Seduction of Assisted Suicide is no Way to Die

BY MOISES SANDOVAL
Catholic News Service

My friend of many years, Emma Gomez, from New Mexico, asked me one day several years ago: “What do you do for pain?” Since she begins each day with Mass and the Eucharist, I thought she wanted to know whether I prayed over my pain and offered it up. But she was interested in what pills I was taking and I was of no help. I am one of those who endure without them if at all possible.

I thought about this conversation recently while pondering over a bill in the Connecticut legislature called by its proponents “aid in dying” and by its opponents, including the Catholic Church, as “assisted suicide.”

It is no surprise we have come to this stage. We have a pill for every pain or discomfort we might experience, from headache to muscle ache, restless legs, stiff joints, diabetes, nerve pain on the bottom of our feet, lack of sleep, anxiety, soreness, depression and countless other maladies.

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Whose life is it? The Illogic of Physician Assisted Suicide

by Sister Constance Veit, L.S.P.

Catholic Philly.com 

Whose life is it anyway? I can’t get this question out of my mind as I come to grips with the fact that assisted suicide legislation is currently being introduced in a dozen states and the District of Columbia. While some persons faced with serious illness consider taking their lives because they fear they will be a burden to others or have no one to care for them, for others this choice is a declaration of personal autonomy. To the question, “Whose life is it anyway?” they answer, “It is mine to do with what I want.”In college I wrote a medical ethics paper on a play titled “Whose Life Is It Anyway?” That old paper came to mind recently when I learned that the campaign for physician assisted suicide has been gaining momentum. The renewed push to legalize “aid in dying” or “death with dignity,” as various groups euphemistically call it, is the result of positive media coverage in the wake of a young terminally ill woman’s decision to end her life on her own terms and at the precise moment of her choosing.

The claim that each of us is master of our own life, with the power to do with it whatever we choose, just doesn’t make sense. After all, which of us chose the date, time or conditions of our birth? Who of us ultimately gets to choose the path that will lead to our death — will it be an accident, a random act of violence, a sudden heart attack or a prolonged illness? Human logic would tell us that we are never completely in control of our lives. God’s word should convince us of this as well.

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Sister Constance Veit is director of vocations for the Little Sisters of the Poor.

Dear Brittany: Our Lives are Worth Living, Even with Brain Cancer

BY PHILIP G. JOHNSON 

CatholicPhilly.com

Philip Johnson, a 30-year-old seminarian from the Diocese of Raleigh who has terminal brain cancer and is studying at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, writes in response to Brittany Maynard, a 29-year-old woman from Portland, Ore., who has publicly stated her plan to commit suicide due to her own terminal brain cancer. This article originally appeared on the website of the Raleigh Diocese.





Last week I came across the heartbreaking story of Brittany Maynard, a 29-year-old woman who was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer one year after her wedding. When doctors suggested that she might only have six months to live, she and her family moved from California to Oregon in order to obtain the prescriptions necessary for doctor-assisted euthanasia. She is devoting her last days to fundraising and lobbying for an organization dedicated to expanding the legality of assisted suicide to other States.

Brittany’s story really hit home, as I was diagnosed with a very similar incurable brain cancer in 2008 at the age of twenty-four. After years of terrible headaches and misdiagnosis, my Grade III brain cancer (Anaplastic Astrocytoma) proved to be inoperable due to its location. Most studies state that the median survival time for this type of cancer is eighteen months, even with aggressive radiation and chemotherapy. I was beginning an exciting career as a naval officer with my entire life ahead of me. I had so many hopes and dreams, and in an instant they all seemed to be crushed. As Brittany said in her online video, “being told you have that kind of timeline still feels like you’re going to die tomorrow.”

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