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Sept. 18, 2007--Today Compassion & Choices launched an expanded End-of-Life Consultation program in California. The program will help terminal patients to access hospice, pain treatment, information on aid in dying options and other excellent end-of-life care.
Volunteers, clergy members and terminal patients spoke in four major cities, pledging their support for the consultation program.
“People of different faiths all agree that life is sacred and worthy of respect and preservation as long as possible,” said Rev. Ignacio Castuera, minister of Trinity United Methodist Church in Pomona, Calif., who spoke at the Los Angeles event. “However, when death is imminent, it is entirely respectful to the sanctity of life to allow a person to decide for himself or herself when and how they can ease their pain and suffering in a dignified manner.”
Compassion & Choices launched the program after Assembly Bill 374 became paralyzed in the Legislature in June. Legislators abandoned their constituents and dying patients who pleaded with them for the legal choice of a peaceful death.
“Dying patients cannot wait for politicians to catch up to their needs,” said Compassion & Choices President Barbara Lee. “We will do our utmost to ensure that no one who comes to us will suffer in their dying, or choose a violent course, or die without loved ones present because they have no other choice. The End of Life Consultation service is a way to avoid tragedies that are 100 percent preventable. We proclaim that aid in dying is neither secret nor shameful.”
Compassion & Choices stood up where lawmakers fell down, offering people legal alternatives to the unsavory, ineffective choices they have.
“The murky legal landscape that keeps aid in dying covert and clandestine leaves caring families trapped between participating in a criminal activity and abandoning their loved ones, just as anti-abortion laws did 40 years ago,” said Rev. Howard Moody. Moody, who helped found the Clergy Consultation Service on Abortion 40 years ago, spoke at the conferences via telephone from New York City.
The Compassion & Choices End-of-Life Consultation promises to make every effort to ensure that no one who comes to us will suffer in their dying, choose a violent course, or die alone, without loved ones present because they have no other choice.
To access to End-of-Life Consultation program, please call 800.247.7421. |