In this issue:

• Sen. Barack Obama Regrets Schiavo Vote
  Obama says his biggest mistake was voting with the unanimous Senate on Terri Schiavo.
  
  
• On My Mind by Barbara Coombs Lee
  The Catholic takeover of hospitals in Denver and Santa Fe endangers patient-directed health care.
  
  
• Call to Action
  Your health care needs may be compromised by religious ownership. Learn what you can do about it.
  
  
• Ruth Proskauer Smith Honored at 100
  Gala honoring longtime choice advocate Ruth Proskauer Smith was a night to remember.
  
  
• In the News
  Media highlights on end-of-life issues.

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During Tuesday night’s debate with Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, Sen. Barack Obama said his biggest mistake was voting with the Senate to keep Terri Schiavo on life support.

"A lot of us, including me, left the Senate with a bill that allowed Congress to intrude where it shouldn't have,'' he said on MSNBC. "I think I should have stayed in the Senate and fought more for making sure that families make those decisions, and not bureaucrats and politicians.''

Most Americans opposed government intervention in the Schiavo case. Obama has publicly expressed misgivings before but has never done so in such a high-profile setting.

We encourage everyone to take this opportunity to contact your Senator or Representative who voted the same way. By denouncing the Schiavo vote and all other attempts at health decision restrictions, we can show our representatives we want the freedom to direct our own health care and end-of-life decisions.

• Contact your Senator or Representative

• Find out if a health care decision restriction bill or refusal bill has been proposed in your state

• Make a secure online donation

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What is Catholic health care?

Compassion & Choices promotes freedom of conscience in health care, and right now the Catholic takeover of hospitals in Denver and Santa Fe brings this value front and center. Most people don’t know that Catholic clinics, hospitals, doctors and insurance plans deliver health care in strict accordance with Catholic doctrine, as laid out in a document called “Ethical and Religious Directives (ERDs) for Catholic Health Care Services.”

My impression is Catholic health care managers would just as soon the public didn’t read these rules, but the cat is out of the bag.

• Read all the ERDs on the site of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops

• Read "Pope Benedict XVI Calls on Doctors to Resist Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide"

• Read "Denver Archbishop Decries 'Coercion' of Catholic Hospitals in Merger Dispute"

The Directives are harsh and uncompromising in their enforcement of Catholic doctrine, particularly at life’s beginning and life’s end. No sterilization is allowed, even in the setting of a Caesarean section, though delay means assuming the risk of a second anesthesia and surgery at a non-Catholic hospital. No “abortion” allowed, ever, even in an emergency, as when ectopic pregnancy threatens a woman’s life.

Catholic hospitals will pass out advance directives, but they won’t follow them unless they conform to “Catholic moral teaching.” (ERD#59) In a classic catch-22, a patient may direct removal of the ventilator, dialysis or feeding tube that keeps him alive, but not if he intends to die as a result. (ERD #60) If a patient wants the ventilator removed with the intention that his death be peaceful, he is to receive loving care and spiritual support, but no respect for his wish. (ERD #60)

Perhaps most alarmingly, the ERDs instruct that patients remain conscious despite unbearable pain, breathlessness or other suffering, in order to “prepare for death.” If suffering cannot be relieved they “should be helped to appreciate the Christian understanding of redemptive suffering.” (ERD #61) Patients may be delivered into unconsciousness only with “compelling reason.”

Whether a patient believes in the redemptive value of suffering is beside the point. The point is Catholic providers deliver theology-driven health care to Catholics and non-Catholics alike and replace patient choice with a bishop’s discretionary interpretation of terms like “burden,” “benefit,” “intention” and “compelling.”

Patients who land in a Catholic hospital may unknowingly submit to dogmatic rules way out of line with their own dearly held values, beliefs and religious faith. At the very least, people deserve fair warning before they do so. Health care providers of every faith enjoy a public trust, not an entitlement to entrap unsuspecting patients into their private beliefs.

• Share with a friend or family member

• Make a secure online donation

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Does a hospital in your community restrict health care options because of its religious affiliation?

If you are hospitalized in a health care facility managed by the Catholic Church, you may be unknowingly subject to policies and procedures contrary to your values, beliefs and faith. You may be denied access to sterilization, contraception, palliative pain medication or other medical treatments forbidden by Catholic doctrine.

• Find out if a health care decision restriction bill or refusal bill has been proposed in your state

• Write a letter to your local news outlet

• Contact your elected officials

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An Evening to Honor an Unsung Heroine

On Feb. 11, Compassion & Choices hosted a gala celebration to inaugurate the Ruth Proskauer Smith Fund for End-of-Life Choices. A founding member and prime mover behind the reproductive rights and the end-of-life choice movements, Proskauer Smith recently celebrated her 100th birthday. Honored guests included former New York State Senator Franz Leichter, co-sponsor of the bill that legalized abortion in New York two years before Roe v. Wade; Barbara Barrie, well-known Tony Award nominated actress of both stage and screen; and others.

Compassion & Choices President Barbara Coombs Lee presided over ceremonies featuring remarks by noted author and news correspondent Betty Rollin and Ms. Magazine co-founder Letty Cottin Pogrebin. Gloria Steinem and retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor were unable to attend but sent personal letters of congratulations.

Proskauer Smith recounted her more than six decades of committed labor to promote end-of-life choice in a variety of organizational settings, concluding, “We have finally found the organization we were always hoping for in Compassion & Choices.”

For more information or to contribute to the Ruth Proskauer Smith Fund for End-of-Life Choices, please call the Development Office at 800.247.7421 or e-mail sprior@compassionandchoices.org.

• Share with a friend or family member

• Make a secure online donation

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An earnest plea for aid in dying
New York Times health columnist Jane Brody wrote a poignant personal essay appealing for choice at the end of life. Brody weaves examples from her own life, including stories of her mother and former teacher, into a thoughtful commentary about what to do when the burdens of living outweigh the benefits.

Groups call for merger language
Anticipating the merger of two health care facilities in New Mexico, a coalition of organizations is calling for clarification to ensure health care is not limited by Catholic ownership. The group is concerned the ERDs will control health care decisions about contraception and end-of-life care at the hospital.

Luxembourg parliament adopts aid-in-dying law
The Luxembourg Parliament last week voted 30 to 26 to legalize aid in dying, overcoming opposition from the Christian Social Party and the Catholic Church. The law is expected to go into effect this summer.

Parents battle over life of brain-damaged woman in Schiavo-like fight
Attorneys who were on opposing sides in the 2005 Terri Schiavo case are advising the parents of Lauren Richardson, a 23-year-old woman in a persistent vegetative state, to try to agree on Richardson’s care. The lawyers hope to avoid the kind of family feud created in the Schiavo case. Richardson’s mother wants to remove a feeding tube, but her father wants to keep it in place.