California's Assisted-Suicide Bill Decried as Dangerous
by Mary Rettig
April 26, 2005
(AgapePress) - A spokesman for a Christian medical group says a California bill to legalize assisted suicide does not give power to patients, as advocates for the measure are claiming.Fashioned after Oregon's assisted-suicide law, Assembly Bill 654 would permit doctors and nurses to give patients "suffering from a terminal disease" who requested it a lethal dose of drugs to end their life "in a humane and dignified manner." Groups officially supporting the legislation include the American Civil Liberties Union, California National Organization for Women, and End-of-Life Choices. Opponents of the "California Compassionate Choices Act" include the California Family Alliance, Campaign for Children and Families, and National Right to Life Committee.
Dr. David Stevens, executive director of the Christian Medical & Dental Associations, says contrary to the claims of its supporters, AB 654 will actually give more power to the state. He points out that the bill contains a privacy clause for the state, which means the state will not allow the public, the media, or any watchdog groups to review any potentially damaging details of the so-called "suicides."
"We've seen that in Oregon where this whole thing is under a shroud of secrecy," Stevens explains. "Nobody really knows what's going on; there's no way to get at the doctors' records to know which doctors have even participated, whether families have pressured people into doing this." The result, he contends, is essentially a "sterilized statistical summary of how many people got pills and how many people took them -- but no way to really look and see what happens."
Another ramification of the legislation also has Stevens concerned. He maintains there will be a loss of trust in patient-doctor relationships.
"How can you really trust a doctor who cannot only cure, but can kill?" he asks. "And how do you know whether the diagnosis, the prognosis, [or] the treatment options are really in your best interest -- or whether [the physician is] being pressured by an insurance company or just tired from the long hours of taking care of you when you're seriously ill?"
Stevens says these are great concerns because legal physician-assisted suicide is dangerous -- dangerous for anyone who may be wondering if his or her life has any worth. The CMDA spokesman says physician-assisted suicide sends the message that those lives really have no worth, which goes strictly against the value God places on people.
Earlier this month, AB 654 passed from the Assembly Committee on the Judiciary on a 5-4 vote. It now sits before the Committee on Appropriations.
Mary Rettig, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
