate worse than death, those who struggle with disability may well be easy targets for those who advise suicide. Others may feel pressured to no longer be a “burden.” Many will have the sense of their dignity being lessened. More can be read here:Disability and Euthanasia – History and Concerns.Granting individuals the right to end their life ultimately threatens us all because it implicitly denies the dignity of the dying. Failing to understand this dignity will lead to poorer care and will increase pressure on the elderly and dying to end their lives prematurely so that they are no longer a burden.

3. In other words, the “right to die” too easily becomes the “duty to die.” And what begins sociologically through pressure not to be a burden, soon enough becomes economically necessary since insurance benefits may vanish. Neither can eventual legal pressure be excluded. The experience with euthanasia in the Netherlands is sobering. More can be read on that here: Euthanasia Law in the Netherlands.

There are many more reasons to oppose assisted suicide purely on rational grounds. You can find more of these here: www.noDCSuicide.org.  I would like to move on to those reasons that originate from our faith in Jesus Christ.

One of my privileges as a priest is to have accompanied many people on their final journey toward death. I’ve also accompanied their family members. And in making these journeys, I have discovered that some of God’s greatest and most necessary work takes place in and during the process of natural death.

1. Natural death is an important part of life that should be respected and accepted, not rejected. Some very important things happen for us on our death bed that assist us spiritually, psychologically, and emotionally. And these things happen not only to us, but to our loved ones as well.

   I have seen pride melt away; I have seen powerful contrition for past sins emerge. I have seen gratitude intensify, both in the one who is dying and in the love ones who surround him or her. I have heard beautiful words like, “I love you,” “I am proud of you,” “I will miss you.” I have seen people let go and let God take over. I have seen forgiveness, tenderness, appreciation, and love being shared as never before. There is also the beautiful gift of listening and waiting, along with lessons learned that will never be forgotten.

   I do not say that there is not grief and emotional pain; there is. But that is not all there is; there is beauty and love, too. And these are important and necessary. Perhaps some of the most necessary and profound things take place on our deathbed and at the deathbed of others.

   Supporters of the legalization of assisted suicide might argue that these beautifully human and transformative moments also occur when one takes death into his own hands. I have no doubt that many tearful goodbye’s are shared and some reconciliation among family members occurs as well; but there is a very different quality and transparent authenticity within these moments when one has surrendered his/her life and control over to God.

2. The dying process helps us to receive the Kingdom of God like a little child, and God says this is necessary for us. As God directs Samuel: Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature … For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart (1 Sam 16:7). Yes, even in the painful sight of once-strong individuals reduced to weakness, there is a kind of strange beauty and we must ask the Lord to give us the “eyes to see” (cf. Mt 13:16). In the nursing homes of this land are people who once ran businesses, raised families, and led communities. Now many have returned to a kind of childhood, even infancy. Some cannot walk, some have to be fed, some can no longer talk, some clutch dolls, and some must wear diapers. All this seems so horrible to many, but important things are happening. These are not conditions that any one of us would willingly choose or wish upon another; however not one of these losses, even the significant loss of intellectual capacity in such diseases as Alzheimer’s, diminishes my worth and dignity. I do not want to minimize the pain that accompanies these losses – and the pain is not limited to the patient alone. Often family members and caregivers undergo significant stress and experience the pain of our Blessed Mother at the foot of the cross.

   Again, something important is happening here.

   Are those in nursing homes really so different from you and me?  Maybe death and dying are the “place” where all worldly status, all privilege, all inequalities are leveled and we simply become who we are. Are we not all little children to God? Does He not have to provide for every one of us in our need? Does He not have to feed us, clothe us, and enable us to speak? Perhaps it is just that with the elderly and dying the illusion of self-sufficiency has been shed. The Lord says, Unless you change and become like little children you will not inherit the kingdom of God (Mat 18:3).

3. As Catholics, we can never affirm the claim of the world that “My body is my own and I can do with it as I please.“For a believer, this is simply not true. Scripture says,You are not your own. For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body (1 Cor 6:19). We are the steward, not the owner, of our body; we belong to God. Rather, as disciples, we seek to imitate Christ as He surrendered to His own impending death and gave us His Body at the Last Supper: This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me (Lk 22:19).

As Christians, we must once again reaffirm our acceptance of the Cross. No one likes the Cross – it is a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles (1 Cor 1:22), but we have been taught by Christ that the Cross is both necessary and saving. And we must insist, at least among our own number, upon the belief expressed by St. Paul: So we do not lose heart. Though our body is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this momentary affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal (2 Cor 4:16-18).

Think carefully before you support assisted suicide through some sort of limited notion of compassion. The truest compassion is to want for someone what he truly needs in order to be saved. Only God can ultimately say what this is. We do not have dignity because we can control our own lives; we have dignity because our life is in God’s hands. 

States across the country have been rejecting efforts to legalize assisted suicide. Please take a moment to join the groundswell of opposition to this bill.

[NYer]

Ping!

[GreyFriar]

See my post # 8.

Also, I find it nearly unbelievable that 70 years after defeating the Nazis and being against their policy of euthanasia that the US and the countries of Western Europe have adopted that Nazi policy. Of course, Margaret Sanger helped out here in the US.

[Salvation]

**This begins by them saying they are “assisting suicide”, but the truth is that, for their own motives, they want to murder. Even the pretense of “assisted suicide” doesn’t last long before their blood lust takes control of them, and they start murdering those who cannot ask to die;**

BTTT!

[Grateful2God]

S: Aren’t you glad your mother didn’t have an abortion.

R: Yours obviously did though.

Did I miss something here, R? Or is that one of the rudest, most childish, insensitive and ignorant remarks our forums have seen?!

[Grateful2God]

" Also, I find it nearly unbelievable that 70 years after defeating the Nazis and being against their policy of euthanasia that the US and the countries of Western Europe have adopted that Nazi policy. Of course, Margaret Sanger helped out here in the US. "

History really is repeated by those who are ignorant of it- and by those who are part of the legacy of that evil: not the victims, but the perpetrators. Sanger and Hitler knew one another; Hitler was influenced, at least in part by Aliester Crowley the precursor of Kenneth Anger and the Satanist movement.

The world turned its head to Nazism, and the average American probably could never have comprehended the hell that was going on. What is our excuse now? Ignorance of the atrocities committed on our soil, with consent of law, disguised as "choice" "death with dignity" and the hellish notion that a human person would be better off dead than "different". Satan is indeed the prince of liars, and our nation is falling for it all. May God have mercy on us!

[RnMomof7]

They are coming for us Sal... Both ends of life are useless to the “progressives”

[Rapscallion]

You arrogant Catholics issued PUBLIC criticism of me in this forum.

You do not like it when someone does it to you. Seems like you need a good dose of humiliation. Your church has much to be humble about, too.

[Grateful2God]

" You arrogant Catholics issued PUBLIC criticism of me in this forum.

I commented on a remark YOU made in said forum. YOU humiliated yourself by making that remark.

You do not like it when someone does it to you. Seems like you need a good dose of humiliation. Your church has much to be humble about, too. "

No one enjoys humiliation. The person to whom the remark was directed was the object of a remark that did not deserve such a reply. YOUR remark was humiliating, besides being cruel.

Stating rhetorically that you should be glad your Mom wanted you and that you weren't one of millions killed in the womb is not humiliation-quite the opposite.

You stated to me, "Seems like you need a good dose of humiliation." Who are you to decide? What would that accomplish? Do you intend that to be construed as a threat? That statement could easily be considered to be retaliative.

There is no accountability in the reply here for the original statement you made; no evidence of self-examination as to the inappropriateness of the remark YOU chose to make; no compunction evident. The subject instead was changed to remarks against Catholicism: against 1.2 billion people's beliefs, including my own, from one who is not even willing to take responsibility for one sentence in forum. Can you even explain what you meant by that original remark?