The University of San Francisco (USF) is my alma mater. My name is on a plaque in the chemistry office for my academic exploits while I was there. Along with a degree in chemistry, I also got a whopping student loan debt that may never get paid off, but that is another topic for another time.
When people ask me if they should send their children there, I answer with an unequivocal “No!” USF should be a shining light in a city hell-bent on self-destruction through decadence. This Catholic university is called to be a literal foghorn calling out the truth in darkness. Instead it is no more than a child mimicking her surroundings simply so that she can fit in.
Case in point this op-ed piece by the staff of the student paper the Foghorn on assisted suicide. I won’t bore you with the whole thing. Here is an excerpt:
The Foghorn staff has reached the consensus that any legislation which directly affects the length of someone’s life is a unique issue because there is nothing as private as an individual’s decisions about the quality of their life. To choose to live in pain or to die quickly when faced with terminal illness is a decision that is so intensely personal that allowing the government (on a state or federal level) to prevent assisted suicide is a serious overreach of their power. For most issues, having government involvement regarding societal improvement and personal health is appropriate, even necessary, for a healthy society. Examples include the recent SCOTUS ruling on gay marriage and the implementation of universal healthcare. However, the government should not be able to restrict you or punish you for making decisions about the quality of your life.
All of our staff members believe that assisted suicide should be legalized for terminally ill people who truly believe that it is the only option they have left.
All of the staff at the Foghorn support assisted suicide. Not one could even play devil’s advocate and bother to articulate the Church’s position.
Of course they have a list of “concerns” but conclude that the government should only be minimally involved in people taking their own lives.
My mother has worked tirelessly as a patient advocate for decades. She gives a voice to those who are deemed worthless and beyond any help. She will be the first to tell you that assisted suicide is tantamount to abandoning the sick and elderly. In the time of their lives where they have the greatest need for care and compassion, we offer them instead a poison pill and wash our hands of them.
The progressively infused fog that surrounds the USF campus has clouded the brains of the students at the Foghorn. They think they are being compassionate by supporting assisted suicide for terminally ill patients. They do not realize that they are throwing the most vulnerable members of our society under the bus.
In a country where health care costs keep rising, do you think insurance companies will cover expensive or experimental treatments when a lethal dose is so much cheaper? It has happened before that terminally ill patients have been told that their treatment will not be covered, but medicine they can use to kill themselves will be. It will happen again.
If USF was truly a good Jesuit school, you would expect at least one student at the Foghorn could think their way out of a paper bag. Or at least delve a little deeper by talking to real terminally ill patients.
Patients like Jeanette Hall who, with a diagnosis of terminal cancer, was determined to end her own life. Dr. Stevens held out his hand to her and offered her hope. She took his hand and is alive today because Dr. Stevens did not abandon her at her most vulnerable.
I dare you to watch this video with dry eyes:
So to the so-called compassionate students at the Foghorn who mistakenly believe that they are advocating for the sick and dying, you are on the wrong side. Listen to what the Church is so wisely telling you. Induced death is not medicine. Helping someone die is not compassion. It is instead a most cruel abandonment.
For true compassion, look no further than the Patient’s Rights Council, which tirelessly works to protect the rights of the elderly, the disabled and the dying. They are unsung heroes fighting to push back crushing waves of the culture of death. They truly need our support in their very important work.
Rebecca Taylor blogs at Mary Meets Dolly
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