Euthanasia-Abortion Link:

                                                                                                                             Vol. VII, No. 5, June 1994

The terminally iII have the same right to commit suicide as a woman has to have an abortion and a patient has to refuse treatment, federal Judge Barbara Rothstein in Seattle said in striking down a Washington state law prohibiting assisted suicide. "The suffering of a terminally ill person cannot be deemed any less intimate or personal, or any less deserving of protection from unwarranted governmental interference than that of a pregnant woman," Rothstein wrote in her opinion. This is the first time a federal court has ruled on assisted suicide.

"Pro-lifers and others have said for years that ethics at the edges of life are inseparable – what we allow persons to do to unborn children we will allow them to do to dying patients," said Ben Mitchell, director of biomedical and life issues for the Southern Baptist Christian Life Commission. "Now we are seeing the consistency of the pro-death argument being played out. Next will come active euthanasia. ... Once you begin the assault on human life, there is no logical place to stop." [BP]