California Votes to Legalize Euthanasia

This has been a banner year for the culture of death in California. The legalization of same sex marriage and now the legalization of euthanasia. Of course, they don't use the term "euthanasia" but the new bill that was passed allows for a patient with less than one year to live, to be "terminally sedated" and dehydrated until dead. This method of euthanasia is no doubt inspired by the starvation/dehydration murder of Terry Schiavo. As, you recall, she was placed on a morphine infusion to lessen her discomfort (and hasten the process a bit) though she was supposedly "brain dead" and couldn't perceive pain.
First Oregon, then California. Which of our states will be next? God have mercy on us and on the whole world.
See the article here.

A Memorable Week

What a week so far! March 31st was the 3rd anniversary of the legalized murder of Terry Schiavo and today is the3rd anniversary of the passing of the Late Great John Paul 2.

John Paul 2 was a strong advocate for the cause of life from conception to natural death and made a statement regarding nutrition and hydration in an effort to address the unfolding situation in Florida one year before Terry's murder by starvation meted out by the court system in Pinellas County, Florida. For more information on this, please check out this site and consider supporting their ministry.

I had come into the Catholic Church one year before Pope John Paul died. In that one year I had grown extremely fond of him and his writings. The day he died, I wept. I felt somehow connected to him as did millions across the planet.

This week, please remember to continue to pray for the forces in our country that seek to end the life of the disabled (cognitively and physically) in the name of "mercy."

I suspect John Paul 2's intercession before the throne in this regard will be especially efficacious as he certainly is a righteous man. (His canonization process is proceeding rapidly and miracles attributed to his intercession have already been documented.)

Pope John Paul 2, as we remember you on this day, we ask you to pray for this country and the lives of those who are viewed as valueless and disposable. You modeled redemptive suffering in your own life. Pray that we will understand this gift in our own lives and those who suffer around us. Pray for those who are no longer valued by society because of cognitive or physical disabilities , especially the frail elderly and those who can't speak for themselves. We ask this of you through the mercy and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen

What is the Quality of Life? A Euphemism for Euthanasia

In my medical training in the 1980's the term quality of life was often used when a patient's case was discussed and an illness was becoming increasingly difficult to treat or care for. It was assumed that if a patient's quality of life was poor, then the decision to continue pursuing aggressive treatment needed to be re-evaluated. Even as a Christian physician, with no training or teaching in ethics, I adopted this quality of life approach to decide on treatments. It seemed that most of my colleagues based treatment decisions on what quality of life we judged the patient to have given a particular disease or condition. Everyday, nurses and doctors in long term care facilities use "quality of life" arguments to decide why they shouldn't pursue a treatment or remedy in a "difficult case." Quite frankly, it is much easier and cheaper to do nothing for a patient, than to carefully palliate a condition providing adequate pain control and comfort measures without shortening the life of a patient.

Part of our society's acceptance of the "quality of life" paradigm lies in the failure to face or embrace suffering. We are taught to end suffering at all costs and now, in Oregon, that translates into taking the life of a person to "end their suffering." Modern society has no theology to handle suffering and hence suffering is considered the enemy and must be vanquished at all costs. As a practitioner of the healing arts, I am obligated to relieve suffering to the best of my ability but I also acknowledge that all life ultimately involves some degree of suffering. As John Paul 2 reminds us, Jesus not only redeemed us by His suffering but He redeemed suffering itself, so that suffering is not without value if united with Christ's suffering. (Col 1:24)

It was not until my conversion to Catholicism and my exposure to Catholic medical ethics that I started to see the pernicious aspect of this quality of life argument. Catholic theology teaches that Life itself is a good, because God created life. Therefore, it is not up to me to make a judgment of whether the quality of someone's life is "good." During the late 1930's in Europe, handicapped, mentally retarded and ill people were judged to have a poor quality of life and became the target of Nazi Germany's euthanasia program. (along with Jews, Catholic priests, gypsies and homosexuals) The photo above was the graves of victims of euthanasia in Austria during 1941. They were "defective" German citizens or the incurably ill.

Without firm guidelines and teaching in Christian ethics, even well meaning Christian health professionals can be caught up in the quality of life approach to health care. I considered myself a devout Christian physician but had no training in the Christian approach to medical ethics in health care. I am thankful for the wealth of information available to me in the Church and have availed myself of our diocesan ethics specialist at times for consultations. I no longer feel like I am "flying by the seat of my pants" when attempting to navigate complex medical/ethical decisions for the frail elderly population I care for.


"Even when not motivated by a selfish refusal to be burdened with the life of someone who is suffering, euthanasia must be called a false mercy, and indeed a disturbing "perversion" of mercy. True "compassion" leads to sharing another's pain; it does not kill the person whose suffering we cannot bear. Moreover, the act of euthanasia appears all the more perverse if it is carried out by those, like relatives, who are supposed to treat a family member with patience and love, or by those, such as doctors, who by virtue of their specific profession are supposed to care for the sick person even in the most painful terminal stages." - The Gospel of Life, #66 - John Paul II, 1995

Sources of Medical Ethics
Catholic Medical Association
Evangelium Vitae/The Gospel of Life
National Catholic Bioethics Center
Priests For Life

More Pics From March for Life 2007

Most of the time we spent marching, our hearts were in our throat and we were on the edge of tears as we saw posters like this one above. There were also the more graphic and gruesome photos of the "products of conception."(Dismembered humans) Either way, the sanctity of life and reason for our march was reinforced by images as these. Perhaps most moving for me was the large group of men and women gathered at the steps of the Supreme Court from Silent No More. These men and women bravely came to say that they regretted their decision to abort their children. I viewed them as brave penitents who are now helping to prevent others from making the same tragic mistake


"The moral gravity of procured abortion is apparent in all its truth if we recognize that we are dealing with murder and, in particular, when we consider the specific elements involved. The one eliminated is a human being at the very beginning of life. No one more absolutely innocent could be imagined. In no way could this human being ever be considered an aggressor, much less an unjust aggressor! He or she is weak, defenceless, even to the point of lacking that minimal form of defence consisting in the poignant power of a newborn baby's cries and tears. The unborn child is totally entrusted to the protection and care of the woman carrying him or her in the womb."
{Pope John Paul II ~ Evangelium Vitae}

"Being unwanted is the worst disease that a human being can ever experience." ~ "Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want. This is why the greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion."
{Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta}

Humane Vitae and Evangelium Vitae

In these two papal encyclical letters there are ancient truths that the Church has taught and promulgated from antiquity. Marriage is designed by God to "image" our relationship to Him and therefore is by definition unitive and creative. When we artificially separate the unitive from the creative in the conjugal act, we violate the intention of our marriage vows to give all to our spouse, and the design that God has set in place is thwarted. It would behoove all of us to go back and read both these documents and allow the Holy Spirit to speak to us as we absorb the wisdom from them.

Recently, I have been reading some of the writings of our late Holy Father John Paul 2. He wrote extensively on health care ethics and morality and his teachings are of much interest and utility for me as a physician and a Christian. His comments regarding the relationship of abortion to contraception makes a lot of sense to me. "They are closely connected, the fruits from the same tree." See what you think when you read his comments later on in this blog.

I have known a few rare folks when I was an evangelical who were opposed to contraception but the majority of Protestants and most Catholics these days feel it is an "outdated teaching" of the Catholic Church. Yet before 1930, every Protestant denomination along with the Catholics considered artifical contraception to be sinful. In 1930, the Anglican church at their council of Lambeth approved it for certain circumstances but this opened the floodgates (actually closed the flood gates when you think about it) and every Protestant denomination soon capitulated and changed their view regarding contraception. What was once a sin no longer is by a committee vote ! Pope Paul in his Humane Vitae Encyclical in the 1960's predicted that the widespread use of artificial birth control in the form of "the Pill" would lead to dissolution of marriage, promiscuity, increased abuse towards women as well as abortion. He made these statements before abortion was even legal in the US.
"It is also to be feared that the man, growing used to the employment of anti-conceptive practices, may finally lose respect for the woman and, no longer caring for her physical and psychological equilibrium, may come to the point of considering her as a mere instrument of selfish enjoyment, and no longer as his respected and beloved companion. "

Pope Paul also warned of the dangers of contraception or sterilization being applied from a political ruling authority( As we see in China today) "Who will stop rulers from favoring, from even imposing upon their peoples, if they were to consider it necessary, the method of contraception which they judge to be most efficacious? In such a way men, wishing to avoid individual, family, or social difficulties encountered in the observance of the divine law, would reach the point of placing at the mercy of the intervention of public authorities the most personal and most reserved sector of conjugal intimacy."

Now we get to an excerpt from John Paul II's Encyclical Letter "The Gospel of Life"
Chapter 1 para 13.

"In order to facilitate the spread of abortion, enormous sums of money have been invested and continue to be invested in the production of pharmaceutical products which make it possible to kill the fetus in the mother's womb without recourse to medical assistance. On this point, scientific research itself seems to be almost exclusively preoccupied with developing products which are ever more simple and effective in suppressing life and which at the same time are capable of removing abortion from any kind of control or social responsibility.
It is frequently asserted that contraception, if made safe and available to all, is the most effective remedy against abortion. The Catholic Church is then accused of actually promoting abortion, because she obstinately continues to teach the moral unlawfulness of contraception. When looked at carefully, this objection is clearly unfounded. It may be that many people use contraception with a view to excluding the subsequent temptation of abortion. But the negative values inherent in the "contraceptive mentality"-which is very different from responsible parenthood, lived in respect for the full truth of the conjugal act-are such that they in fact strengthen this temptation when an unwanted life is conceived. Indeed, the pro- abortion culture is especially strong precisely where the Church's teaching on contraception is rejected. Certainly, from the moral point of view contraception and abortion are specifically different evils: the former contradicts the full truth of the sexual act as the proper expression of conjugal love, while the latter destroys the life of a human being; the former is opposed to the virtue of chastity in marriage, the latter is opposed to the virtue of justice and directly violates the divine commandment "You shall not kill".
But despite their differences of nature and moral gravity, contraception and abortion are often closely connected, as fruits of the same tree. It is true that in many cases contraception and even abortion are practised under the pressure of real- life difficulties, which nonetheless can never exonerate from striving to observe God's law fully. Still, in very many other instances such practices are rooted in a hedonistic mentality unwilling to accept responsibility in matters of sexuality, and they imply a self-centered concept of freedom, which regards procreation as an obstacle to personal fulfilment. The life which could result from a sexual encounter thus becomes an enemy to be avoided at all costs, and abortion becomes the only possible decisive response to failed contraception.
The close connection which exists, in mentality, between the practice of contraception and that of abortion is becoming increasingly obvious. It is being demonstrated in an alarming way by the development of chemical products, intrauterine devices and vaccines which, distributed with the same ease as contraceptives, really act as abortifacients in the very early stages of the development of the life of the new human being."

John Paul didn't live to see the day in America where women can now buy a medication "Plan B" (without a prescription in some states) to abort their baby at even the earliest stages but his foresight matches that of his predecessor Pope Paul.

To read a concise review of birth control from a Catholic perspective see :
Catholic Answers.

Bioethics and Catholics

I attended a bioethics conference today hosted by a local group of evangelical Christian physicians who are keenly aware of the need for a pro-life stand in their practices and medicine in general. The guest speaker was a Christian physician and ethicist who provided a history of the eugenics movement in the US and then presented the latest information regarding pre-implantation genetic determinations. At one point she presented a quote from Evangelium Vitae (JP 2's Encyclical Letter on the Value and Inviolability of Human Life). It said life begins at conception. She put up a quote that some scientists draw a different line and "different lines exist regarding where life begins."

During the Q + A time, a physician bemoaned the fact that the "Christian medical establishment" doesn't do more to attempt to effect legislation regarding attempts at genetic manipulation, embryonic experimentation etc. The speaker politely agreed that there needed to be more organization and ability to affect change in this arena.
For me, the "elephant in the room" was the Catholic Church! For centuries the Church has established the "lines in the sand" regarding issues of life and in the past forty years produced some of the most important and weighty documents regarding bioethics particularly from JP2 with specific guidelines for pre-born life, in-vitro fertiliation and other infertility treatment, embryonic stem cell research, genetic manipulation, end of life issues etc. The Church has been at the forefront of the lobbying for pro-life legislation in the US as well as leading the March for Life and abortion mill protests throughout the country. There is a large body of Christian bioethics in the teachings of the Catholic Church that remains an unopened treasure of truth.

"all human life—from the moment of conception and through all subsequent stages—is created in the image and likeness of God. Nothing surpasses the greatness or dignity of a human person. Human life is not just an idea or an abstraction; human life is the concrete reality of a being that lives, that acts, that grows and develops; human life is the concrete reality of a being that is capable of love and of service to humanity." John Paul II

National Catholic Bioethics
Canadian Catholic Biothics Institute
Linacre Institute
Culture of Life Foundation
Catholic Medical Association
The Vatican Charter for Healthcare Workers

I encourage my colleagues to brave the waters and dip into this river of truth .