Euthanasia

Euthanasia: Citizens for Life opposes euthanasia and the pro-death ethic which says that certain people do not have a right to life because of age, health, or disability.

Bush Administration Rejects the Killing of Patients by Their Physicians
Overturns Clinton/Gore/Reno Policy

On November 6, 2001 Attorney General John Ashcroft reversed a Janet Reno ruling that allowed doctors to assist the suicide of their patients. Ashcroft’s restoration of American policy prohibits the use of federally controlled narcotics and other dangerous drugs for the purpose of killing individuals seeking suicide.

“This decision is simply a statement that this Administration is going to comply with and enforce existing federal law,” said Citizens for Life executive director Roger Stenson. “The Controlled Substances Act prohibits Kevorkian-like physicians from ‘suiciding’ the people for whom they are supposed to care.”

The American Medical Association and 40 other medical organizations have emphasized that physician-assisted suicide is “fundamentally incompatible with the physician’s role as healer.” (Brief for the AMA et al., Washington v. Glucksberg, 521 U.S. 702 (No. 96-110) at 5.)

“The Ashcroft ruling also serves to raise awareness that pain relief is successful and must be used to alleviate suffering,” Stenson said. “There is no excuse for a patient with a terminal illness to be under-treated for pain; the techniques and technology are readily available.”

“When patients seek or accept suicide as treatment, they are acting out of abject depression and need help for that underlying condition. Advocates of assisted suicide offer assisted killing at a time when people need assisted living,” Stenson concluded.

Euthanasia Information