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Michael J. O’LoughlinNovember 25, 2012

Boston's Archbishop, Cardinal Sean O'Malley, sat down for an interview with a Boston political reporter to talk about the defeat of a ballot measure that would have legalized assisted suicide in Massachusetts, his new role as head of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops committee on pro-life activities, and the role of Catholics in the recent elections.

Click here to watch the interview.

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Frank Gibbons
11 years 4 months ago
Ed Gleason,

Here's the Wisconsin Bishops' take on the matter.   

http://www.wisconsincatholic.org/WCC%20Upholding%20Dignity%20POLST%20Statement%20FINAL%207-23.pdf
ed gleason
11 years 4 months ago
Frank, thanks for posting the link.. but no thanks to the Wisconsin bishops for complicating end of life decisions. They have No mention of old age, that face 60 million of US Catholics..  I guess if your childless and have no squabbling children on care decisions for Momma/Poppa and have free help with diapers and bedpans in the seminary infirmary you would write like this too.
My shorthand instructions to the provider is 'don't do much of anything they can't do in a village in Bangladesh'. palliative care... that's the ticket. and even follows the Catholic Catechism section the bishops quote. ,
ed gleason
11 years 4 months ago
NYT has a end of life article today saying Wisconsin Catholic bishops have a problem with end of life instructions that patients sign, bishops saying it leads to euthanasia,
 
My wife and I, both elderly, have signed documents asking for NO extraordinary procedures to preserve our lives for a few months or more. . This is clear Catholic doctrine but it appears the Wisconsin bishops are muddying the waters if NYT is accurate. Why do I think the NYT has it right and Wisconsin bishops most likely got it wrong. ? Talk about losing credibility
 http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/25/opinion/sunday/end-of-life-health-care.html?src=me&ref=general
David Smith
11 years 4 months ago
What a terrible way to do an interview with a cardinal.  O'Malley seems a smart, articulate, likeable person.  It's a shame the time he gave these people was wasted by being chopped up into a few sound bites wedged between unpleasant voice-overs.

I can't imagine that the push for assisted suicide won't eventually succeed in Massachusetts, as elsewhere.  It's one paradoxical consequence of a health-care system that drags out life to the last possible gasp in spite of the suffering that causes. If medicine gave a thousandth of the attention to the dignity of human life and the comfort of the patient that it gives to technological progress, there'd be little call for legalizing suicide.

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