Stay the course for the culture of life

Submitted on April 25, 2002

Send to friend Last week in Oregon, a federal judge struck down a directive of U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft that limited the ability of physicians to prescribe regulated drugs to patients as part of a suicide treatment. The directive stated that prescribing medicine to hasten the death of terminally ill patients was not a part of "legitimate medical practice." The judge's ruling striking down the directive indicated that each state could regulate the practice of medicine in that state; this holding, though an indication of subsidiarity or power to the smaller political units, fails to acknowledge that assisted suicide is not the proper practice of medicine. The news was bad for those of us hoping and praying for limits on our society's slide into practices that build a culture of death. The case may be appealed to a higher court. Oregon is no stranger to the debate on suicide and physician assistance for suicide. A landmark 1997 U. S. Supreme Court decision of an Oregon law made clear that physician-assisted death is not a constitutional right. However, the Supreme Court left leeway to each state to decide how it would handle the issues. Oregon soon passed a voter referendum allowing physician-assisted suicide which the attorney general's directive sought to limit. This back and forth - between states, the federal government, and even local communities - is one that all Catholics must join in highlighting why suicide and physician-assisted suicide are not options that we can accept. There is no shortage of other attacks on the culture of life. In Maryland, two deaf women are trying to use donation and in-vitro fertilization to "create" a deaf child that they will raise as their own child. In our U.S. Senate, men and women debate whether a ban on human cloning is appropriate. Abortion and partial-birth abortion continue to be a part of "family planning" considerations in too many state legislatures. In these difficult debates, we Catholics must continue to exercise a strong presence and a persistent voice for the protection of all human persons. We must argue for life, convincing others of the dignity of each human being from conception until natural death. The effort for life, for promoting the Gospel of Life, is an ongoing evangelization of our fellow citizens. At the local, state, and federal level, we have a role to play. We also have a role: to pray. We start with our prayers and move out to action. The news out of Oregon last week was bad, as the proponents of physician-assisted suicide won a victory; however, ours is the long course, the course of the Gospel, and the course of the life that is Christ. We must carry on and stay the course.