Illinois Federation

For Right to Life

Daily News

 'We’re not really giving people a right to die, we’re giving doctors a right to kill.'

 

Booth Gardner, former governor of the state of Washington, is pushing a ballot initiative to allow terminally ill people in the state to end their lives.

 

Larry Stickney, executive director of the Family Policy Institute of Washington, said the state is on a slippery slope.

 

“It’s really no secret that the proponents want to push the boundaries further and further," he said. "And where do you end up? You go to the sick and the old after the terminally ill, and then where after that?"

 

The initiative would make Washington the second state in the nation to allow doctors to kill those who have less than six months to live.

 

Gardner and others have until July 3 to collect 224,800 signatures to get the proposal on the November ballot.

 

Wesley J. Smith, a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute, said the push for assisted suicide is a symptom of the culture.

 

"It’s a loss of the sense of community, continuity and the belief that human life matters simply because it’s human life," he said.

 

Dr. Gene Rudd, executive vice president of the Christian Medical Association, said it's not about a "right to die."

 

“What we’re doing is not really giving people a right to die, we’re giving doctors a right to kill," he said. "It’s a right or a power that history has shown that doctors can’t manage very well.”

 

Source: Family News in Focus

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Washington State Pursues Assisted-Suicide Ballot Initiative