Newspaper Page Text
Suicide: "The Next
BY DENNIS J. HORAN AND EDWARD R. GRANT
Suicide is the third leading cause of death among
adolescents, and the rate of suicide, particularly among
teenagers, is increasing at an alarming rate. American at
titudes towards suicide, however, remain ambivalent.
At the same time, there is increasing clamor for accep
tance of suicide as a “rational” choice, particularly for ter
minally ill and handicapped persons. “Self-deliverance”
societies have advocated this stance by publishing manuals
with detailed “recipes” for lethal poisons. “Suicide pacts”
have been publicized, and there are organizations striving
to create social and moral acceptance for suicide and a
legal right to assist at suicide.
All of these factors are converging to shape public policy
and attitudes in the United States and to challenge the tradi
tional attitude of opposition to suicide. That attitude is cur
rently reflected in laws which make assisting at suicide a
crime in most states in America as well as in most coun
tries of the world.
Suicide has been decriminalized in most jurisdictions
because it is recognized that victims of failed suicide at
tempts do not deserve punishment, but rather, need
assistance. However, prohibition against assisting suicide
still exists in most states. It is these laws which are likely to
come under attack by advocates of “rational” suicide.
If a right to suicide or to assist at suicide were found in
the Constitution or created by legislatures, individuals and
groups would interfere with a potential suicide only at their
own peril — having first reconciled themselves to a poten
tial suit by the would-be suicide for a breach of his or her
civil rights.
By creating a constitutional right to suicide, the help
potential suicides need so badly would be effectively
prevented. There would be no legal way to help the
thousands of would-be suicides by first interfering with
their suicide attempt and then assisting them to solve their
problems.
Those who support the right to suicide and the right to
assist at suicide generally emphasize two basic themes.
Pro-Life Frontier"
First, they maintain that life itself is not an absolute good,
but only one among a series of goods from which all human
beings make choices.
The second argument is that society has no right to pro
hibit suicide because it is a matter which solely concerns
the person choosing to take his or her own life.
Between 1969 and 1979, deaths from suicide in the United
States increased approximately 22 percent. Most of the in
crease was attributable to a drastic rise in the suicide rate
for those aged 15 to 24. Suicides in this age group increased
74 percent among males and 33 percent among females. In
1981 alone, 5,600 young men and women under age 25 took
their own lives.
One researcher has identified three conditions present in
virtually every suicide: abnormal self-hatred, a negative
mental attitude, and a narrow construction of the mind
which allows the person to see only the unbearable difficul
ty, and only one means of escape.
Those who enjoy sound mental health can debate the
merits of the suicide ethic in a detached fashion. But those
afflicted by numbing self-hatred and despair may grasp on
to the suicide ethic as the encouragement they need to
resolve their pain through self-destruction.
Much as the proponents of abortion did 20 years ago, pro
ponents of suicide are attempting to lead the legal system
away from a position of respect for the intrinsic value of all
human life. In 1973 we were told by the Supreme Court that
the life of the unborn was not “meaningful” because it
could not exist without the mother’s support. In the 1980s,
we increasingly hear that the lives of the handicapped, the
terminally ill, the victims of Alzheimer’s disease and the
chronically depressed are not meaningful because they are
dependent on others for basic means of support. In a society
which glories in individual material achievement, such an
ethic has a way of creeping into the public consciousness
so that its presence is not detected until it has been suc
cessful in altering public policy.
(This article is excerpted from “Suicide: The Next Pro-
Life Frontier,” by Dennis J. Horan and Edward R. Grant in
Respect Life. Washington, D.C.: National Conference of
Catholic Bishops, 1985. Dennis Horan is president of
PAGE 5 — The Southern Cross, October 3, 1985
LIFE’S INTRINSIC VALUE — Unlike ter
minally ill patients who choose to spend their
last days at home or in a hospice, suicide vic
tims are not open to the possibility for good that
life may afford. As proponents of abortion did
20 years ago, proponents of “rational” suicide
today are attempting to lead the legal system
away from a position of respect for the intrinsic
value of all human life.
Americans United For Life Legal Defense Fund, Chicago.
Edward Grant is Executive Director and General Counsel
of Americans United for Life Legal Defense Fund.)
Financier, Banker Critical Of Letter On U.S. Economy
BY MIKE BROWN
SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. (NC) - More
private industry and less government is
the best way to beat poverty, Robert Bren
nan, president of First Jersey Securities,
said at a Sept. 23 public hearing on the U.S.
bishops’ proposed pastoral letter on the
economy.
BY ETHEL O. BAHM
“Trick Or Treat’ng -
The UNICEF Way”
When UNICEF (United Nations
Children’s Fund) was first established in
1946, its main aim to assist in relocating
European children from homes devastated
by the war.
Its role has changed tremendously over
the years. UNICEF currently is involved
in a global effort to immunize all the
children of the world by the year 1990. It
has pushed hard in recent years for health
care, water programs, sanitation efforts,
nutritional care of infants, and education
for the world’s children in strange- soun
ding foreign lands.
This year, as always, UNICEF will
benefit from programs organized by
NCCW affiliates throughout our diocese,
as children sponsored by local affiliates
play TRICK or TREAT for UNICEF on
Halloween night. There’ll be haunted
houses, spooky garbed figures such as wit
ches and little devils making the tradi
tional rounds of their neighborhood, little
UNICEF donation box in hand, asking for
donations to assist the poor children of our
world.
These young people will be learning to
show concern for their fellow generations
in the world, be it Africa or Nigeria or
Brennan, one of four panelists at a sym
posium at Seton Hall University in South
Orange, said, “I don’t think we’re going to
help America’s poor by making America
poor. That isn’t the answer.”
He said many government programs
have “failed miserably” because they pro
vide people with money without incentive
to work.
some South American country. As many
as 40,000 children die each day in Third
World countries. UNICEF programs are
doing much to alleviate this situation.
Child malnutrition is prevalent in many of
these countries, and oral rehydration
(administering of a simple solution of
sugar, salt and water) is doing much to
treat dehydration caused by diarrhea.
Breast feeding is encouraged in these
countries giving the babies a natural im
munological protection against diseases to
which many of them fall prey. Through
UNICEF, many youngsters in these
undeveloped countries are being immuniz
ed against dread diseases, such as
measles, diphtheria, tetanus, whooping
cough, polio, and tuberculosis, diseases
which we in the United States have been
fortunate to have contained in our lifetime.
So, when that little costumed ghost,
witch or angel comes to your door on
Halloween night, canvassing for UNICEF,
please remember the world’s poor infants
and young children who will benefit by
your contributions. Support UNICEF thru
TRICK or TREATING...and also enjoy the
companionship of our young UNICEF
“salesmen” as they offer you the phrase
“Trick or Treat for UNICEF”.
(Ethel is chairman of the International
Affairs Commission for the Savannah
Diocesan Council of Catholic Women.)
He was joined in heated debate by
Robert Ferguson, president and first ex
ecutive officer of the First National State
Bank; Hazel Henderson, author,
economist and director of the Alternate
Futures Program at the University of
Florida; and Jesuit Father John Haughey,
a senior fellow at the Woodstock
Theological Center at Georgetown Univer
sity and visiting professor at Seton Hall.
Ms. Henderson said economists confuse
the problem when talking about in
terference between government and
private industry. She stressed that it has
only been through government coopera
tion with private industry that the U.S.
economy has grown. She cited the school
and highway systems financed by the
government for use by those involved in
private industry.
She said economists have
“overemphasized the rhetoric of competi
tion” at the cost of cooperation. Coopera
tion permeates the economic system,
especially in banking, she said. To deposit
money into institutions which are financ
ing bad loans to poor countries requires “a
tremendous amount of trust,” she said.
Ms. Henderson called the first draft of
the bishops’ letter “extremely useful” and
said it raised “some very fundamental
issues” facing society.
Ferguson said he was “incensed and in
sulted” by the pastoral and “that this
group of people is insensitive enough to say
October 13 is Council of Catholic Women
Sunday throughout the Diocese of Savan
nah. Each affiliate will choose its own
manner of honoring its members and its
organization.
Some will serve as Readers, Song
Leaders, and Ushers at a Special Mass;
there is something wrong with our system.
How can they do that to the people in this
country?”
Father Haughey said the bishops were
not advocating socialism but said that they
would have to be “quite naive” to believe
the private sector would take care of the
needs of the poor.
“We’re not talking about white hats and
black hats, we’re talking here about the
system trying to perfect itself.”
He said there had been “a hell of a lot
blood spilled” for the U.S. economy to
have grown to where it is today. The
pastoral letter does not attack capitalism
but encourages it “so that which is basical
ly healthy, and our country is basically
healthy, can come to more health.”
But Brennan encouraged the bishops to
move away from government involve
ment. “Let’s get away from the whole
idea. I don’t care whether you call it Marx
ism or socialism. It stinks.”
Both Brennan and Ferguson called Ms.
Henderson’s theory “mumbo-jumbo” and
criticized the bishops’ idea of
redistributive justice as a means of lifting
the poor from their poverty.
“Who’s going to say when you have too
much money and have to redistribute it?
The poor? The bishops?” Ferguson asked.
Brennan said that if all money was even
ly divided among rich and poor, “you know
what’s going to happen in 10 years? The
wealth will end up in the same hands it
started out in.”
some will have their officers installed on
that date; some will offer brochures to all
parishioners to inform them about the
work of CCW; some will have special teas
or dinners. Take this' opportunity to
discover The Council of Catholic Women in
your parish.
October 13 D.C.C.W. Sunday