With more states legalizing assisted suicide, euthanasia opponents have put together a web site to urge doctors, medical caregivers and citizens to say ‘no’ to assisted suicide.
The site comes after doctors and medical centers have said they won’t urge patients to kill themselves.
The Take the Pledge web site urges the three different categories of people to sign an online pledge affirming they will help patients, not urge their death. “I will treat the sick according to my best ability and judgment, always striving to do no harm. Whenever I care for a terminally-ill patient, I will provide optimal comfort care until natural death,” the pledge for doctors says.
Wesley J. Smith, a noted author and attorney, has endorsed the new web site and urges people to take the pledge to affirm pro-life principles over assisted suicide. “Just because assisted suicide is legal in Oregon and Washington-State, that does make it right. The time has come for a very public and vibrant declaration of non cooperation with the culture of death,” he says.
Take The Pledge – http://www.pccef.org/ttp/index.htm
Our Pledge to Our Patients – http://www.pccef.org/whoweare/ourpledge.htm
Declaration of Hope Canada, opposing euthanasia and assisted suicide – http://declarationofhope.ca/
[http://www.lifenews.com/bio2632.html; Olympia, WA www.LifeNews.com]
“Take the Pledge” Campaign Calls for Loyalty to Patient Health rather than Assisted Suicide
Anti-euthanasia groups in Canada and Oregon are calling physicians, caregivers, and concerned citizens across the world to “Take the Pledge” to pursue genuine care for even the most dependent patients, and never to consent to assisted suicide.
Take-the-pledge.com, created by The Physicians for Compassionate Care in Oregon and the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, provides links to several anti-assisted suicide groups and invites caregivers and other visitors to make a pledge that reaffirms the duty to “do no harm.”
Rather than providing assisted suicide, by signing the pledge the signer affirms, “Whenever I help provide care for a terminally-ill patient, I will provide optimal comfort care until natural death.”
“I will support my friend’s or family member’s wishes not to prolong the dying process with futile treatment,” the pledge continues. However, “I will never give a deadly drug to anyone even if asked, nor will I suggest suicide.”
The pledge concludes, “I will always affirm and guard these ethical principles with integrity, recognizing that every human life is inherently valuable.”
The campaign will be providing a professionally produced pledge that can be displayed and will send up-to-date information on a voluntary basis to medical care-givers to keep them informed.
Assisted suicide was legalized in Montana last week through a court ruling, joining Oregon and Washington.
To take the pledge: http://www.pccef.org/ttp/index.htm
[16Dec 08, Kathleen Gilbert, LifeSiteNews.com]