LULAC Comes Out Against AB 2747
The guts of the California back door assisted suicide bill, AB 2747, have been stripped from the bill, but it still has objectionable elements. The largest Latino civil rights organization has noticed and--true to its anti-euthanasia/assisted suicide values--has formally come out in opposition to the bill. LULAC states:
Splendid.WHEREAS, AB 2747 (Berg), is sponsored by the pro-assisted suicide organization compassion and Choices.
WHEREAS, AB2747 places the label of “terminally ill” on patients that may have many years of life ahead of them.
WHEREAS, AB 2747 mandates that a physician discuss the cost and burden of medial treatment with “terminally ill” patients and their families,
WHEREAS, AB 2747 allows medical professionals to refer “terminally ill” patients to Compassion and Choices and their pro-assisted suicide counselors rather than accredited hospice care,
BE IT RESLOVED, that the League of United Latin American Citizens oppose AB 2747 and any effort to legalize or legitimize Physician Assisted Suicide.
Approved this 11th day of July 2008. Rosa Rosales, LULAC National President
posted by Wesley J. Smith @ 3:08 PM
2 Comments
2 Comments:
"WHEREAS, AB 2747 mandates that a physician discuss the cost and burden of medial treatment with "terminally ill" patients and their families..." Did they interpret that right? If so, it has to have the effect of causing people to think of the value of human life in monetary terms and have the effect of making both the "terminally" ill and the family wonder if that person's life is worth living. Unless there's something I don't understand here, it seems cruel. It suggests suicide.
There are suicide hotline phones and messages on the Auburn Bridge about 30-40 minutes from Sacramento-maybe with a distant view of Sacramento, to keep suicidal people from jumping. Maybe Berg ought to add this foot note, "don't call if you have a terminal illness."
No, Don. It suggests that physicians be candid with their patients and that patients and their loved ones make appropriate plans for the future medical care. That people often don't even talk about death and dying issues much less make concrete plans for the last season of life is precisely why roughly half of all bankruptcies in the US are caused by health care bills. (http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2005/bankruptcy_study.html)
How can you possibly connect sensible healthcare planning to a person devaluing his/her own life and then contemplating suicide? Are you suggesting that doctors instead lie about a person's terminal diagnosis and difficult prognosis?
If you instead are suggesting that people with chronic or terminal illness shouldn't have to worry about receiving adequate medical care without the fear of 'losing the farm,' I am in complete agreement with you. But now we are talking about reforming our nation's disjointed health care system, not scapegoating physician truth-telling or financial planning.
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