“America was not founded on a single, homogeneous moral view. We have competing moral views.”
Democratic Rep. Gerry Connolly of Virginia made those words Monday before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, defending what he sees as the right to kill oneself — and to do so in partnership with a licensed physician working with the state’s imprimatur.
The District of Columbia City Council passed the contested law in December. It authorizes doctors to prescribe what it politely calls a “covered drug,” specifically “for the purpose of ending a person’s life.”
To put it simply, it is poisoning.
The law also states that before a person is approved for a state-sanctioned poisoning, two doctors must first judge that the candidate has a disease that will likely kill him within six months. An approved candidate must take the poison himself — and cannot do so “in a public place.”
The council is clearly very sensitive to what should not be happening on the city streets.
By law, pharmacists are permitted to sell an approved toxic “agent,” a drug that the pharmacist knows has been prescribed by a doctor “for the purpose of ending a human life.”
Finally, the law states that an attending physician has the right to sign a patient’s death certificate, but “the cause of death listed on the death certificate must specify the qualifying patient’s underlying medical condition … without reference to the fact that the qualifying patient took a covered drug.”
In other words, the law authorizes doctors and pharmacists to collaborate in the intentional termination of a person’s life while at the same time requiring the doctor issuing the authorization to intentionally omit the cause of the person’s death from the legal document.
If a man, upon discovering he had terminal cancer, shot himself in the head, the cause of death would not be cancer. It would be a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
If a doctor handed him a gun and said, “You can legally shoot yourself, and here’s a pharmacy where you can buy a bullet,” the cause of death would still be the gunshot wound. But it wouldn’t be simply self-inflicted; it would be due to the aid of the doctor and the pharmacy.
But let’s not call it “suicide,” “killing,” or “homicide,” because those words also fly in the face of D.C. law. It says, “Actions taken under this statute do not constitute suicide, assisted suicide, mercy killing, or manslaughter.”
Under Article I, Section Eight, Clause 17 of the Constitution, which gives Congress the power to “exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases and Cases whatsoever” over the capital, the Republican Congress can nullify that power. Under the D.C. Home Rule Act, it has until Friday to do so.
Republican Rep. Brad Wenstrup of Ohio, a doctor, introduced the necessary resolution. In speeches on the House floor last week, he and five others explained why the law is bad. Wenstrup noted that “it directs doctors not to include the actual cause and manner of death on the death certificate” and that “once a prescription for a lethal drug is filled, there is no oversight,” among other things.
Republican Rep. Jody Hice of Georgia noted that the law applies to “people residing in D.C.,” which includes members of Congress when the House is in session.
When the committee took up the reversal resolution Monday, Republican Rep. Steve Russell of Oklahoma spoke passionately in favor of it.
“America, wake up,” he said.
“We cannot allow the legalization of a system of expanding murder-suicide pacts,” he said.
When Connolly’s turn came, he criticised Russell for attempting to impose his moral view on jurisdictions that did not share it.
“Maybe your religious orientation says this is wrong,” Connolly said. “You’re not here as a preacher. You’re not here to share or impose your moral views on others. You’re here as a legislator. And understanding that we live in a diverse country with competing moral perspectives, we have to respect the perspective of the District of Columbia and its elected representatives — whether you agree with it or not.”
It is certainly true, as Connolly says, that there are “competing moral points of view.” But there are no competing moralities. There is only one.
Death culture politicians like Connolly may not like this morality, but they cannot escape it.
One of the Ten Commandments states, “Thou shalt not kill.” The Declaration of Independence states that God gives all men the inalienable right to life.
They are right. Connolly is wrong. DC’s death by prescription poison law is an unjust law.
If Republican leaders in the House and Senate want to do the right thing, they will hold roll call votes to reverse the decision before the deadline on Friday.
