The following comes from a March 26 email from pro-life leader Wynette Sills in Sacramento.
Yesterday I arrived at the Capitol hoping to see pro-life supporters visiting our legislators, but the halls were empty. I attended the noon Mass at the Cathedral, hoping to see a church filled with familiar faces, but there were only about eight people wearing red. I optimistically thought everyone must be over at the Capitol getting ready for the historic vote. However, when I entered the room, there was a sea of suicide supporters, outnumbering us by about 250 suicide supporters to only about 50 pro-life supporters. SB 128 to legalize Physician Assisted Suicide passed on a party-line vote, with 6 Democrats supporting suicide and 2 Republicans supporting life. You can watch the proceedings by clicking on this link. The witnesses in support of suicide were heart-wrenching, including Brittany Maynard’s mother, the young woman who committed suicide in Oregon, suffering from brain cancer. Our hearts are filled with compassion and we want to help alleviate the pain and misery of our fellow human beings, yet assisted suicide is not the answer.
The Archdiocese of Los Angeles has an excellent website with information you can use to OPPOSE SB 128, in addition to the Californians Against Assisted Suicide coalition website and here is a good article Always Care, Never Kill: How Physician-Assisted Suicide Endangers the Weak, Corrupts Medicine, Compromises the Family, and Violates Human Dignity and Equality By Ryan T. Anderson, Ph.D.
I am hoping that soon every church who supports life will have information about the dignity and compassion involved in end-of-life conditions with bulletin inserts, homilies, prayers of the faithful, and phone numbers of our legislators so that the citizens of California will be encouraged and equipped to be a voice for life as SB 128 now moves to the Senate Judiciary Committee for a hearing and vote on April 7th and then on to the full Senate floor. Find out who your Senator is at this website– meet with them in your home district as they will be home for spring recess starting today through April 6th- Be a voice for LIFE!
Only two Senate Health Committee members defended life yesterday with their vote, Senator Jim Nielsen and Senator Janet Nguyen, both Republicans. Please call these two Senators today using the numbers below and thank them for voting NO on SB 128. Interestingly, very pro-abortion Senator Pan from Sacramento abstained from voting. He is a pediatrician. The Democrat party did not need his vote for SB 128 to pass out of the Health Committee, as they already had the required 5 votes. The Democratic party platform strongly endorses Assisted Suicide, along with abortion. Yet, they are politically savvy. Senator Pan knows he has strong pro-life representation amongst his constituents here in Sacramento and as a physician, he knows that the American Medical Association and the California Medical Association do not support Assisted Suicide. Yet, he needs to hear from his constituents today, urging him to not merely abstain from voting, but to vote NO on SB 128 when it comes to the Senate floor.
Here are the numbers to call today:
Senator Janet Nguyen (Vice Chair) newly elected Republican from Orange County. Call her to thank her for voting NO on SB 128. 916-651-4034
Senator Jim Nielsen Pro-life Republican from Yuba, Sutter, Colusa, Tehama, Butte, Glenn counties. Call to thank him for defending life! 916-651-4004
Senator Richard Pan Pro-abortion Democrat representing the Sacramento region, who abstained from voting yesterday. Please call Dr. Pan, who is a pediatrician, thank him for abstaining, but encourage him to vote NO on SB 128 when it comes to the Senate Floor. 916-651-4006
I still remember what was written in the book “Abortion the Silent Holocaust” by Fr. John Powell, now deceased. He quoted a man who said, “If a doctor will take money to kill a child in the womb, when you are old and no longer useful to society, he will take money to kill you.” How very prophetic that was indeed.
Some tried to smear the name of Fr. Powell before he died. I do not know whether or not what they said about him was true, but I do know one thing, his book changed my life for the better and saved the lives of many mothers and their children..
May Fr. John Powell and all the Faithful, through the mercy of God rest in peace. Amen.
Also, Janet Nguyen, we are still here. Sometimes very busy taking care of children, grandchildren, the elderly and others in need, but we are still here Sometimes all we can do is pray.
I remember one time in my thirties or early forties standing on a boulevard with a sign, such as “Abortion kills children” and being the only one until two friends walked up and told me when I was so disappointed, “Maybe you are here to save just one child.” I replied back to them, “And it will all be worth it to save just one child.”
God bless and support you, Janet Nguyen, whether you read this or not.
Two patients where I work at an adult foster care, within 7 months of each other, injured their hips. The first one, a woman in her late 70’s, was immediately brought to the hospital. She could not feed herself after the hip operation, developed pneumonia, and died within a fortnight of her accident. The second was a man in his early 80’s, who was always very alert. He tripped on his walker, and was in and out of the hospital three times, after getting pneumonia at the rehabilitation facility twice. I went to visit him the day he died. His doctor ordered no food nor liquid be given him, so the hospital starved him for over a week. These two cases are the result of Obamacare, and the tremendous neglect that is done toward senor citizens. The government will kill you before you are born (with Obama he was responsible for killing new born infants) and they will also kill you when they think you are too old. The Catholic Church seems to give lip service to pro-life groups (look how they treated Father Frank Pavone and Priests for Life), while they actually promote pro death organization. Just yesterday it was announced that the official Vatican newspaper hailed France’s new euthanasia law. Instead of being a moral compass, the Church is becoming an immoral sewer by not teaching the truth, but promoting sordid behavior. It is a diabolical disorientation.
No Doctor (Obamacare) is authorized to stop food & water causing starvation without the written permission of the sick person or family member.
Contact the Police about this or any other MURDER by a doctor or other medical person – if no permission was given.
” When we come back from lunch, we do not say that we just had “our latest medical treatment.”
Food and drink are a normal aspect of taking care of life and health, not an extraordinary intervention.
As aspects of normal care, therefore, they are morally obligatory.
In the case of a person who is not dying but whose physical or mental functioning is impaired, the question often arises as to whether we should “keep them alive” by feeding them.
But there is no more of a doubt about keeping that person alive than about keeping alive anyone else who is not impaired! There is no underlying cause of death in this case. T o fail to feed such a person is to introduce a new cause of death, namely, starvation. This is what the current case of Terri Schindler-Schiavo in Florida is about. ”
In the case of somebody who is dying, food and fluids are to be provided as well. There may come a point when death is imminent and when the body no longer assimilates what it is given, despite various efforts to feed the person by alternate means. At that stage, of course, it is normal to accept the inevitability of the person’s death. ” – – Fr. Frank Pavone
Discouraged? Yes. Defeated? Never. I have been to a number of the hearings at the Capitol where I have only been allowed to state my name, my occupation, and voice support or opposition to a legislative action. It’s a long way to go to speak for less than a minute.
We need Minute Man brigades when important legislation is being considered. We have defeated deadly initiatives in the past using prayer campaigns and novenas directed to St. Joseph, terror of demons. I remember flyers being passed out at the parish level with a novena prayer to St. Joseph and lots of grass root support. Surely our faith is not that weak?
Those who commit suicide for the most part are very self centered individuals.
They only care about themselves and their own issues – this is what they focus on and nothing else matters.
They do not turn to God or trust in God.
Putting things in perspective – all mortal sins are very self centered.
I Hope those who live in CA – use the information in the article to oppose this legislation.
For Catholic Church teaching on euthanasia, palliative care, donation of body parts etc, see: CCC # 2276 – 2279,
and CCC 2280, 2281 re suicide.
Ava while i was visiting Orange county area last weekend, i attended Mass, Saturday eve, at St John the Baptist, the priest spoke about this topic. He said that in his diocese they were told to inform the lay faithful. He spoke well and informed his flock why we need to fight evil laws that go against God and His teachings. I was happy to know that it was being brought up and people are being told.
Let us not forget that the 2014 Platform (goals) adopted by the CA DEMOCRATIC PARTY of Death includes:
euthanasia (coded death with dignity), abortion, contraception, sex change operations on demand with hormones for life – ALL at taxpayer expense.
And of course sodomy marriage.
God bless State Sen. Janet Nguyen! Our top Church leaders need to teach people that “assisted suicide,” under medical care– is a MORTAL SIN!! MURDER!!! No Catholic doctor, nurse, or any other medical personnel, may take part in such evils as abortion, or assisted suicide! These people must be warned: “You will be EXCOMMUNICATED by the Church, if you participate in these evils! And secular society will prosecute you for MURDER!!” We need a traditional society, based on traditional marriage (between one man and one woman), and children– and a loving family home, school, and regular church/synagogue attendance! We need traditional, character-building civic and church groups, for both children and adults. We need the media to be family-centered, with strong censorship of objectionable, sinful subject matter. The priceless value of human life, created by God, is non-debateable!! Our President, the Congress, our courts— and all citizens, must uphold these values, to make America a decent and strong, healthy, wholesome Nation, once again!
From the article: “I am hoping that soon every church who supports life…”
There is the rub. Not every Catholic parish supports life. In fact, I just learned about a report over at Crisis Magazine that exposes Catholic universities that harbored pro-euthanasia professors and ordained priests. They corrupted four generations of students with their lies. https://westcoastprolife.wordpress.com/
We have bishops more interested in Immigration and Restorative Justice in California.