{"id":1552,"date":"2012-11-07T21:38:00","date_gmt":"2012-11-07T21:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/news\/massachusetts-voters-reject-physician-assisted-suicide\/"},"modified":"2012-11-07T21:38:00","modified_gmt":"2012-11-07T21:38:00","slug":"boston-cardinal-lauds-rejection-of-assisted-suicide-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/11\/boston-cardinal-lauds-rejection-of-assisted-suicide-bill\/","title":{"rendered":"Boston cardinal lauds rejection of assisted suicide bill"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Boston, Mass., Nov 7, 2012 \/ 02:38 pm (CNA\/EWTN News<\/a>).- Cardinal Se\u00e1n O'Malley of Boston applauded the defeat of a Massachusetts ballot measure to legalize physician-assisted suicide, calling for more compassionate care of those who are seriously ill.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cIt is my hope and prayer that the defeat of Question 2 will help all people to understand that for our brothers and sisters confronted with terminal illness we can do better than offering them the means to end their lives,\u201d said the cardinal in a statement responding to the vote.<\/p>\n

\tHe said that the results show that \u201cthe people of the Commonwealth recognize that the common good was best served in defeating Question 2.\u201d \u00a0
\n\t\u00a0
\n\tThe so-called \u201cDeath with Dignity\u201d initiative on the Nov. 6 Massachusetts ballot would have allowed doctors to prescribe lethal drugs to terminally ill patients who were given six months or fewer to live.<\/p>\n

\tProponents of the measure conceded defeat early on Nov. 7. With 96 percent of precincts counted, the initiative was rejected by a 51-49 percent margin.<\/p>\n

\tThe ballot measure had been vocally opposed by Cardinal O'Malley, who led a Twitter campaign against it. He warned that the proposal failed to value and respect the lives of those who are severely ill.<\/p>\n

\tThe initiative was also opposed by disability rights groups, the Massachusetts Medical Association and the Boston Herald, as well as major newspapers in numerous other cities.<\/p>\n

\tCritics of the measure argued that it would devalue human life and could create a \u201cslippery slope.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tRather than extending a compassionate and helping hand to the suffering, legalizing physician-assisted suicide could pressure those who are terminally ill to end their lives, feeling that they are a burden on society, they said.<\/p>\n

\tOpponents also voiced concerns that the measure did not require family notification or the presence of a doctor. Nor did it require a psychiatric evaluation for treatable problems such as depression.<\/p>\n

\tFurthermore, critics said, the initiative would weaken palliative care efforts. They also noted that terminal diagnoses are often wrong and warned that the law could be abused by family members seeking to inherit property or money.<\/p>\n

\tCardinal O'Malley thanked all of those who worked to help share information about the problems behind the ballot measure.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cThe Campaign Against Physician Assisted Suicide brought together a diverse coalition from medical, disability rights and interfaith communities, all dedicated to ensuring that our residents were well informed about this issue,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

\tThe cardinal stressed that society must cooperate with hospice organizations and palliative care providers to improve the compassionate care offered to those who are terminally ill.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cPatients are best served when the medical professionals, families and loved ones provide support and care with dignity and respect,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\n<\/a>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Boston, Mass., Nov 7, 2012 \/ 02:38 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- Cardinal Seán O'Malley of Boston applauded the defeat of a Massachusetts ballot measure to legalize physician-assisted suicide, calling for more compassionate care of those who are seri…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1031,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-us"],"yoast_head":"\nBoston cardinal lauds rejection of assisted suicide bill<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Boston, Mass., Nov 7, 2012 \/ 02:38 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- Cardinal Seán O'Malley of Boston applauded the defeat of a Massachusetts ballot measure to legalize physician-assisted suicide, calling for more compassionate care of those who are seri...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/11\/boston-cardinal-lauds-rejection-of-assisted-suicide-bill\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Boston cardinal lauds rejection of assisted suicide bill\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Boston, Mass., Nov 7, 2012 \/ 02:38 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- Cardinal Seán O'Malley of Boston applauded the defeat of a Massachusetts ballot measure to legalize physician-assisted suicide, calling for more compassionate care of those who are seri...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/11\/boston-cardinal-lauds-rejection-of-assisted-suicide-bill\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Catholic News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-11-07T21:38:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/catholicnewsagency\/dailynews?d=yIl2AUoC8zA\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"CNA Daily News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"CNA Daily News\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/11\/boston-cardinal-lauds-rejection-of-assisted-suicide-bill\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/11\/boston-cardinal-lauds-rejection-of-assisted-suicide-bill\/\",\"name\":\"Boston cardinal lauds rejection of assisted suicide bill\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-11-07T21:38:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-11-07T21:38:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1\"},\"description\":\"Boston, Mass., Nov 7, 2012 \/ 02:38 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- Cardinal Seán O'Malley of Boston applauded the defeat of a Massachusetts ballot measure to legalize physician-assisted suicide, calling for more compassionate care of those who are seri...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/11\/boston-cardinal-lauds-rejection-of-assisted-suicide-bill\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/11\/boston-cardinal-lauds-rejection-of-assisted-suicide-bill\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/11\/boston-cardinal-lauds-rejection-of-assisted-suicide-bill\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Boston cardinal lauds rejection of assisted suicide bill\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/\",\"name\":\"Catholic News\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1\",\"name\":\"CNA Daily News\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f1180c7dca7995d4a997aac72a3a88a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f1180c7dca7995d4a997aac72a3a88a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"CNA Daily News\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/author\/cna-daily-news\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Boston cardinal lauds rejection of assisted suicide bill","description":"Boston, Mass., Nov 7, 2012 \/ 02:38 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- Cardinal Seán O'Malley of Boston applauded the defeat of a Massachusetts ballot measure to legalize physician-assisted suicide, calling for more compassionate care of those who are seri...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/11\/boston-cardinal-lauds-rejection-of-assisted-suicide-bill\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Boston cardinal lauds rejection of assisted suicide bill","og_description":"Boston, Mass., Nov 7, 2012 \/ 02:38 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- Cardinal Seán O'Malley of Boston applauded the defeat of a Massachusetts ballot measure to legalize physician-assisted suicide, calling for more compassionate care of those who are seri...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/11\/boston-cardinal-lauds-rejection-of-assisted-suicide-bill\/","og_site_name":"Catholic News","article_published_time":"2012-11-07T21:38:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/catholicnewsagency\/dailynews?d=yIl2AUoC8zA"}],"author":"CNA Daily News","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"CNA Daily News","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/11\/boston-cardinal-lauds-rejection-of-assisted-suicide-bill\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/11\/boston-cardinal-lauds-rejection-of-assisted-suicide-bill\/","name":"Boston cardinal lauds rejection of assisted suicide bill","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website"},"datePublished":"2012-11-07T21:38:00+00:00","dateModified":"2012-11-07T21:38:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1"},"description":"Boston, Mass., Nov 7, 2012 \/ 02:38 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- Cardinal Seán O'Malley of Boston applauded the defeat of a Massachusetts ballot measure to legalize physician-assisted suicide, calling for more compassionate care of those who are seri...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/11\/boston-cardinal-lauds-rejection-of-assisted-suicide-bill\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/11\/boston-cardinal-lauds-rejection-of-assisted-suicide-bill\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/11\/boston-cardinal-lauds-rejection-of-assisted-suicide-bill\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Boston cardinal lauds rejection of assisted suicide bill"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/","name":"Catholic News","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1","name":"CNA Daily News","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f1180c7dca7995d4a997aac72a3a88a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f1180c7dca7995d4a997aac72a3a88a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"CNA Daily News"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/author\/cna-daily-news\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1031"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1552\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}