From Conception to Natural Death

While the direct goal of 40 Days for Life is praying to bring an end to abortion, we believe it is the duty of all Christians everywhere to protect the sanctity of life from conception to natural death. Abortion, assisted suicide, human cloning, euthanasia, contraception, and embryonic stem cell research are all threads of evil woven together to create the pall that drapes our society.

The culture of death is sneaky. Its agenda often advances through dubious court rulings or obscure policy changes. Anti-life laws are often enacted before the faithful have time to react. As such, we want to inform you of critical developments in the State of Washington, where our brothers and sisters--like our pre-born brothers and sisters--are in desperate need of our prayers.

In November, the State of Washington will vote whether to legalize physician-assisted suicide. If the measure passes, doctors would be allowed to legally prescribe deadly drugs to ill patients with the sole purpose of killing them.

The list of reasons to oppose this initiative is seemingly endless. However, numerous aspects of the proposed law are particularly troubling:

• Physicians would be allowed to encourage patients to end their lives.
• Government and private health insurance providers would have incentive to pay for suicide drugs rather than more expensive palliative and therapeutic drugs. In fact, this has occurred in Oregon, the only state with legal physician-assisted suicide. Cancer patient Barbara Wagner received a letter from the Oregon Health Plan informing her that a drug that could extend her life is not covered by the state-funded insurance plan. However, the letter did inform her that the state would pay for her to commit suicide.
• Patients suffering from depression and mental illness would not be required to undergo counseling before committing physician-assisted suicide.
• Requests for the fatal drugs would not need to be made in person. Instead, they could be phoned in, picked up, and administered by an acquaintance of the patient.

Like every other movement in the culture of death, this initiative is driven by lies. Official death certificates would not list suicide as the cause of death. Instead, the patient's initial diagnosis would be listed.

Furthermore, a judge has ruled that neither the initiative, nor the state's official pamphlet describing it may use the term "physician-assisted suicide."

Jessica Skelton, an attorney and proponent of the initiative said the term is "politicized language" that "implies a value judgment and carries with it a social stigma."

It also happens to be an accurate description. And so, when telling the truth impedes the eugenicist goals of this country's death profiteers, they did what they always do: change the meaning of words.

It's worth noting that the Netherlands, which became the world's first country to legalize physician-assisted suicide more than a quarter century ago, has moved on to euthanasia. More than 1,000 patients each year are killed by their doctors without any input in the decision.

Let us pray for a renewed respect for life, not just in the Madison area and not just for the preborn, but for all human beings around the world.

I call Heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live...

-Deuteronomy 30:19