NEWS & VIEWS
from a CATHOLIC perspective

      PHILADELPHIA (CWNews.com) - Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua of Philadelphia on Wednesday called on US congressmen to pass a proposed law that would ban doctor-assisted suicide.

      The cardinal said in a letter to Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pennsylvania, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, that assisted suicide is the moral equivalent of partial-birth abortion and part of the "culture of death." The proposed Lethal Drug Abuse Prevention Act would allow the Drug Enforcement Administration to revoke the drug-prescription license of any doctor who intentionally prescribes a lethal dose of drugs to help patients commit suicide.

      A similar version of the bill is pending in the US House. The laws were formulated as a response to Oregon's legalization of assisted suicide last year.