Web Site Encourages Doctors, Caregivers to Pledge No to Assisted Suicide

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Web Site Encourages Doctors, Caregivers to Pledge No to Assisted Suicide


by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
November 14, 2008
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Olympia, WA (LifeNews.com) -- With Washington becoming the second state to legalize assisted suicide, euthanasia opponents have put together a new web site to urge doctors, medical caregivers and citizens to say no to assisted suicide. The site comes after doctors and medical centers have said they won't urge patients to kill themselves.
The Take the Pledge web site urges the three different categories of people to sign an online pledge affirming they will help patients, not urge their death.
"I will treat the sick according to my best ability and judgment, always striving to do no harm. Whenever I care for a terminally-ill patient, I will provide optimal comfort care until natural death," the pledge for doctors says.

"I will also support my patients' wishes not to prolong the dying process with futile treatment. I will never give a deadly drug to anyone even if asked, nor will I suggest suicide," it continues.
"I will always affirm and guard these ethical principles with integrity, recognizing that every human life is inherently valuable," the pledge concludes.
Wesley J. Smith, a noted author and attorney, has endorsed the new web site and urges people to take the pledge to affirm pro-life principles over assisted suicide.
"Just because assisted suicide is legal in Oregon and Washington-State, that does make it right. The time has come for a very public and vibrant declaration of non cooperation with the culture of death," he says.

He says more efforts are needed to build up a conscientious objection to assisted suicide in Oregon and Washington, but he applauds the effort.
"All who oppose assisted suicide, please take the pledge. And in our lives, let us strive to model the kind of acceptance and love toward others that could dissuade people from believing that their own lives--or that of family members--are not worth living," Smith said.
As LifeNews.com reported, doctors and hospitals are already speaking up saying they will refuse assisted suicide requests.

Though voters approved I-1000, the Washington State Medical Association says doctors have no obligation to participate in killing patients.
Meanwhile, Providence Health and Services, the largest medical system in eastern Washington, states it will prohibit doctors from killing patients at its medical centers, nursing homes and other facilities.
Related web sites:Take The Pledge - http://www.take-the-pledge.com