How Los Angeles Archdiocese is using novena, prayer to protest new right-to-die law

DUARTE >> When Sister Maria Goretti wheeled 91-year-old Martha Redding into the chapel on Wednesday, a big smile spread across her face.

Since she’s worked at Santau2009Teresita, an assisted living facility and nursing home in Duarte, she said she had never seen Redding leave her room to attend Mass.

But today, something was different.

The service, led by Bishop David O’Coell of the Archdiocese of Losu2009Angeles, marked the start of a novena, nine days of prayer and fasting for the elderly, disabled and those nearing the end of life. Patients in wheelchairs lined the walls of the chapel while others took their seats in the pews alongside family members and caretakers.

The bishop’s message was simple: A new Califoia law legalizing physician-assisted suicide evidenced a “moral failure” in society.

“This is a very sad time in the history of our state, and in the history of our country,” he said. “It shows the smallness of the human spirit; that we would rather prescribe a pack of pills than accept the challenge of helping those ailing in need all around us.”

Under the law, signed by Gov.u2009Jerry Brown in October, a patient who has been diagnosed as terminally ill, and given a prognosis of six months or less to live, can request a prescription of life-ending medication.

The End of Life Option Act, Senate Billu2009128, will take effect on Juneu20099 — the final day of the novena.

Following the afteoon service, Bishop O’Coell visited with several patients who were too ill to leave their rooms for the service and he said prayers for each of them.

Among them was Eleanor Wilber, a Southe Califoia native who had just tued 101u2009years old, and Fine Change, a 94-year-old Chinese immigrant who came to the states when he was a young boy.

Katherine Domingo, associate director of the Archdiocese’s Office of Life, Justice and Peace, which advocates for various social issues, spoke on Wednesday about how the law marks a dividing line in how the most vulnerable individuals in our society are cared for, including the poor, elderly and disabled.

“To whom will these people tu if they are diagnosed with a terminal illness? It will always be easier and cheaper to seek a quick end than it will be to seek medical care,” Domingo said.

The debate over a patient’s “right to die with dignity” was ignited with the story of Orangeu2009County native Brittany Maynard, who was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer in late 2013. Shortly after, she moved to Oregon to take advantage of the laws there that allowed her to get lethal medication. She was 29u2009years old. Before she died in 2014, she recorded a video that was shown during the legislative hearings on the bill.

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Domingo said she fears there are loopholes in the new state law that could lead to its abuse.

But there are some safeguards laid out in the bill.

Before prescribing drugs, the law requires two doctors to agree that a patient has six months or less to live. Patients must be able to swallow the medication themselves and must affirm in writing, 48u2009hours before taking the medication, that they will do so.

In January, the Califoia Medical Association also released guidelines for physicians on writing prescriptions of lethal doses of drugs for terminally ill patients.

The 15-page guide spells out the legal and medical path that doctors must take before they can authorize medication to hasten a patient’s death, and helps physicians understand their legal rights to participate or not participate based on their own religious or moral values.

While the law does not dictate what cause of death should be identified on the death certificate, it does say taking an aid-in-dying drug “shall not constitute suicide.”

Still, Domingo said, Catholic hospitals and medical care facilities in Califoia have already pledged not to participate in the new law, even if a patient requests the “End of Life Option.”

“The doctors will not prescribe it, they will not recommend it and they will not participate in any way,” she said.