The following came in an Oct. 1 email to Cal Catholic.
Here is the current plan for California from the Compassion and Choices website:
C&C California recently opened an office in Hollywood, is aggressively growing its lists of donors, volunteers and spokespeople, and recently hired a new state campaign director – a Stanford-educated lawyer with an organizing background. C&C is also honored to work with a brave activist, Jennifer Glass, who is dying from lung cancer and speaking out about the need for death-with-dignity legislation. Jennifer was featured in an NPR story on the push for a new law in California, and maintains a lively and candid Facebook page about her life with cancer. Jennifer will be an asset to C&C California’s Voices for Choice and other campaigns.
A new push for legalizing assisted suicide in California
The following comes from an Oct. 1 story by Vicki Evans in Catholic San Francisco
The state of California has passed some of the most permissive laws in the country on social issues including abortion, contraception coverage, and embryonic stem cell research. The one issue on which it has been unable to gain traction is physician assisted suicide, but it’s not for lack of trying. In 2007, California’s most recent assisted-suicide bill called the Compassionate Choices Act failed. This marked the sixth time since 1988 that assisted-suicide advocates have failed in their attempts to transform the crime of assisted suicide into a medical treatment in California.
There are reasons for their past lack of success. One is an effective coalition formed in the early 2000s called Californians Against Assisted Suicide, whose members include the California Catholic Conference, disability rights advocates, medical professionals and religious and civil rights organizations. Another is the fact that the history of the right-to-die movement is somewhat macabre. Compassion & Choices, a nationwide organization that has the dubious honor of being the leader in promoting “aid in dying” legislation is intent on providing it to Californians. Formerly called the Hemlock Society, Compassion & Choices is now trying to change its image from one of merchants of death to one of … compassion and choices. Their motto: my life, my death, my choice.
One of the best ways to accomplish their goals is to go mainstream and do so with the backing of the elite. High society was present in force at the Compassion & Choices “annual empowerment luncheon” in April 2013 at the Westin St. Francis Hotel. It was “designed to raise funds and awareness for patients’ rights and end-of-life decision making.” In February 2014, Ann Getty hosted a luncheon for Compassion & Choices’ major donors. And two months later, the Nob Hill Gazette sponsored their 2014 luncheon at $150 per head, with U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein serving as honorary chair. The organization has been busy placing numerous op-eds of end-of-life stories carefully selected to evoke the desired emotional response in the public. They have also hired a new Latino legal director and are approaching city councils to support local resolutions regarding “death with dignity” and end-of-life decision making.
Unfortunately, these tactics are hitting close to home. In November 2013, Foster City sponsored a Senior Showcase Information Fair at the Foster City Recreation Center. Compassion & Choices was advertised as one of the planned exhibitors, but thanks to the proactive efforts of San Mateo Pro-Life, they did not show up. Annually they attempt to lure San Francisco archdiocesan Catholic schools to participate in their high school essay contest. There is actually a Compassion & Choices glossy magazine.
Their online petition to “bring end-of-life choice to California” asks signers to declare, “We feel strongly that terminally ill, mentally competent adults should have the right to medication that they can use to achieve a peaceful death.”
Expect the introduction of new assisted suicide legislation here in the not-too-distant future or a California ballot initiative in 2016.
Evans is respect life coordinator for the Archdiocese of San Francisco.
To read the original Catholic San Francisco story, click here.
Nonprofit involved in Oregon aid-in-dying movement has hired staff in California, begun recruiting supporters
The following comes from a Sept. 30 story by Steve Lopez in the L.A. Times.
Nearly two-thirds of Californians in a recent poll say they would support a death-with-dignity ballot measure
‘Our polls indicate the state is ready’ to back death with dignity, United Methodist minister in Pomona says
Seventeen years ago, Oregon became the first of five states to offer what became known as death with dignity. Now a renewed effort is underway to add California to the list.
Past attempts have failed here, but Compassion & Choices, the nonprofit organization involved in the Oregon aid-in-dying movement, has hired staff in California and has begun recruiting supporters in Santa Barbara and San Mateo counties.
The group has held community meetings, lobbied local public officials, and is hoping to find California prosecutors who will agree not to prosecute doctors who prescribe life-ending medication to terminally ill patients who request it and are able to self-administer it. A ballot measure is also a consideration.
It’s not going to be easy to pull this off, proponents concede, and the process could take years. In the past, statewide attempts have been shot down by heavily financed religious groups — primarily the Catholic Church — and some physicians. But advocates are encouraged by a recent poll of 500 likely voters, conducted for Compassion & Choices, that asked this question:
“The Death with Dignity Act would give a terminally ill person, who is mentally competent, the right to request and receive a prescription for life-ending medication from a physician. If the election were held today, would you vote to favor or to oppose this ballot measure?”
Nearly two-thirds of those polled said they were in favor, including 53% of Republicans.
“I think our polls indicate the state is ready,” said Rev. Ignacio Castuera, a United Methodist minister in Pomona. Castuera said he thinks the gathering storm of baby boomers who grew up in “the age of Aquarius” are likely to want the freedom to make such personal choices when they near the end.
Castuera, a Compassion & Choices board member, said he became an advocate decades ago, when he ministered in Hollywood during the AIDS epidemic.
“I was given the rare honor of being present at times when people made decisions to not go the way of their friends who had horrible deaths,” said Castuera….
To read the entire L.A. Times story, click here.
The 2014 California State DEMOCRATIC Platform contains “death with dignity”.
The Party Platforms contain each Party’s goals.
When are the CA Bishops going to tell Catholic VOTERS that enough is enough – regarding voting for those who support INTRINSIC EVILS – Abortion, Euthanasia, Contraception, Homosexual Marriage, Embryonic Stem Cell Research, or Cloning ? :(
“Thou Shall NOT Kill” – GOD’s Commandment.
CCC: #2277, 2278, 2279, 2324.
” Worthiness to Receive Holy Communion, General Principles” by Cardinal Ratzinger (Pope Benedict).
https://www.priestsforlife.org/magisterium/bishops/04-07ratzingerommunion.htm
Regarding our voting for pro-abortion and pro-death politicians.
Matt:
Re.: “When are the CA Bishops going to tell Catholic VOTERS that enough is enough”, if they did that, they would also have to explain how almost ALL OF THEM are members of the “Party of Death”!
God bless, yours in Their Hearts,
May God have mercy on an amoral Amerika!
Viva Cristo Rey!
Kenneth M. Kenneth Fisher.
Euthanasia has always been the hushed answer to how to pay for our aging population. It used to be unspoken because systematic killing got such a nasty rap due to the Nazis love of it. Save some money, kill of Grandma, talk of “mercy killing” as a heroic virtue in a civilized society. Why is anyone surprised that this horror is back in such a big way, it’s so-called moral underpinnings have been used to legally abort 55 million Americans in just the past 41 years. More from the pit of hell.
And by the way, if you raised your kids to be “pro-choice”, better sleep with one eye open. The same arguments you used to justify killing unborn innocents will be used to justify killing you.
Well said.
The same can be true of those who have publically supported (and privately voted for the Democratic Party of Death.
That’s right Kristen…as they say, treat your kids right for it’ll probably be them choosing your nursing home. Another one…grandchildren are our reward for not killing our children when they were teenagers. :)
If American society and the law approve the killing helpless people at the beginning of life (abortion), the next logical step is the killing of helpless people at the end of life (euthanasia). In conversations with friends and relatives we should talk to people about these forms of murder. If not, when we are sick or crippled, some “kind” person, a relative or doctor, might decide that we should die with dignity.
I once had an oncologist whose father or brother — had the same last name — was a senior oncologist. The elder oncologist once wrote in a diocesan newspaper that if an oncologist were properly trained in pain killing techniques that no cancer patient should have to go through unbearable pain while dying. He further stated that none of his patients had ever been in so much pain that they had asked him to kill them. The problem is that doctors and oncologists are not being trained well in many cases and people such as Jack Kevorchian (Dr. Death), who was not even an oncologist but a pathologist (deals with cadavers) are being listened to instead. When physicians were no longer required to take the Hippocratic Oath or a reasonable facsimile, which forbade doing abortions or euthanasia, bad and sometimes horrible medical practices took over in many
Cont. “areas”.
Anne,
If a “doctor” is evil, no oath will make him not evil!
God bless, yours in Their Hearts,
May God have mercy on an amoral Amerika!
Viva Cristo Rey!
Kenneth M. Kenneth Fisher.
Kenneth, to a certain point you are right, but before a doctor could be prosecuted if he/she broke the oath.
Very true Anne T. Thanks for your insights. Now it’s the only pledging the Hypocrite Oath, and no one needs sign. :(
The more people on “government” controlled insurance (such as Obamacare, etc), the more the government will make life and death decisions, based upon cost.
He who has the gold, rules.
And some will rule from their pearch on an Obamacare Death Panel. Woe to them indeed.
Kristin hits the nail on the head with her comments. How right she is. May God
have mercy on all who advocate Mercy killing.
Some Catholics may yet even advocate that it is a matter of social justice and concern for the common good for those of a certain age to depart the scene.
What am I to think when the forces that be have convinced my hospital system to change its name from Mercy Hospital to Dignity Hospital? I remember a campaign dedicated to St. Joseph that was widespread in my early days here in California. St. Joseph, terror of demons, drive the spirit of death and euthanasia out of California. It was a successful campaign. Let us, again, appeal to this towering protector of our faith, our families, in asking him to defend us from those who would take our lives.
Great idea, One of the Sheep.
Mercy killing is MURDER! The two words, mercy and killing, do not belong together. A sin is a sin, is a sin. That will never change. God’s laws cannot be changed.
This has nothing, absolutely nothing, to do with real medicine—just like abortion has nothing to do with real medicine.
Euthanasia has everything to do with cutting costs for the sick, the feeble and the aged. People with cancer will be a prime target. The unborn and the sick are the modern Untermensch and must be considered as disposable human beings.
The population control mob loves euthanasia as a political goal.
If you think that this kind of killing doesn’t happen anyway in hospitals you are mistaken. My uncle who was indigent, and only had Medicare (this was about 10 years ago) had a horrible stroke. He was taken to the hospital, and was in the ICU for about 30 days. His insurance did not cover his being cared for at a nursing facility. My sister and I were left with the decision to take him off life support, but he could breathe on his own, the only problem was that his lungs were filling with fluid because he could not move. His stroke had never abated, the bleeding in his head had not stopped, it was down to a little bit, but they still insisted that he was “brain dead” but he answered me with fluttering his eye lids. I asked him what he wanted, and his answer to “do you want to live” was the requisite two flutters of the eyes. He heard me, he knew what I had asked. The doctors said that was not possible, but we have all seen people live with only half a brain, and that is what had happened. Since his bleeding had not stopped it had caused half his brain to swell and fill with blood. The last day of his life they came into the room, took out the ventilator and expected him to stop breathing. That didn’t happen. He continued to breathe well on his own, I knew he would. Then they decided he needed a pain killer. They expected that to cause him to stop breathing. Not so. He kept on breathing. My sister remarked “he seems to have a really strong heart”. so they gave him the final injection, to stop his heart. He took a few breaths, then breathed in one big breath, and finally died. THAT was euthanasia, the so-called “dignity” that they want for people who are helpless to stop what was happening. Bottom line: if you want your loved one to die with true dignity, take them home. Insurance will pay for equipment, you can hire someone to bathe them, or do it yourself. The best thing for a loved one is to truly die with the dignity of being surrounded by loved ones, at home. Compassion has a name. It’s “Family”.
Life Lady, a fellow coworker of mine, who had retired, got brain cancer. Her daughter did exactly that when the hospital wanted to let her mother die of lack of food and water. The daughter took her home, fed her herself and gave her water — evidently she could absorb it all — until her mother was actually going through the dying process, and there was nothing further she could do. The hospice came and helped her. I called her and thanked her for what she had done for her mother. I am sure the Good Lord will reward her, too, later for the compassion she herself showed.
Anne T, especially if your friend’s daughter had children and witnessed her loving care of her mother. They learned an important lesson on how to show true compassion to the dying.
Life Lady, thank you for sharing the story of your uncle. You are correct that this is already happening in our hospitals in California. While we do not have an official “Doctor Assisted Euthanasia” law as of yet, this is going on in spite of any law.
One thing that HAS changed since the murder of your uncle ten years ago, is that it is now a rarity for nearly anyone to remain in the ICU on a ventilator for 30 days as was your uncle. I am now being told that unless someone is placed on a ventilator to recover from some major surgery, like transplant surgery, etc, those who where placed on a ventilator because of problems like brain injury are given morphine and taken off the ventilator before 3 days have past. In your uncles case, had they removed his ventilator within 3 days of his stroke, it is unlikely that he would have been able to breath on his own at all.
A coworker of mine told me how in the 1980’s he had been on a ventilator for 2 months following being injured in a motorcycle crash. He recovered completely (minus numerous scars). Anyone in his condition today, is typically removed from the ventilator within 3 days, dispatched of their vital organs and buried with a hollow chest and abdominal cavity.
Our modern day medical system is in decay. I am just not sure how many Californians realize just how rotten it is. I imagine that all of those brand new “state of the art” earthquake safe hospital towers make most feel that health care in California has never been better. :(
“In February 2014, Ann Getty hosted a luncheon for Compassion & Choices’ major donors.”
Is there no goofy liberal cause that She of the Big Hair and her bigamist husband will not support?
Abortion + Sodomy + Suicide = Holy Trinity of Satanism
Two parents “mercy killed” by Kaiser Hospital of Sacramento. One was allowed to die of pneumonia without treatment(that would be my beloved mother.) And one was dealt a painful death without adequate pain medication and substandard treatment including no food or water as dad died in a SNF run by a Kaiser doctor.
Does it happen? Yes, and I was overruled by 4 of my siblings on it.
Quite simply put, once you make killers of physicians, you can no longer trust them as Hitler’s Germany found out the hard way.
Dr. Anthony Daniels (writing as Theodore Dalrymple) is one of the most informed, insightful and well written authors of this age. His analysis is of particular relevance to this topic and I most sincerely recommend a fuller reading of it:
“Serial Killers and Serial Explanations
https://www.newenglishreview.org/Theodore_Dalrymple/Serial_Killers_and_Serial_Explanations/
I have not had much to do personally with medical serial killers, either doctors or nurses, but shortly after the notorious case in England of a nurse called Beverley Allitt, who killed several babies by various means and was revealed later to have suffered herself from Munchausen syndrome,
I was asked by the hospital in which I was working to examine a nurse working there who also suffered from, or perhaps I should say behaved as someone suffering from, Munchausen syndrome.
(This is an extraordinary pattern of behaviour in which a person goes from hospital to hospital complaining of a variety of symptoms carefully chosen to signify possible serious underlying pathology, disprovable only by elaborate tests and procedures, and sometimes operations.
Such a person may use up an immense quantity of medical time, energy and resources: the British Medical Journal once published a paper by a doctor who traced the path of a particularly prolific attender at public hospitals, and worked out that he had cost the taxpayer $17 million since he began what can only be called his career….