Posted on 02/26/2007 4:10:34 PM PST by wagglebee
SACRAMENTO, February 26, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) Well known bioethics author, Wesley J. Smith, warns in an article posted to the weblog of First Things magazine, that a pending bill in California could threaten the lives of vulnerable elderly and ill patients in nursing homes and hospice care.
Assembly Bill 374, says Smith, under the rubric of choice will force in-patient hospice facilities and even Catholic nursing homes to permit assisted suicide. The proposed legislation, he writes, exempts only acute-care hospitals.
While euthanasia advocates claim the changes to the law are only small matters of tweaking existing statutes, Smith warns that the result is a piece of coercive legislation that will threaten the lives of patients, undermine the philosophical foundation of hospice care and threaten the autonomy and even the existence of Catholic care facilities.
If A.B. 374 becomes law, Catholic and other religiously oriented nursing homes will be forced to choose between shutting down, selling, or cooperating in assisted suicide.
A.B. 374, Smith writes, is patterned generally after the law in Oregon, though the coercion about which I write is not found in the current Oregon law or a concurrently introduced assisted-suicide legalization bill in Vermont, and is an attempt to force most medical and nursing facilities to cooperate in the assisted-suicide regime.
Smith points to the sections of the bill, 7198 (b) and (e), to be added to the California Health and Safety Code should the legislation pass.
7198 (b) reads: No professional organization or association, or heath care provider, may subject a person to censure, discipline, suspension, loss of license, loss of privileges, loss of membership, or other penalty for participating or refusing to participate in good faith compliance with this chapter.
Subsection (e) reads: Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a general acute care hospital, as defined in subdivision (a) of Section 1250, may prohibit a licensed physician from carrying out a patients request under this chapter on the premises of the hospital if the hospital has notified the licensed physician of its policy regarding this chapter.
As a lawyer with years of experience deciphering legal loopholes in bills related to bioethics issues, Smith asserts that the specific exemption of acute care hospitals as the only place where assisted suicide may be stopped on site, means that the legislation intends to force other types of facilities to allow the practice.
The legislation must be construed to require that all other health-care facilities cooperate with assisted suicide ¬whether or not they have religious, moral, or philosophical objections, he writes.
Read the full text of Assembly Bill 374:
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/07-08/bill/asm/ab_0351-0400/ab...
Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Bill Would Authorize Assisted Suicide By Any Other Name in Arizona
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/jan/07011706.html
New Assisted Suicide Bill Introduced in Hawaii Legislature
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/jan/07013004.html
I could be wrong but fear I'm not that this has already been going on with catholic priests/institutions in the Chicago area for a long time now, probably in my own area as well.
They can always opt to refuse government funding, if this is a very important issue for them.
In fact yes they would likely do just that. Again I do not agree with it but I have worked in nursing homes. They would first pull the Administrator's License. If the B.O.D. failed to correct next they would decertify the facility and likely close it. Yes it's government doing blackmail.
That would be a wise move likely their only choice in the matter and even then with Cali laws??? They still may try and force the issue on the church.
That's true, but what if it causes them to have to shut down? I'm just putting it out there, not being argumentative. It's something that a lot of us have faced/will have to face in our personal lives as well as in society as a whole.
PS. We have a fine regional heart center/regular hospital that is non-catholic and a fine catholic hospital. There have already been problems about trying to force the catholic hospital to do things they refuse to do. So far so good, but how long?
That would be very sad. But I hope that the Governor will pressure them to at least provide an exception for medical facilities that are based on religion.
I would hope so, too, under freedom of religion. I'm not that confident it's going to hold up across the board though.
Hard to say. The best hospital we've {my family} dealt with is a Catholic hospital. Actually my wife and I were married there 21 years ago. For a while it had some problems even to the point I had to take my wife out of the E.R. because the attending ER doctor refused treatment. It was over what I discovered later an adverse medication reaction he insisted was an acute mental issue despite the fact she lost consciousness under his care. You can not fake COMA. Like I said in another post always be ready to act. They tried to take the say of her care out of my hands and place it in the hands of the state.
I found her unconscious in an exam room slumped over in her wheelchair. had words with the ER Doc he still refused treatment so I took her elsewhere. I also wrote a letter after it was all over to the Chief Of Staff who had treated my wife before. It hasn't happened again either.
True but sooner or later the churches are going to have take on the government to regain control of their hospital systems. I'm not Catholic nor is my wife but they seem to be the only mainstream church left that actually keeps an active oversight of hospitals using their denominations name.
I once worked in a nursing home associated with a mainstream Protestant denomination and it was as far removed from the church as it could be except a 2 minute daily devotional. The facilities business ethics left a lot to be desired.
ever been here??? http://oldsnipe.com/SnipeBegin.html
I think it was in another state not certain though and the Church closed down the program IIRC. I may be wrong on that one though. Maybe somebody with a better memory knows.
It's called the golden rule.
State has the gold you must follow the rules.
Best way to change this problem is not to vote for collectivist next time when there is an election.
Easy choice would be to refuse Gov. money, the Nursing Homes would probably go belly up but tough love is necessary sometimes when holding onto your core convictions.
Because the facilities take these funds, they are obligated to follow the rules. The piper calls the tune 100% of the time
I read it laughing out loud. I remember getting into a heated debate over an unlawfull order one night with the ships 1st LT rank of LTCDR or the Deck Department Oficer. I won it too LOL.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
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