To Live Each Day with Dignity
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A Statement on Physician-Assisted Suicide.
To live in a manner worthy of our human dignity,and to spend our final days on this earth in peace and comfort, surrounded by loved ones—that is the hope of each of us. In particular, Christian hope sees these final days as a time to prepare for our eternal destiny.
Today,however, many people fear the dying process. … Today there is a campaign to respond to these fears and needs in a radically different way. It uses terms like “death with dignity” to describe a self-inflicted death, generally using a drug over dose prescribed by a doctor for the purpose of suicide.
If they succeed, society will undergo a radical change.
Top Reasons to Oppose Assisted Suicide
Q: Why shouldn’t assisted suicide be legalized?
A: To sanction the taking of innocent human life is to contradict a primary purpose of law in an ordered society. A law or court decision allowing assisted suicide would demean the lives of vulnerable patients and expose them to exploitation by those who feel they are better off dead. Such a policy would corrupt the medical profession, whose ethical code calls on physicians to serve life and never to kill. The voiceless or marginalized in our society — the poor, the frail elderly, racial minorities, millions of people who lack health insurance — would be the first to feel pressure to die.
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