suicide Bill
BY CORI FUGERE URBAN
AN Arrassar to legalise assisted suicide in an American state has been defeated.
The Vermont House of Representatives defeated a Bill that would have allowed a terminally ill patient with a prognosis of six months or less to live to ask a physician for a prescription that would end his or her life.
The medication would have been administered by the patient. The bill, known as H 44, was defeated 82-63. "It was a pleasure to learn of (the) vote on H 44 that defeated resoundingly the proposal," Fr Jay Haskin, pastor of Our Lady of Grace Church in Colchester, told The Vermont Catholic Tribune, newspaper of the Diocese of Burlington. He had testified against the measure.
"This action upholds life and human dignity. All of Vermont can be pleased with this ethical vote," said the priest.
Bishop Salvatore Matano of Burlington and many Catholics were among the most ardent opponents of the Bill.
Supporters said it would have allowed "death with dignity."
The bishop said: "As we care for the child so must we care for all persons in the vast spectrum of life. When we subjectively determine when life begins and ends, when it is viable or not, when it is too burdensome to endure, we begin a path toward self-destruction."
Oregon is the only US state to permit assisted suicide.