Stop assisted suicide
California is the fifth state in the U.S. to legalize physician-assisted suicide
California recently passed a bill that would legalize physician-assisted suicide, according to the LA Times. This comes almost a year after the case of Brittany Maynard, a young woman with terminal brain cancer who moved to Oregon to end her life, made headlines.
Medicine and the law — The debate concerning death with dignity continues. Google Images
“This is a dark day for California and for (California Gov. Jerry Brown’s) legacy,” Tim Rosales, a spokesman for Californians Against Assisted Suicide, said.
California has joined Oregon, Washington, Montana and Vermont in the group of states that currently allow physician-assisted suicide. Modeled from the current law in Oregon, the New York Times predicts that this landmark passing will “roughly triple access to doctor-assisted suicide across the country.”
As a human, I can sympathize with the desire to make someone who is ailing comfortable in their last days, but as a Christian, I cannot support a bill like this.
While supporters of the bill have been beaming since its passing, public officials have voiced concerns over the effects the bill could have on society and the value of life.
“I’m not going to push the old or the weak out of this world,” Republican Sen. Ted Gaines said according to the New York Times. “I think that could be the unintended consequence of this legislation.”
The LA Times reported Brown, who had to sign off on the bill after it passed the state Senate, noted his personal confliction over the bill, having been a former Jesuit seminary student.
“I do not know what I would do if I were dying in prolonged and excruciating pain,” Brown said. “I am certain, however, that it would be a comfort to be able to consider the options afforded by this bill. And I wouldn’t deny that right to others.”
While his intentions sound pure, we are taught in the Bible that our bodies are holy and should be taken care of. 1 Corinthians 3:17 reads, “For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple (NLT).”
Our bodies are a temple, as the Holy Spirit dwells in us. Murder is a sin, and it is still a sin even if the only person you are killing is yourself. I understand the want to force the pain to cease, but endorsing an option where people can simply end their life with the help of a doctor is not a healthy solution.
Last year in Oregon, 105 people took their lives with physician-assisted suicide, also known as the Death with Dignity Act, according to Oregon’s Public Health Division. One hundred five people died and 105 families grieved the loss of their loved one. How high will that number be next year?
Doctors are trained to save lives and serve people to make them well, not to help someone end their life.
Brown, a lifelong Catholic, said he considered the “theological and religious perspectives that any deliberate shortening of one’s life is sinful,” according to the LA Times. He also consulted multiple doctors and religious figures when making the decision to sign the bill into law. With all this consultation and concern for the moral implications, one would think he would have arrived at a different answer.
Even with this bill now signed into law, public officials are still voicing concerns over possible repercussions, mostly centering on people being coerced or pressured into dying. While someone needs to be deemed mentally competent and terminally ill to receive the treatment, peer pressure could still sway their decision.
“Let’s call this for what it really is: It’s not death with dignity,” Sen. Bob Huff said. “This is state-assisted death, physician-assisted death and relative-assisted death.”
Earlier this year, Pope Francis commented on the sanctity of life when he remarked that the Golden Rule gives people the “responsibility to protect and defend human life at every stage of development,” according to the Washington Post.
As a country and a world, we are slipping down a dangerous slope of evil and sin, and this ruling is just another example of that. People always abuse laws and make rash decisions without thinking, and that is just what this law will bring. The value of a life shrinks everyday as abortions continue and people can commit suicide with the help of a medical professional who was trained to save their life.
STEFANICK is an opinion writer.