Churches speak out about assisted suicide bill

With next week's petition deadline just around the corner, backers of an initiative that would allow a lethal drug overdose as a medical treatment option are increasing their signature-gathering efforts around the state, including Central Washington.

At the same time, Yakima Valley churches, particularly the Roman Catholic Church, are countering the campaign with their own education and awareness crusades.

"Initiative 1000 is an attack on our most fundamental beliefs and teaching, and placing it on the November ballot would contradict our proclamation of the gospel of life," the Most Rev. Carlos Sevilla, bishop of the Diocese of Yakima, said in a recent memo.

Distributed in English and Spanish, the memo urged diocesan priests, seminarians, deacons and religious men and women to encourage local Catholics -- there are just under 80,000 in the diocese -- not to sign the petition.

Under state law, advocates of the initiative must collect about 225,000 signatures from registered voters by Thursday to put the aid-in-dying measure on the November ballot

Catholic bishops throughout the state are encouraging Catholics not to sign the petition. Locally, Sevilla and the Rev. Robert Siler, chief of staff of the Diocese of Yakima, have spoken out against physician assisted-suicide during Mass within the last year.

"All priests are encouraged to do so," Sevilla said, adding that "Pain and suffering and illness are important parts of our faith experience."

"From our point of view as Catholics, suffering is not wasted," he said. "There's a faith mystery related to it that we can accept."

Many parishioners in Yakima support the Catholic church's efforts.

Dan Hogan, a 47-year-old warehouse manager and member of St. Joseph's Catholic Church, said he is glad the church is actively trying to discourage parishioners from signing the petition.

"As a spiritual leading body, they need to spiritually lead their people," he said. "I don't believe suicide is a correct option for anybody."

Angele DeGooyer, an 81-year-old resident of Yakima and member of the Holy Family Parish, said she's glad the church is getting involved and thinks more organizations should partake in similar efforts.

"I think we're here on this earth to do good, and if it's not our time, we shouldn't take it into our hands to take our life," she said.

Another member of the Holy Family Parish, Yakima resident Ninfa R. Gutierrez also appreciates the church's actions against the petition, even though she believes people should be able to choose whether to end their lives.

"I think everyone should search within themselves and God, and then make their decision," she said. "But it's the church's responsibility to teach us. It is then up to the person to decide."

She believes there should be more information available to the public about both sides of the issue, especially in Spanish, so that people can make an informed decision.

While Anne Martens, communications director for the Seattle-based YES! on I-1000 Committee, wouldn't say just how many signatures have been collected so far, she did say, "They're coming in daily."

"We are on track to meet our goals," Martens said. "We have a lot of our signature gatherers working hard to make sure we meet our goals. We still have a lot of work to do."

And signature gathering efforts aren't just concentrated in vote-rich Western Washington.

"We have people everywhere; we have people across the state," Martens said.

Judy Enriquez is one of them. The Selah resident and registered nurse -- who worked for 35 years in the emergency room -- has collected about 400 signatures so far. She's gone to friendly territory, such as the medical community, to gather support and hopes she's generating lively discussions.

"I think if people listen to what this is really about and not all the fear, rumor and innuendo, we can have an intelligent dialogue about choice and autonomy over the quality of the end of one's life," Enriquez said.

Supporters like Enriquez reject the term "physician-assisted suicide," saying an end-of-life decision can be life-affirming, not an act of desperation.

Enriquez said research has shown that people who make the decision not to prolong their lives have a sense of peace that comes with being in control. Very few actually proceed to administer the lethal dose, she said.

She has also seen patients who plead with their doctors not to keep them on feeding tubes. One nursing home resident showed up in the ER three nights in a row because she had ripped out her own feeding tube. "She was trying to have a choice and no one respected it," Enriquez said.

The initiative comes two years after the death of Terri Schiavo, the 41-year-old brain-damaged woman who became the centerpiece of a national right-to-die battle. Doctors removed a feeding tube that had sustained Schiavo for more than a decade over the objections of her family, who had tried to get the U.S. Supreme Court to stop the action. Schiavo's husband was her guardian and maintained she would not have wanted to continue in a "persistent vegetative state."

I-1000 is closely modeled after an Oregon law that was approved by voters in 1994 and took effect in 1997. Washington's proposal would let doctors prescribe lethal doses of narcotics to terminally ill patients who ask to end their own lives. Patients would self-administer the drugs.

Under I-1000, a patient requesting the drugs would have to make two oral requests 15 days apart, and provide a written request witnessed by two people, including one person who's not a relative, heir, attending doctor, or connected with the health facility where the patient lives.

Plus, two doctors would have to agree on the terminal diagnosis, giving the patient six months or less to live, and declare the patient is competent, acting voluntarily and making an informed decision.

A similar but more broadly-written proposal, Initiative 119, made it onto the 1991 Washington ballot. It failed with 46 percent of the vote.

During that campaign 17 years ago, the Catholic Church spent at least $480,000 and aggressively worked through its political organization and the Archdiocese of Seattle to defeat the measure, as well as an abortion-rights initiative.

Aid-in-dying measures have failed in California, Michigan and Maine. Physician assisted-suicide bills have also failed in statehouses around the country.

This time, former Washington Gov. Booth Gardner, who suffers from Parkinson's disease, is serving as a key spokesman in support of the initiative. He wouldn't qualify if the proposal becomes law, though; his condition isn't considered terminal.

If approved, Washington would become only the second state to legalize physician-assisted suicide. And that isn't something some local clergy want to see.

"I have a high personal regard for (Gardner)," said Siler, who previously worked as a newspaper reporter and has met and interviewed the former governor. "But he's on the wrong side of this issue, from my point of view."

Simply put, Siler said, "Assisted suicide is not consistent with (Catholic) teaching on the dignity of life."

Sevilla has asked all 41 parishes in the Diocese of Yakima to include a notice in their Sunday bulletins, reminding Catholics that "The Catholic Church teaches that physician-assisted suicide can never be excused, even if it is requested."

Yakima's Englewood Christian Church, a congregation of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) denomination, has a different take on the issue. In fact, the church does "not have an official stance regarding the 'Death with Dignity' proposal," said the Rev. David Helseth, senior pastor.

"In manners such as this, we give members the freedom to think through his or her own position in terms of their relationship with God and life," Helseth said. "Within Englewood Christian, it would be safe to say that we have members across the spectrum; there will be those opposed to it and there will be those in favor, but others will wrestle in the gray area in between."

"We have a person who had a petition available to sign, and some members did sign it; there were others not comfortable in signing it," Helseth said.

And that is OK by him.

"As a pastor, my position is to help people think through the issues around the final stages of life and how best to conclude life in a manner that honors the person and honors God," he says. "And that may be different for different individuals."

According to the code of the Internal Revenue Service, churches cannot contribute to individual candidates but they can lobby on legislation and donate to political action committees as long as they do not devote a "substantial part" of their activities to attempting to influence legislation.

Asking parishioners to make contributions to an initiative campaign also won't get ministers crossways with the state Public Disclosure Commission, which enforces campaign reporting laws. "It's no problem for us because they (the minister) aren't making a measurable contribution," said Lori Anderson, spokeswoman.

The Rev. Joe Hite, senior pastor at Valley Fellowship of Yakima, said he'll likely be speaking on the sanctity of human life during an upcoming sermon. But he also said he doesn't plan to tell people whether to sign the petition -- or how to vote.

"I don't try to use the pulpit politically," Hite said. "I wouldn't stand up and endorse a candidate or an issue. I wouldn't say sign the petition or don't sign the petition."

However, Hite said, "The Bible says to choose life. It's pretty easy to make a biblical argument for choosing life."

What might that forthcoming sermon sound like?

"I would probably stand up in the pulpit and say we have to honor life," Hite said. "God gave us life. It's not really our decision to end it. It's given to us by God. We're stewards of it. We're here to serve (God) -- whether you're a preacher or a plumber. That would be the core (of the sermon). And we repeat that point in so many different ways in our teachings; I doubt if it would be anything new for our people."

Yakima's First Presbyterian Church held a forum on the ballot proposal back in March. About a dozen people attended the event, said the Rev. Jim Erixson, an associate pastor for senior adults at the church and one of the forum's organizers.

"My position is there's a lot of different ways of making people comfortable toward the end of their lives without having to euthanize," Erixson said. "I think with the medications we have today we can deal with pain and the types of things people are afraid of. I think it would be almost criminal to euthanize to take away the pain. There's just no reason for it."

The senior pastor, the Rev. Jack Peebles, hasn't preached on the topic during a Sunday sermon at First Presbyterian. But that doesn't mean he won't. Though, "there's nothing on the calendar" yet, he said he'll be keeping an eye on the issue.

"Anytime there's a public issue like that, the church has a responsibility to stand up and have a voice," Peebles said. "My philosophy has always been it's healthy to have good discussions, and you don't want to shy away from those discussions."

* Yakima Herald-Republic staff reporters Leah Beth Ward and Jean Guerrero contributed to this report.

-- For more information, visit www.yeson1000.org and www.noassistedsuicide.com.

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