The 1998-99 Respect Life Program

Proclaiming the Gospel of Life with Honesty and Love

By Susan E. Wills

Now available from the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, the 1998-99 Respect Life Program packet offers a wealth of materials of interest both to Catholics and to the broad pro-life community. The informative packet is a key component of the Church's annual program-in its 27th year-to promote respect for human life and dignity.

In addition to materials on innovative pro-life programs and resources, prayers, a full-color poster and flier, and clip art/quotes, six articles explore contemporary threats to human life and relate them to Catholic teaching. More than 1.5 million fliers, as well as upwards of a million copies of the program articles, are expected to be distributed in parishes during the month of October.

This year's topics include many of interest to the general public. Denver's Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, OFM Cap., reflects on the rhetoric used to market abortion and euthanasia, and the "hidden costs" we continue to pay for accepting abortion in America. In "Choose Life: Toward a Culture of Life in the New Millennium," Archbishop Chaput reminds us that "the Nazi euthanasia campaign began on the merciful-sounding pretext of relieving people of unbearable pain. It ended with killing the mentally and physically disabled, the infirm, the insane, the anti-social, the merely troublesome, and, of course, 6 million Jews."

Abortion has a corrosive effect on our attitude toward life. Abortion "has touched the lives of millions. No one in our society has escaped unscathed; everyone is affected by the hardening of heart which comes when a culture tolerates killing," Archbishop Chaput writes. "It undermines the very concept of human rights."

With truth as our weapon of choice, he urges us to persevere in defending the child's inviolable right to life. We must be insistent and untiring in proclaiming the value and dignity of every human life if we hope to reverse the cultural trend in America and build a culture of life in the next millennium.

Richard Doerflinger of the NCCB Pro-Life Secretariat and Carlos Gomez, M.D., Ph.D., medical director of the palliative care program at the University of Virginia Health System, collaborate on an article debunking "terminal sedation," aptly titled "Killing the Pain, Not the Patient." Euthanasia advocates are attempting to blur the distinction between intentionally killing a patient-by a "one shot" (as it were) lethal injection or overdose-and possibly but unintentionally hastening a patient's death by using narcotics for pain control. They argue that it is more "humane" and less hypocritical to "relieve suffering" by causing death in one fatal dose than gradually. Indeed, many doctors fear that giving "high doses of painkillers such as morphine will suppress the breathing reflex and cause death."

This plausible, but erroneous, fear now promoted by euthanasia enthusiasts is based on false assumptions about the effect of pain-control medications on patients experiencing intractable pain and the generally inadequate training doctors receive in pain management techniques. "As long as a patient is awake and in pain, the risk of hastening death by increasing the dose of narcotics is virtually zero," Doerflinger and Gomez write. For sound medical as well as philosophical reasons (see a lucid discussion of the principle of "double effect"), the two approaches to care for the dying-killing vs. aggressive pain management-differ fundamentally.

Population Research Institute's president Steven Mosher will shock generations of Americans schooled on the population bomb menace. In tracking U.S. support of international population control efforts, Mosher exposes the abuse of human rights inherent in the "successful" programs, and demonstrates how the coercive abortion and sterilization programs undermine basic health care in the third world.

On Respect Life Sunday-this year October 4-the nation's Catholics will give public witness to the value and dignity of life in a variety of ways. Many join in the nationwide life chain. Others conduct baby showers to collect diapers, clothing, and furniture for pregnancy help center distribution. Still others raise funds for pregnancy counseling centers through events such as a "Walk for Life."
Nearly all U.S. dioceses mark the day with prayers for a restoration of respect for life and legal protection for the unborn. Special services will be held in cathedrals, in parishes, at a growing number of memorials for the victims of abortion, and at other public venues.

We invite you use the occasion of Respect Life Sunday to participate in some form of public witness to life. The Respect Life Program packet can be purchased through the NCCB Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities at 3211 Fourth Street, NE, Washington, DC 20015; phone (202) 541-3070 or fax (202) 541-3054. Texts of the materials will appear on the secretariat's web site in October: http:// www.nccbuscc.org/prolife.

Mrs. Wills is assistant director for program activities, NCCB Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities, and editor of Life Insight.