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Passionate About Death

Catholic Assemblywoman Pushes Suicide Bill

BY BARTHOLOMEW JAMES

On February 9, California state assemblywoman Patty Berg (D-Eureka) introduced a bill to extend the Caregiver Tax Credit, which is scheduled to expire this year, to the year 2010. The tax credit is used by people who take care of an adult or child who needs assistance with daily activities such as bathing, eating, and getting dressed. "These people do their families and this state a great service," Berg said in a press release. "They care for those who might otherwise have to be placed in a nursing home or special care facility." Berg, who serves as chair of the assembly committee on aging and long term care, said that "a lot of these hardworking families are struggling with a heavy burden. This credit is a small but meaningful way to help them."

One week after she proposed extending the Caregiver Tax Credit, Berg announced she was introducing another bill, co-sponsored by Assemblyman Lloyd Levine (D-Van Nuys), that will arguably help hardworking families struggling with a heavy burden. The new proposal, however, is considerably more controversial than the tax credit. The legislation Berg and Levine introduced is known formally as the California Compassionate Choices Act (AB 654), and less formally as the doctor-assisted suicide bill. Modeled after a similar Oregon law, which has now been in effect for seven years, the act will allow doctors to prescribe fatal doses of medication to terminally ill patients who have less than six months to live. Two doctors would have to concur on the terminal diagnosis and verify that the patient is capable of making the decision to end his own life. The patient would have to make two oral requests and one written request to die before being allowed to self-administer a lethal dose of medication.

If passed, the measure would become only the second assisted suicide law in the country. Similar laws have been proposed, but defeated, in California and other states. Forty-three states have passed laws that specifically ban any euthanasia practice. A 1992 assisted suicide proposal was rejected by California voters, and a 1999 euthanasia/assisted suicide bill died in the legislature that same year. Berg and Levine claim that their bill is different than prior California proposals because it has additional patient safeguards and that the seven-year track record of the Oregon law has shown that initial objections to the law were unfounded. Berg claims that the Oregon law has resulted in improvements in end-of-life care in that state because doctors have become more focused on pain management and hospice services.

Berg said that a majority of Californians support the measure and cites a Field Poll conducted in February that found 70 percent of the public supports the idea that "incurably ill patients have the right to ask for and get life-ending medication." The poll found that there were no large differences in opinion about the issue by voter registration status, political party, or religious affiliation.

Some of the opponents of the measure have formed a coalition, Californians Against Assisted Suicide. The group includes disability rights advocates, the Alliance of Catholic Healthcare, and the California Catholic Conference. Californians Against Assisted Suicide points out that the legislation is unnecessary because California law already gives every patient the right to refuse extraordinary end-of-life treatment and that patients often live many years after a terminal diagnosis, yet initial depression and temporary thoughts of suicide are common in these patients. They point to studies confirming that most patients killed under the Oregon law consented to the procedure because they were depressed, not because they were in pain. With respect to the Field Poll showing broad public support for the measure, Californians Against Assisted Suicide notes that the 1992 assisted suicide initiative originally polled with 71 percent support but was defeated at the polls, with 54 percent of voters voting against the measure and 46 percent voting for the law.

The California Catholic Conference points out that the Catechism of the Catholic Church states that euthanasia is morally unacceptable and that "those whose lives are diminished or weakened deserve special respect." The conference notes that Pope John Paul II wrote in his 1995 encyclical, Evangelium Vitæ, "...when earthly existence draws to a close, it is again charity which finds the most appropriate means for enabling the elderly, especially those who can no longer look after themselves, and the terminally ill, to enjoy genuinely human assistance and to receive an adequate response to their needs, in particular their anxiety and their loneliness." The conference is asking all Catholics to take time to advocate against the Berg bill by, among other things, contacting members of the legislative committees that will scrutinize the proposal.

What the conference, however, doesn't mention is that Assemblywoman Berg is Catholic.

"I am a Roman Catholic, a practicing Roman Catholic," Berg told me. "To me, the bill is all about the freedom of the individual to make choices, and it respects the freedom for your choices to be different from my choices, and the people of California get that," she said. Before joining the assembly, Berg spent 19 years as the founding executive director of the Area Agency on Aging in Humboldt and Del Norte Counties. She said that and other experiences gave her the idea for the assisted suicide legislation. "It's something that I have felt passionately about for a long time. I've worked in the field of senior citizens for about 25 years and have dealt with a lot of death and dying," she said.

But how does she reconcile her faith and Church doctrine with her proposed law? "Church doctrine is against family planning, Church doctrine is against condoms for AIDS [sic], Church doctrine is against divorce; what can I say?" she said. Berg said that she met with her bishop, Daniel Walsh of the diocese of Santa Rosa, to discuss her proposed law. "We had a very nice conversation, and we agreed to disagree without being disagreeable," she explained. "I believe in God, I believe in a merciful God, I don't believe in a God that sees me as needing to suffer." Berg emphasized that while she might not choose assisted suicide for herself, "I would not want to deny that choice for someone else." She feels that there is a connection between the right to commit suicide and the right to terminate a pregnancy, which she supports. "To me, it's just like Roe v. Wade, it's just like abortion. If you support choice at the beginning of life, you can't reconcile not supporting choice at the end," she said. Berg has been active in pro-choice issues for over 25 years. In 1982, she helped found CHOICES, Humboldt County's first pro-choice political action committee, according to her legislative biography.

In February, Bishop Walsh issued a pastoral letter, distributed in all church bulletins in the diocese, denouncing the assisted suicide bill. "There are many emotional and touching arguments that will be made to support the proposal for physician assisted suicide, but we, as Catholics, cannot lose sight of the natural law and the principles of faith that are involved. We are not masters of our lives but rather stewards of this gift of life from God," he wrote. The bishop cited several sections of the Catechism (2280-2283) that address suicide. "I believe that all of us should work to prevent this proposal from becoming law in our state. I ask you to contact your representatives in the state legislature to voice your opposition to this proposal which is contrary to the fifth commandment. Our religious values have a place in our democracy and in the pubic square. We must not be afraid to express and support them for the good of our society," the letter concluded.

Several calls to Deirdre Frontzak, communications director of the Santa Rosa diocese, were not returned by press time. Judy Barrett, the diocesan Respect Life coordinator, said she is actively involved in ensuring that the assisted suicide bill is stopped at the assembly level. "I have written or visited the assembly members that represent the districts that are part of the diocese; I've participated in Catholic lobby days, and I attended the April 12 hearing in the judiciary committee," she explained. She said her team has initiated postcard, letter, and phone call campaigns. "The real focus now is trying to get it stopped in the state assembly," she said. She will attend an opposition rally of the coalition against the bill on May 18 in Sacramento, which is the day a hearing on the bill is scheduled to be held in the appropriations committee. A simultaneous rally will be held the same day in Los Angeles.

Barrett confirmed that it was common knowledge within the diocese that Berg had met with Bishop Walsh. "I wasn't there, but I have heard from other sources that it was handled in exactly the appropriate pastoral manner," she said. Which is? "Well there are appropriate ways for bishops to approach people who are in error and who are causing scandal and so on, but I am not at liberty to say any more beyond that."

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