UPDATE: Delaware Senate places physician-assisted suicide bill HB140 on today’s agenda (June 20, 2024).
Catholic Advocacy Network: “Contact your Delaware State Senator and urge them to oppose this bill and to vote ‘no’ on HB 140. Call Legislative Hall in Dover at 302-744-4114. Find your senator and email them. Or find them here. https://legis.delaware.gov/Senate/District. And/or, click here to send a customizable email to your state senator with a copy to Gov. Carney.”
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Bishop Koenig wants people in the Diocese of Wilmington to know that life from birth until natural death is how we were meant to live and no law should allow people to take their own lives.
The bishop is imploring people to reach out to their state senators in Delaware where they are poised to vote on the latest effort in state government to legalize physician-assisted suicide. A Senate committee June 13 approved HB140, sending the bill to the full body.
“We’re all made in God’s image,” said the bishop, whose diocese includes Delaware and Maryland’s Eastern Shore. “We’re not the ones that end life. We’re not the ones that decide when it’s time to end our lives.
“In many ways, especially in this climate where there’s an epidemic of people and families who are affected by people who take their lives. For us as a society to say ‘Well, now it’s legal’ or this is something that is fine, it’s certainly something that is against most peoples experiences.”
Suicide is avoidable and has impacted people young and old, he said.
“Whether it’s a young person that is taking their life, a middle-aged person or an older person, it’s wrong for society to say this is something we condone,” Bishop Koenig said.
“We’re delivering the wrong message. For us to codify this into a permissible law is not the way to go. It’s a very slippery slope as far as people suffering from disabilities or from some kind of illness. It’s almost like encouraging a person to (take their life). For older people, to come to a time where they say they don’t want to be a burden — and they’re not a burden for their families — that’s not for us to make that decision. We shouldn’t have that pressure put upon us.”
Delaware lawmakers have been weighing this question for several years and this year for the first time it won approval in the state House. Earlier this year, Bishop Koenig was part of a group that argued against a similar bill that ultimately failed to gain approval in the Maryland legislature.
“We really have to be very concerned about the most vulnerable amongst us, whether it’s people who are feeling depressed or people with physical infirmities,” he said. “Those people need our care even more as opposed to our saying ‘It’s OK for you to take your life, so you’re not a burden to us.’ My plea to people would be that they realize the people who are vulnerable are in need, and as human beings, that’s who we should care for.
“As far as people in physical pain … pain can be alleviated if it is something that is all-consuming,” the bishop said. “People can have their pain alleviated and still live. It’s going to allow the natural course of life to come through.
“The way it’s phrased, it suggests this is how we help a person not to suffer, but the truth is we can help people not to have that physical pain. As far as the pain of depression and isolation, the answer is not to take your life, but the solution is for us as human beings to try to help those people to know their value and help them be appreciated.”
The Delaware Catholic Advocacy Network, a service of the Diocese of Wilmington, has joined a coalition of people and groups working to help defeat the push to legalize physician-assisted suicide in Delaware.
“This could be our last chance to help preserve the sanctity of life and the dignity of all people in Delaware,” the group said in an action alert issued June 13.
Should it pass, HB 140 would be sent to Gov. John Carney, who could sign it, veto it or let it become law without his signature. In the past, Carney has stated his opposition to assisted suicide.
“I believe we should do everything we can to enable people with terminal illnesses to die peacefully,” Carney told The Dialog in 2022. “I know this is an extremely difficult and personal issue for many of my constituents, and I have sympathy and compassion for those who are grappling with these painful questions. Ultimately, though, I believe enabling physicians to facilitate suicide crosses a boundary that I’m just not comfortable crossing.”
“In addition to our faith-based opposition to physician-assisted suicide, click here for Eight Important Reasons to Oppose Assisted Suicide from the Patience Rights Action Fund,” according to DCAN.
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