Campaign '04: Courts more crucial to euthanasia debate than election

Published: 2004-09-17

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- No matter who is occupying the White House come January, the debate over assisted suicide is unlikely to be resolved there. Instead, the issue is expected to remain in the hands of voters at the state level and in the courts, where it has been playing out for the past several years. In the U.S. bishops' election-year blueprint, "Faithful Citizenship: A Catholic Call to Political Responsibility," and in other documents, the Catholic Church's opposition to euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide is clear, ranking second only to its stance on abortion. "Abortion and euthanasia have become pre-eminent threats to human life and dignity because they directly attack life itself, the most fundamental good and a condition for all others," the bishops say in "Faithful Citizenship." In choosing between the Republican incumbent, President George W. Bush, and his Democratic opponent, Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, however, voters will find little guidance on the topic of euthanasia and assisted suicide on the two candidates' campaign Web sites. On the site for Bush's campaign, the word "euthanasia" never appears, and the 84 references to suicide all refer either to suicide attacks by terrorists or to efforts to lower the suicide rate among teens. Similarly, the Kerry campaign Web site has no mention of euthanasia and only seven references to suicide -- all related either to suicide bombers or to the role of anti-depressants in adolescent suicides.

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