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Washington D.C., Nov 2, 2016 / 04:19 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Representatives of the nation’s capital voted Tuesday to approve physician-assisted suicide, despite strong opposition from religious, legal and medical leaders.

“Since the time of the Hippocratic oath – which long predated Christianity – the medical community saw the profound incompatibility of efforts to end life being facilitated by a healing profession,” said Dr. Lucia Silecchia, a law professor at The Catholic University of America and a Washington, D.C. resident.

“Thus, while the Catholic and Christian understanding of the dignity of human persons, made in the image and likeness of God undergirds the moral critique of such statutes, the medical opposition long predates Christ, and the legal objections should compel anyone who observes how easily disregard for the life of one spreads,” she continued.

Silecchia had talked to CNA on Oct. 17, when the assisted suicide bill was originally being considered.

The D.C. city council voted 11-2 to pass the “Death With Dignity” bill, which would allow two doctors, who both determine that a patient will die within sixth months, to prescribe a fatal dose of medication for the patient if requested.

The bill is expected to become law. Although Mayor Muriel Bowser has not publicly confirmed she would sign it and the city council still has to hold a final vote later this month, the bill for now has a veto-proof majority.

If it goes through, Washington. D.C. will join a handful of other states in allowing for physician-assisted suicide. Legislatures in Oregon, Washington, California, and Vermont have legalized the practice, as has the Montana Supreme Court.  

Legislation to permit assisted suicide is currently being considered in New Jersey, and Colorado voters will consider a ballot measure to legalize the practice on Nov. 8.

The D.C. bill was advertised as expanding the end-of-life options for terminally-ill patients, but opponents insisted that it could become a poison pill where the poor and disabled would be pressured to end their lives rather than burden others with high medical costs.

Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington has spoken out repeatedly against the bill as a false sense of mercy.

“A truly compassionate and merciful response to the sick and vulnerable is not to confirm these impulses by offering them a lethal drug,” he insisted in an Oct. 5 statement.

“Whether it is a terminally ill person or a young person suffering from depression, our response should be to draw them away from the edge, to help the vulnerable among us – regardless of their condition or circumstances – with genuine compassion and give them hope.”

In addition to the immorality of suicide, the bill poses other serious ethical concerns for its opponents.

Not all terminal diagnoses are correct, as patients can outlive their life expectancy by years. Thus, some patients who would otherwise long outlive their diagnosis might instead opt for an early death.

However, under the legislative measure, doctors could write a lethal prescription for a patient they barely know but deem to be terminally-ill, and if a patient’s long-time physician refuses to write them a prescription, the patient could simply look around for a doctor who will.

Also, one of the witnesses to the patient’s decision to end their life could be an interested party, which means they could benefit financially from the patient’s death.

States that have legalized assisted suicide have run into problems, such as one case in California where a terminally ill woman was told that her doctor-recommended chemotherapy treatment would not be covered by insurance, but pills for suicide would be covered.

Also of concern is evidence that many patients suffer from anxiety or depression when they receive a terminal diagnosis, and their desire to end their lives disappears when they are treated for these conditions.

 

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Des Moines, Iowa, Nov 2, 2016 / 04:38 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- In the wake of fatal shootings of two Iowa police officers in apparent ambushes, Bishop Richard Pates of Des Moines offered prayers for the victims’ families and colleagues.

After the shootings, Bishop Pates said the Catholic community “extends heartfelt prayer and sympathy to the families and friends of the two police officers who were killed in the line of duty this morning.”

Bishop Pates voiced condolences to the police chiefs and police forces of Des Moines and Urbandale.

“We stand in solidarity with you,” he said Nov. 2.

Two police officers in the Des Moines area were shot and killed in separate incidents early Wednesday, the Des Moines Register reports. It appeared they were taken by surprise and had no chance to defend themselves.

Urbandale Officer Justin Martin and Des Moines police Sgt. Anthony Beminio were named as the gunman’s victims.

The gunman appeared to have walked up to Martin’s patrol car and fired 15 to 30 shots into the driver’s side of the car just after 1 a.m., killing the officer. Less than 30 minutes later and two miles away, Beminio was shot while responding to the scene of Martin’s shooting. Beminio later passed away at a hospital.

One man, Scott Michael Greene, 46, has been arrested on suspicion of the killings. He was arrested about 35 miles from the shootings after he flagged a state employee and asked the employee to call 911.

Bishop Pates described the shootings as a “painful moment” that calls for a full investigation, a just response, and a continuing conversation among the entire community about resolving conflict.

“Among the concerns, one that has been highlighted by police and those protecting us as needing to be firmly addressed, is the widespread proliferation of guns which makes such violence possible in the first place,” he said.

“May all of us working together find the courage to move forward in a manner that brings peace to our beloved community,” he said.

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IMAGE: CNS photo/Bob Roller

By Rhina Guidos

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Most of us face death when a loved one passes away, and family and friends head to a cemetery.

But at the Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Land in Washington, the friars may think about death more often than most people since a cemetery with their Franciscan brothers who have died is right in their backyard, lining a pastoral path where the living walk on crisp fall days.

On All Souls' Day this year, that's where they gathered for midday prayer, to include the dead in their prayers and to include them in life by remembering them.

"It's simple tradition," but one that has been around for decades, said Father Larry Dunham, the guardian of the monastery. "We gather for our Franciscan family, our religious family."

Midday prayer is one of shortest parts of the Liturgy of the Hours, which the friars pray several times at a day but they have chosen the prayer in the middle of the day, when the sun is at its highest, to include the dead in the ritual they took part in so often in life, "which is significant, too," Father Dunham told Catholic News Service.

"We're taking this time out and we're celebrating with them," he said, adding that after the prayer and a blessing of the cemetery, "We go to lunch, we're going to tell tales that makes (the dead) present. We laugh and we cry. It puts them in our mind and we have a feast for them and continue that eucharistic element that is still in everything we do as a church."

This year, the brothers buried in the Franciscans' cemetery received a special blessing as Franciscan Father Francesco Patton, the new custos of the Holy Land Franciscans, was present and sprinkled holy water on the graves. Custos is equivalent to a provincial minister.

"It connects us who are living with the part of the church that has passed on," said Franciscan Father Greg Friedman, who attended the event with about 20 other friars present for the prayer and blessing.

With the sun at its zenith, Jesus, too, who is the sun, is "very powerfully present in all of this," said Father Dunham. Though friars often take walks in the backyard, it's rare that they gather as a community in the back, except for funerals and during All Souls' Day, he said.

The day is special, Father Dunham said, because the church asks its members to stop and take account of the people who have died, and their lives.

"It's kinda cool that a day is set aside like this," he said. "We, in our faith, we believe that it's positive and effective and good to pray for the dead."

Although, as with any family member, recent deaths can be difficult on any community.

"You live with these people, day in and day out, you get used to them, and not having their presence here is very keenly felt," said Father Dunham.

But death, which society often tries to hide or not talk about, is something that the friars often consider.

"Every time there's a funeral here, or on All Souls' Day, I think, where they've gone, that's where I'm going to go," he said. "I start to think, where am I going to be planted? But at the same time, not being macabre because this is part of the process of entering into what Jesus has won for us: eternal life."

It's a good exercise to think about death, resurrection and to face it, he said.

"It's not hidden when you're here," he said, sitting on some stones near the graves. "It's a good thing to remind me, this is my hope and this is my faith. Yes, I'm going to be here but I'm going to enter into eternal life. I really believe in the Resurrection."

Sometimes, when the friars have visitors, he likes to point out the cemetery in the back and some say: "Oh my gosh, you have a cemetery."

But that may lead some to reflect on death, faith and Jesus, he said.

"This is a constant reminder that Jesus has already won the victory," he said. "It's really healthy for our faith and our spirituality and to say we don't fear this."

In praying for the dead on All Souls' Day, he said, we're also preparing ourselves.

"Because we're called, too, to die and rise again with the Lord," he said. "All Souls' Day is not business as usual."

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Follow Guidos on Twitter: @CNS_Rhina.

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