016: California Legislation Regarding Right to Life
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Brian Johnston, host of the Life Matters along with Roger Marsh, host of the Bottom Line, discuss several important pieces of California legislation. One is a bill which would mandate the distribution of the drug RU486 throughout the California college system. There are many many people including many pro-lifers, who regularly confuse RU486 with other pills taken, such as the morning after pill. The morning after pill is actually designed as a contraceptive, and is regularly included in rape kits issued at police stations in order to prevent the onset of pregnancy. RU486 is a dramatically different and a very lethal drug taken only after the woman is quite pregnant, usually she has missed at least one period. RU486 literally attacks the woman's body first. This very powerful artificial steroid is a combination of several drugs it causes the mothers body to no longer be a nurturing motherly body in spite of the fact that nature has designed her to dramatically change during pregnancy to fulfill her role as a mother. The drug causes her to cease providing nutrition and hydration to the child resting in her womb. Eventually, the child within her dies and is expelled as a miscarriage which she witnesses. Only then, upon seeing the head and arms and legs, will many women realize this is not merely a vague cluster of cells or a blob of tissue. Women in France, where this was designed, numerous women have died from the effects of RU486 on their own body. Many feminist authors have spoken out against RU486 because of the fact that it essentially attacks the woman's body in order to impact the body of the child. Giving this drug to young women in their late teens, who have no real understanding of the risks involved, is a very, very dangerous proposal. A second bill has to do with the other end of life and that is a bill authorizing nursing homes to, on their own recognizance, declare patients to be incompetent. This declaration empowers the nursing home to make any medical decisions they choose. What is not understood by many is that a very common medical decision, now being made for the sick, the terminally ill, seriously ill and even the disabled or otherwise medically dependent, is to simply end the life of that patient. Voluntary euthanasia through self-starvation and volunteer euthanasia through physician assistance (i.e. physician-assisted suicide), is already illegal in many places. The doctrine of substituted judgment allows a third-part to make that decision on behalf of a vulnerable patient. Thus, voluntary euthanasia has already moved to the status of non-voluntary euthanasia and is being practiced in California.  State Senator Pan has sponsored SB 481 which protects nursing homes and other medical facilities from action when they decide to deny essential care or even intentionally cause the death of one of their patients. While this is a challenge in California in the growing battle of ideas, it is now a challenge nation and world wide.