Urge Your State Legislator to Support Real Care at the End of Life, NOT Assisted Suicide
The Catholic Health Association working closely with the MN Catholic Conference are are encouraging the public to speak out against H.F. 1930/S.F. 1813 which will degrade the trusting relationship patients have with their providers.
Our efforts to stop this legislation are working. Proponents of the bill have updated the language to address some of the concerns we have raised, but no revisions can make this bill acceptable. The updated language still has many concerning provisions, including:
- No mental health evaluation requirement
- No family notification
- No safeguards for people with disabilities
- No nurse or doctor present when the lethal drug is taken
H.F. 1930/S.F. 1813 is one of the most aggressive physician-assisted suicide bills in the country.
Assisted suicide is neither compassionate nor about real choice. Protecting the choices of a few by legalizing assisted suicide will endanger the healthcare choices of all.
Assisted suicide also deliberately undermines human dignity by endangering the health of society’s most vulnerable, especially among those who underutilize hospice and palliative care.
When care is expensive and killing is cheap, which do we think will prevail? Urge Your State Legislator to oppose PAS.
Church Teaching
As Catholics, we are called to uphold human dignity and correct injustices as they persist in the social order and to use our position as faithful citizens to protect the poor and vulnerable. Legalization of assisted suicide works against this principle because death is hastened when it is thought that a person’s life no longer has meaning or purpose.
Pope Francis has spoken out against the legalization of assisted suicide saying in 2019 that, “we can and must reject the temptation, also induced by legislative changes, to use medicine to support a possible willingness of the patient to die, providing assistance for suicide or directly causing death by euthanasia.”
The Catechism also teaches us that assisted suicide and “whatever its motives and means, direct euthanasia consists in putting an end to the lives of handicapped, sick or dying persons…is morally unacceptable” (CCC, 2277). Instead, we are called to create principled care models that support the medical needs of all people.
Learn More
Join the Minnesota Alliance for Ethical Healthcare, MCC’s end-of-life care partner organization, in advocating for real care throughout life’s journey. Read Ethical MN Ethical Care’s one-pager: Minnesota’s Assisted Suicide Bill Has Serious Side Effects