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Herald Staff Writer |
Registered nurse Michele Bennett, a parishioner of St. Timothy Church in Chantilly, faced a very difficult dilemma at the end of last summer.
At the time, Bennett was working as a telephone triage advice nurse for health care insurer Kaiser Permanente.
Not only did she receive calls from many women asking the how and when of the so-called "morning -after-pill," an abortifacient, she also had directives from her employer to provide complete information about this and other methods of birth control currently advocated and prescribed by Kaiser.
As a Catholic, Bennett learned the hard way the aspects of a culture that, she said, are permeating nursing here and elsewhere.
She knew that other Catholic nurses knew about these practices, yet to this day remain complacent in a company that, she said, also provides extraordinary employee benefits.
But this was a very personal matter for Bennett. It was a matter of conflict between here professional duties and her faith beliefs.
In the end, Bennett believes the won the internal battle over duties September 1. That day, not before giving her reason in writing to her supervisors, Bennett quit her job altogether. And she's glad that she did.
Abortion and euthanasia are rapidly permeating a new health care culture where preserving life at all costs is no longer the prime motive for many health care providers.
According to Father Mark Moretti, parochial vicar at St. Rita Church in Alexandria, what those in the midst of having an abortion and the terminally ill are doing is "crying out for love and care from their doctors, nurses and family."
Father Moretti led a November 6 workshop session on euthanasia and how to resolve ethical dilemmas in the Judeo-Christian tradition. The Virginia chapter of the National Association of Pro-Life Nurses (NAPN), a 365-member organization headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, organized the event at St. Bernadette Church in Springfield.
NAPN literature states that the organization "recognizes the dilemmas posed by abortion and euthanasia but never departs from the faithful adherence to a code of ethical standards governing our role in caring for patients' lives." NAPN seeks to secure protection of the rights of nurses who, like Bennett, refuse to participate in certain medical procedures.
Attendants at NAPN's chapter event included Bennett, Judith Schiminsky, a legislative liaison for the association, and national vice president Bernadette Powers, among others.
"There is one thing called total elimination of pain," said Father Moretti, "and another thing called management of pain."
Powers said, "we've seen some pretty gross abuses in this state such as discontinuing treatment by stopping the administration of food and drink to terminally ill patients."
Schiminsky, a pro-life nurse, said that although the formal definition of euthanasia is "good death," "in reality, (many of these patients) die of starvation," she said. "Euthanasia is taking another's life for the sake of monetary gains and convenience" on the part of family members empowered by law to make decisions on behalf of the terminally ill."
Copyright ©1999 Arlington Catholic Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.
This article was published in the Arlington
Catholic Herald,
200 N. Glebe Rd., Suite 607, Arlington, VA 22203; Vol 24, No 45,
page 10, dated November 11, 1999.
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E-mail:
letters@catholicherald.com
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Circulation: 703/841-2565
A note from the Web Master:
It is noteworthy and honorable that some folks are willing to stand up for a ban on Partial-Birth Abortion. Let us not forget that ordinary everyday run of the mill abortion is also murder. We must understand that aborting the life of a baby is murder no matter the method. Because one method of abortion seems to be horrible does not make the other methods less so. We should be horrified and sickened by any abortion regardless of the method. The Fifth Commandment spells it out clearly:
"Thou shalt not kill."
A fetus is a person, a human being with a God given soul.
Imagine the pain the Lord must feel when any abortion occurs. Please
contact both of your Senators and Representative, via letter or phone,
to let them know how horrified you are that abortions are legal and to
stop, once and for all, Partial-Birth abortions and all other abortions
as soon as possible.
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