October 2008 Newsletter
Back to Main Newsletters PageEighty-four-year-old Helen Mary Warnock, known as Baroness Warnock, is considered by many to be Britain's leading moral philosopher. Let me share with you an excerpt of her recent interview with the magazine, Life and Work:
"If you are demented, you're wasting people's lives - your family's lives - and you're wasting the resources of the National Health Service. …[I]f somebody absolutely, desperately wants to die because they're a burden to their family, or the state, then I think they too should be allowed to die. … Actually I've just written an article called 'A Duty to Die?' for a Norwegian periodical. I wrote it really suggesting that there's nothing wrong with feeling you ought to [end your life] for the sake of others as well as yourself. … I think that's the way the future will go. Putting it rather brutally, you'd be licensing people to put others down."
The Baroness should be deeply pitied for her completely heartless oblivion to the blessings that accompany love. But pity is not enough. Her influential position in British society, combined with the fact that she is speaking to a Western culture that has grown quite accustomed to disposing of those who get in the way of our materialistic pursuits, makes her ideas extremely dangerous.
Since the time Oregon legalized assisted suicide in 1994, there have been more than 90 attempts to legalize the practice in 23 other states. All these attempts have failed - but oftentimes by frighteningly narrow margins. A tough battle on assisted suicide played out this year in the California legislature, a Montana court will soon hear a petition to declare assisted suicide a constitutional right, and Washington state voters will face the issue on a ballot initiative in the November 4 election. Suicide advocates are becoming more and more aggressive and sophisticated in their attacks.
Proponents of assisted-suicide call it "comfort care," and point to Oregon as their "success story." This actually tells us more about how certain people define "success" than it does about what's really happening in Oregon. For example, proponents argue that "only" 341 people have been killed under Oregon's law. If 341 people died in a plane crash, we'd think that was a REALLY big deal - even though the cause of death was accidental. In this case, we're not talking about accidental death. We're talking about people who have swallowed deadly poisons with the full cooperation of the law and a handful of doctors.
Oregon's newfound "freedom to choose suicide" has already morphed into a "duty to die" - just as critics predicted it would. Consider the case of Barbara Wagner, a 64-year-old retired school bus driver who lives in a low-income apartment and is fighting lung cancer. Barbara's oncologist recommended a chemotherapy drug that would decrease her pain and extend her life.
But the state-run Oregon Health Plan - which covers Barbara's health care - has a new rule. Any treatment that doesn't provide at least a 5 percent chance of survival after five years won't be covered. So OHP sent her a letter informing her that it would no longer cover the costs of her chemotherapy drugs - but it would pay for her assisted suicide prescription!
In a state of shock, Barbara took her story to the media, and commented: "To say to someone, we'll pay for you to die, but not pay for you to live, it's cruel. I get angry. Who do they think they are?" Eventually, the pharmaceutical company that manufactures the drugs she needed stepped forward to provide for Barbara's treatment at no cost.
Unfortunately, this is not an isolated case. Randy Stroup is a 53-year-old resident of Dexter, Oregon, suffering from prostate cancer. When he received the same letter from the Oregon Health Plan, Randy also went to the press and said, "My perspective is, if it works, it works. What is six months of life worth? To me it's worth a lot. This is my life they're playing with." The ethics of Baroness Warnock are alive and well in Oregon.
National suicide advocates have a plan called "Oregon-plus-One." The idea is that, if they can pass assisted suicide legislation in just one more state, all the other states will fall like dominoes. In 2008, they're focusing most of their resources on Washington and have poured more than $2 million into their pro-suicide initiative campaign.
Healing the Culture has a better plan. We call it "Being With." I'd like to invite you to explore this plan in detail at our website - www.beingwith.net.
"Being With" is a program that not only talks about the great dignity of human life in its last vulnerable stages - it moves people to action. Please take a look at what we are doing, and the difference it is making.
In the last five years, we have trained thousands of people around the country, mostly high school and college students, to witness to the sacredness of life in its final chapter by simply "being with" patients who are terminally ill or otherwise vulnerable - especially those with dementia.
One of our favorite "Being With" projects is a curriculum we designed to train undergraduate students in colleges and universities. Pre-med, nursing, and pharmacy students enroll in a course for credit to learn our "Life Principles" curriculum, and then go through intensive role playing to learn how to be a truly compassionate presence to people in nursing homes, hospitals, and hospices. To complete the course, they must visit with patients, most of whom are either terminally ill, suffering from dementia, or very frail. Their goal is not to provide a service, but simply to love. It is a very challenging experience for high-achieving students who are preparing for the somewhat sterile environment of medical school.
Hundreds of future doctors and nurses have been through the course, and the experience is universally transformative. I guarantee that, after a semester in our Being With class, these students would be completely appalled at Baroness Warnock's deadly solution to dementia.
Students keep a journal which is shared with us at the conclusion of their class. Every single journal reflects a newfound understanding of the intrinsic dignity of the human person. It's deeply moving to see these young people come alive when they discover the power of true love and compassion.
I wish you could read all of the testimonies I have received from these students over the years. They would make you cry. But for lack of space, please allow me to share the thoughts of just one student who attended our class last year and is now enrolled in medical school:
"I was uncomfortable at first...because I was definitely the 'minority' in a building bustling with elderly people in wheelchairs. I asked if I could visit the residents who looked lonesome. The nurse told me that 'lonesome pretty much covers everyone around here.' When she said that, I felt sad, claustrophobic, and nervous...and my first instinct was to get out of there.
"But I came across a tiny old lady trying to inch her wheelchair down the hall ever-so-carefully...so as not to let the plastic-wrapped piece of birthday cake fall from her lap. There were balloons tied to the back of her chair, and the look on her face was priceless. When she saw me, the concentration disappeared from her face, her eyes lit up, and she asked, 'Oh! You have come to see me on my birthday?' At that instant, my discomfort vanished, and without even thinking, I replied, 'Why yes! I have!' She was probably 90, but sitting there with her birthday cake, she was just like a little girl on Christmas morning. Discovering that she didn't have a destination, I helped guide her down the hall. We sat in the lobby for a while, and didn't really 'do' anything..., which was perfectly all right with both of us. I asked her if she wanted to eat her cake, but she just grinned and said, 'It's a pretty thing, isn't it?'
"I have no idea how long we sat there, observing the other residents coming and going, but for the first time in months, I felt like time didn't matter. All of the homework I had to do, all of the millions of papers and tests I had to worry about, all of the stress was replaced by the beautiful feeling I had sitting next to the birthday girl, holding her soft little hand. She was so proud, and so content, wanting to preserve the moment, and the cake, and my being there. When I got up to go, I squeezed her hand, (the one not clutching the cake), and told her how honored I was to get to be with her on this special day. Then she looked at me with the most sincere smile and said, 'All the days are special. But today- today is my birthday.' And she showed me her cake once more."
I have no doubt that our work at Healing the Culture is having a profound impact on the culture. These students will become the caregivers of the future; and they will become outspoken advocates for a new kind of medicine - medicine which upholds the dignity of the person, and stands in solidarity with human beings as we each enter our final days.
Your Healing the Culture team works hard every day to make sure that all people have access to quality pro-life education, and we are constantly finding new venues and opportunities to change hearts and minds
But we need your help so very much to carry on this mission. Your sacrificial donation to Healing the Culture allows us to continue providing life-changing programs to people who can profoundly impact our culture.
If you think this work is valuable, then please don't wait another minute. Become a part of our life-saving mission right now by returning the enclosed reply card with your donation. We rely on the consistent generosity of people just like you - people who care enough to get involved.
Any amount is welcome, and every gift makes a difference. Whether you can give $10, $25, $50, $100, $250, $500, or more, your help is essential. I invite you to please prayerfully consider how you can help. Remember that your gift to Healing the Culture is completely tax deductible! Please join us now in this battle for life by sending in your tax-deductible donation today.
For Life,
Camille Pauley
President
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