The following comes from an October 5 LA Times article by Patrick McGreevy:
Caught between conflicting moral arguments, Gov. Jerry Brown, a former Jesuit seminary student, on Monday signed a measure allowing physicians to prescribe lethal doses of drugs to terminally ill patients who want to hasten their deaths.
Approving the bill, whose opponents included the Catholic Church, appeared to be a gut-wrenching decision for the 77-year-old governor, who as a young man studied to enter the priesthood.
“In the end, I was left to reflect on what I would want in the face of my own death,” Brown added. “I do not know what I would do if I were dying in prolonged and excruciating pain. 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.”
California becomes the fifth state to allow so-called assisted suicide, following Oregon, Washington, Montana and Vermont.
The new law is modeled after Oregon’s. It permits physicians to provide lethal prescriptions to mentally competent adults who have been diagnosed with a terminal illness and face the expectation that they will die within six months.
The law will take effect 90 days after the Legislature adjourns its special session on healthcare, which may not be until next year.
Brown said he carefully considered input from two of his own doctors, a Catholic bishop and advocates for the disabled, as well as pleas from the family of Brittany Maynard, a cancer victim who took her own life. He said he even has received input favoring the bill from retired Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
“I have considered the theological and religious perspectives that any deliberate shortening of one’s life is sinful,’’ he wrote.
A horrible tragedy but no surprise that Brown signed this suicide bill. Will Brown now be excommunicated either in Sacrament or in his home LA Archdiocese? Well, I will not be holding my breath. We live in sad times both for the US and the Catholic Church.
This is not something that the Church excommunicates people for.
Did you mean be forbidden to receive communion?
Excommunicate and be done with it… the Left is obsessed with death and all actions anti-life
If they won’t excommunicate Pelosi, they won’t touch Brown with a 10 foot pole.
Is he, like Pelosi, a practicing Catholic?
Everyone in your personal sphere should know you are opposed to assisted suicide, and if they don’t, get talking! People think no one stands against this horrible legislation, make sure all in your life know you do!
So what if they disagree, do you really care that someone who advocates murder opposes you??
What he might do in the face of his ‘own death’. He better think about when he goes before God at his judgement day!!!!!
It is good that I am not a Bishop…..as I would excommunicate him publically, as he is SO public about his actions regarding life and in this case death.
And as far as the California Catholic Bishops go, I called the office today……they are going to have a statement. Well, how nice…..after the horse has left the barn as the old saying goes! Where have they been in getting the Bishops to instruct the parishes to talk about the subject????? SILENT! Only a very few did anything. I know for a fact Nativity in Menlo Park and Our Lady of Peace in Santa Clara did talk about it, have it in the bulletin and…
Is anyone surprised? I’m sure Bishop Barber of Oakland will once again accommodate Brown the next time he presents himself for Communion.
Does Gov. Moonbeam Brown still call himself a Catholic? If so, why? The spineless bishops in California and elsewhere won’t excommunicate anyone. If the bishops began excommunicating people for serious sins and giving scandal, it would cause others to think twice before they defied Church morality.
Jerry Bown is a Communist in Jesuit disguise. The Culture of Death has finally succeeded here in California. Marxists never give up. Once you have doctors and layers signing papers be worried for your life. If you are elderly you must give preference to the young a Democrats that still have more productive years ahead of you. Most people spend most of their Medicare in their last few days. Do it for Barack! Yes you can! In you have assets and children you should also beware the social workers and “doctors” do not off you for the children while you are still enjoying life. The Democrat Party brings Death, Poverty, and Illegals. For this reason I vote straight ticket Repulican, even in the sanctuary city of Los Angeles.
I am neither a doctor, priest, nor theologian. Most medical advances are wonderful. I cant help but wonder if, at times, some use these advances to artificially prolong life.
CCC: ” 2277 Whatever its motives and means, direct euthanasia consists in putting an end to the lives of handicapped, sick, or dying persons.
It is morally unacceptable.
Thus an act or omission which, of itself or by intention, causes death in order to eliminate suffering constitutes a murder gravely contrary to the dignity of the human person and to the respect due to the living God, his Creator.
The error of judgment into which one can fall in good faith does not change the nature of this murderous act, which must always be forbidden and excluded. “
the legislature has already made it clear that it;s pro-abortion position is all about cost-control for the state. the religious perspective is that human life is sacred and stands as the unmovable ground in the midst of the other ‘considerations’. but utlitarian ethics don’t put man at the center,,,,,,leaving man in the long-run at the bottom.
It surely would be interesting to know which Bishop of the Catholic Church that Gov.Brown consulted. It is amazing that he listened to the advice of Desmond TuTu favoring assisted suicide. All of Gov. Brown Jesuit training did him absolutely no good. He was once again playing God in deciding that people can end their own life. God have mercy on him when he dies.
I am sure that whichever Bishop he consulted, he was told that it was not permissible.
And Brown professes to be a Catholic. He will burn in Hell if he does not repent for all the mortally sinful things he has signed into law.
CCC: ” 2279 Even if death is thought imminent, the ordinary care owed to a sick person cannot be legitimately interrupted.
The use of painkillers to alleviate the sufferings of the dying, even at the risk of shortening their days, can be morally in conformity with human dignity if death is not willed as either an end or a means, but only foreseen and tolerated as inevitable. Palliative care is a special form of disinterested charity. As such it should be encouraged. “
Jerry Brown just took a theological selfie.
Follow the money. Who benefits when a very ill patient requiring medical care is advised that suicide is his/her best deal? The insurance companies, both government (Obamacare) and private, love assisted suicide..
This has absolutely nothing to do with theology or compassion or whatever perfume the politicians spray on assisted suicide.
and most insurance companies will not cover payments for the dead when they committed suicide, so the family is left with all the bills.
For the funeral that is.
Since when was suicide a moral argument? If Gov. Brown is the product of a good Jesuit education, the Jesuits have fallen, and they have fallen hard.
The Jesuits (the majority) have fallen a LONG TIME AGO!
Look at the Universities….U.S.F., SANTA CLARA, FORDHAM, GEORGETOWN, ETC. ETC……….
Yes, Some of the best books on my bookshelf were written by Jesuits before 1965. But ever since God [seemingly] removed the restraints on evil in the late 60s, the Jesuits took a sharp detour downward.
Evidently, they weren’t wearing their spiritual armor.
Apostolate of Prayer is a Jesuit group.
To Anonymous…..Do you know the old saying about what happens when you assume. I would never assume that a Bishop would be against assisted suicide.
And to Gravey……thank you. I remember at Bishop Barber’s installation as Bishop of Oakland, how he stepped from the altar and brought the Eucharist to Governor Brown. I could not believe my eyes. It spoke volumes to me as to Bishop Barber’s thinking. This very action put his blessing on Jerry Brown’s corrupt thinking on abortion, assisted suicide, etc. Jesuit Birds of a feather….
flock together.
All the Bishops are against assisted suicide. The Bishops are unconditionally pro life from conception until natural death.
Catholic teaching views suicide as a grave offense against love of self, one that also breaks the bonds of love and solidarity with family, friends, and God (Catechism of the Catholic Church [CCC], no. 2281). To assist another’s suicide is to take part in “an injustice which can never be excused, even if it is
requested” (John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae, no. 66).
I expect the State of California to extend assisted suicide to children eventually because Oregon is contemplating that extreme step, in imitation of Belgium.
Meanwhile, the British Parliament recently voted overwhelmingly a-g-a-I-n-s-t assisted suicide, three to one. What do they know that Jerry doesn’t know? Is it ultimately about his judgment and what he might want at the end of h-I-s life?
Eventually, California may require doctors, as a condition for maintaining a license to practice medicine, to follow the wishes of a patient or guardian if few docs are willing to administer lethal injections voluntarily. I doubt that very many doctors will want to give lethal injections in light of the Hippocratic Oath, and, God forbid,…
Sarah – you describe most of the Bishops in California as spineless. How correct you are. AB Niederauer’s fireside chats with Nancy Pelosi were a voice crying in the wind. And where was AB John R. Quinn and Bishop Levada before him. They all had a chance to tell Nancy Pelosi that if she did not change her thinking, her immortal salvation was at stake. But she obviously does not care as she continues her war on the unborn along with Jackie Spier another DEVOUT Catholic who is an ardent supporter of taking the life of the unborn.
Only God can make a life! And only God can take a life! Smart-aleck, pseudo-intellectual, hippie-liberal “know-it-alls,” are too big for their britches!! Long ago, they should all have been put in their place! SHAME ON THEM ALL!! So– “Gov. Moonbeam,” if faced with horrible suffering and death, does not know what he would do, yet would not want to deny others the opportunity to end their lives!! (I actually read his original statement, elsewhere.) What a terrible, cowardly, uninspired, faithless, Godless public leader! All of our American Founding Fathers, would LAUGH!! They all suffered on their deathbeds, in their final agonies– and obediently surrendered their lives to Christ!!
All doctors should REFUSE to obey this EVIL law! They must all take the Oath of Hippocrates– and MEAN IT!! The same pharmaceutical companies that now are refusing to manufacture lethal drugs for Death Row prisoners, should likewise, REFUSE to manufacture drugs for doctors to now “legally” prescribe, for immature, Godless, liberal-hippie patients, so they may kill themselves!! SHAME ON ALL OF YOU!! Only God can make a life! And only God can take a life! Surrender your lives to Almighty God!! Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, suffered and died in agony, on a terrible Cross, for all of you!! Accept Him!! He taught us all how to live– and HOW TO DIE!!
All of the pharmaceutical companies that refuse to manufacture lethal drugs to effectively kill Death Row prisoners, should also refuse to manufacture lethal drugs, for doctors to prescribe to Godless, immature, hippie-liberal patients, so they may kill themselves! Only God can make a life! And only God can take a life! Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, suffered and died in AGONY, for our salvation! He taught us all how to live— and HOW TO DIE!! Gov. Moonbeam– your dad, Gov. “Pat” Brown, and Jesuit teachers, all stood by the Truth, in your boyhood days, as real Christian, virile MEN!! Can’t you do likewise??
I once knew a wonderful, devout lady from our church, who was suddenly diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumor. We were good friends of her family. This diagnosis was so heart-breaking! She was such a wonderful lady, who gave so much to the church! Everyone thought very highly of her! She and her husband had three lovely young children. Her final days were unbelievably horrific!! Yet, she died with such grace and courage, and such great religious faith! She was a shining star, in Heaven, I am sure, after passing through death’s door! She was truly a heroic and inspiring, Christ-like example!
One final word. I think “Gov. Moonbeam” should have consulted with Bl. Mother Teresa’s religious order– the Missionaries of Charity— and listened carefully to them, on Christian hospice work, with the tragic dying patients they care for, daily!!
What is weird is that the most vocal of the Oakland priests think the bishop too conservative.