Bad move in Madison

By Tony Staley
Compass Editor

As Christians prepare to celebrate Easter, it's sad to note that Sen. Fred Risser (D-Madison) and Rep. Frank Boyle (D-Superior) again plan to introduce legislation that would allow physicians to prescribe lethal doses of drugs to vulnerable patients so they could legally kill themselves.

Fortunately, the bill will probably go no further in the legislature than previous attempts to make physician-assisted suicide a reality in Wisconsin.

Such sanity reigned last month in Vermont, where the House of Representatives, by a vote of 82-63, defeated a bill that would have allowed a terminally ill patient with a prognosis of six months or less to live to ask a physician for a prescription that would end their life.

On the west coast, Californians Against Assisted Suicide, a coalition of medical professionals, disability rights groups, pro-life advocates and religious leaders, are also lobbying legislators to reject physician-assisted suicide. AB 374, the so-called California Compassionate Choices Act, has passed one hearing, but is expected to be rejected in the next one.

Let's hope that sanity has its day in California, leaving Oregon with the dubious distinction of being the only state in the nation that allows physician-assisted suicide.

We need instead to concentrate on palliative care, hospice and other efforts that honor life.