Two bills are being discussed in Maine that would legalize assisted suicide in that state.

No one who has experienced the devastation caused by suicide would support assisted suicide. Seeing a person about to jump off a bridge, few (if any of us) would go up and push him off. Yet that is just what assisted suicide does under the misleading euphemism of “death with dignity.”

Countries such as Belgium, which have legalized assisted suicide and euthanasia, are finding that the entire social fabrics of their nations are unraveling as a result. If you do not believe me, then please watch the movie “The Euthanasia Deception.” This documentary is filled with personal accounts of the terrible tragedy of assisted suicide.

Do not be deceived into thinking that killing a person who is elderly, disabled or in pain is compassionate. Compassion means suffering with and helping persons realize that their dignity depends on who they are as unique, precious, irreplaceable persons created in God’s image.

Suffering offered in love is redemptive. Just at the time when a person is no longer able to accomplish tasks that once were easy, that person may through love and suffering be able to accomplish the most beautiful witness of their entire lives. Please do not – under the guise of a false compassion – deprive people of the true dignity of dying a natural death.

Sister Mary Rose Reddy

Rochester, N.H.