Press Releases and Correspondence
CMA Welcomes USCCB Statement on PAS
June 17, 2011
Bala Cynwyd, PA – June 17, 2011 – The Catholic Medical Association (CMA) welcomes the recent statement of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) on physician-assisted suicide (PAS).
On Thursday, June 16, 2011, the USCCB approved and released a statement on physician-assisted suicide titled “To Live Each Day with Dignity: A Statement on Physician-Assisted Suicide.” This first formal statement of the bishops’ conference on PAS was occasioned by the increasingly aggressive and sophisticated tactics by advocates of assisted suicide. After 14 years without any other state decriminalizing assistance in suicide, a ballot initiative in the state of Washington resulted in a law modeled on Oregon’s; and a court case in Montana has left the legal status of assistance in suicide in doubt. Assisted-suicide proponents are targeting small New England states in an effort to expand the practice of assisted suicide to the east coast.
The USCCB statement reviews the recent history of efforts to legalize assisted suicide, analyzes arguments justifying PAS in the name of “freedom” and “compassion,” and outlines an authentic approach to suffering at the end of life that is truly compassionate and consistent with human dignity. In addition to the statement, the USCCB has provided a range of helpful background materials, from Church teachings to fact sheets on the law, in a dedicated website, which can be accessed at http://www.usccb.org/toliveeachday/.
CMA President Jan R. Hemstad, M.D., stated that: “The USCCB statement is both timely and helpful. It was an honor for the CMA to be able to contribute to the statement in an advisory capacity. I urge CMA members to read “To Live Each Day with Dignity.”
The day before the USCCB issued its statement, assisted-suicide advocates, using a false name to reserve a room, managed to hold a small, tightly controlled press conference in the same hotel where the U.S. bishops were meeting. According to CMA Executive Director John Brehany, Ph.D., who was able to attend the conference, Compassion and Choices representatives tried to portray the USCCB’s concerns as purely religious in nature, asserted (without defending) a distinction between “assisting in suicide” and “helping someone to die,” and, in general, ignored the many people whose lives would be endangered by a public policy allowing some people (such as relatives or Compassion and Choices volunteers) to aid in the killing of sick and vulnerable people in the name of “patient autonomy.”
Founded in 1932, the Catholic Medical Association is the largest association of Catholic physicians in North America. For more information, go to http://www.cathmed.org.
CONTACT: John Brehany, Ph.D., S.T.L., Executive Director & Ethicist
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