PETITION CLOSED

  • The time period for signing this petition has ended.
Tell Catholic Bishops to Stop Interfering with End-of-Life Decisions
  1. Signatures
    3,887 out of 5,000
    Petitioning
    1. U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
  2. Created By
    Compassion & Choices
About this Petition Petition Letter Petition Updates

End-of-life decisions are a deeply personal and private matter, yet the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has launched a full-blown attack on terminally ill patients and the right to make their own choices. They want to impose religious dogma on everyone – even those who aren’t Catholic!

At its national conference, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) adopted a statement that embraced the suffering of terminally ill patients and rejected aid in dying. The statement read, in part, “As Christians we believe that even suffering itself need not be meaningless…suffering accepted in love can bring us closer to the mystery of Christ’s sacrifice for the salvation of others.”

While the USCCB has the right to preach to its followers, it does not have the right to impose its doctrine on others. In attacking end-of-life care that includes aid in dying, the USCCB is crossing the line and undermining religious freedom.

Stand firmly against religious intolerance and send this letter to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Join Compassion & Choices – a nonprofit organization that improves care and expands choice at the end of life – in reminding the bishops that their religious doctrine does not overrule end-of-life decisions for the rest of society.

Why People Are Signing
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The teachings of your religion do not overrule personal choice

To the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops,

I am writing out of concern for the statement that the USCCB released at your recent General Assembly in Seattle, Washington.

I stand with Compassion & Choices, which shares society’s duty to prevent a person’s deliberate act of ending life prematurely. “Aid in dying,” however, is our paramount concern because we believe end-of-life choice is an essential feature of comprehensive end-of-life care and human liberty. We support the freedom of a terminally ill individual, with no possibility of cure, yet the prospect of physical and emotional suffering, to bring that suffering to an end on their own terms, according to their own conscience and beliefs.

Allowing aid in dying is very much a compassionate act, which is why an increasing majority of Americans have come to support it and factor it into their own vision of life’s end. Whether Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, agnostic or other, individuals who choose aid in dying do so as part of a profound spiritual and rational process that may be the ultimate expression of their values and beliefs. We decry the decision of the U.S. Conference to tarnish this most personal choice with the scolding language of your statement.

And while we fully respect the Conference’s role in the religious instruction to those of the Catholic faith, we cannot accept the premise that the teachings of one religious authority should overrule the most personal decisions of individuals of every faith. The choice of how to address the suffering of a terminal illness must be the province of dying individuals themselves, in consultation with their doctors, families, clergy and conscience.

That is why I stand strongly against your statement, and in unwavering support of the compassionate inclusion of aid in dying in the continuum of end-of-life choices.

Sincerely,

[Your name]

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