Will for Life – Doing Double
 
        Euthanasia and the death penalty can be connected by taking it personally. Legal documents can assert we don’t want to be killed through medicine or medical neglect, nor have anyone be executed in the event we are killed by criminal homicide.
        The National Right to Life Committee has put in the great amount of homework needed to have “Will to Live” documents for the United States that take into account the differing state-by-state laws. They have information on why to take this approach, and downloadable documents. People from other countries should also find this useful in crafting their own documents, taking care for what revisions might be needed for the laws of their own country.
        Sister Camille D’Arienzo developed a standardized “Declaration of Life” which asserts opposition to the death penalty and says “I hereby declare that should I die as a result of a violent crime, I request that the person or persons found guilty of homicide for my killing not be subject to or put in jeopardy of the death penalty under any circumstances, no matter how heinous their crime or how much I may have suffered.” She is collecting the names of those who’ve signed the document so that numbers can have impact.
 

 

 
       The Will to Live has actual legal status, whereas the Declaration for Life is only something that may influence court proceedings if the officials choose to pay attention to it – but this does happen.
       We would naturally encourage our participants to download and sign both documents, get them notarized at the same time, and keep them together as a connected wills for life. This might also make a good set of documents to make available at houses of worship and other gatherings of groups who like to take action, with a notary handy.
 

 
A Tad Bit of Mislabeling
 
        Last week’s mention of our colorful cards, effective for leafleting or tabling, mislabeled Joseph Cardinal Bernardin – a major oversight, considering how crucial he was to popularizing the seamless garment concept. We also inadvertently left out the card on Abby Johnson, former Planned Parenthood director turned pro-life who has made some excellent anti-death penalty statements.
         Again, we encourage people to order cards or suggest other people who would make good cards by writing to card@consisent-life.org
   

 
Quotation of the Week
Robert Casey, then Democrat Governor of Pennsylvania
"A pro-life governor takes pride in his pro-child achievements"
Philadelphia Inquirer, January 28, 1993
 

        Considering all we have accomplished, it comes as no surprise that Dr. Brazelton calls our health care programs for poor women and children "a model for the rest of the country."
        Clearly, then, charges that I have neglected poor children fly in the face of reality. So why are they made? . . . The column I mentioned tips its hand by concluding with a gratuitous swipe at me for being "anti-choice," a man who "opens his heart to the unborn and turns his back on the living."
        Once again, pro-abortion prejudice has turned a blind eye to the record and fabricated an anti-abortion straw man . . . I have always believed that the right to life means the right to a decent life – for both mother and child