c. 1998 Religion News Service

Top Catholic official urges Congress to act on assisted suicide issue

(RNS) A top U.S. Catholic Church official is urging Congress to support proposed legislation to bar the use of federally regulated drugs to aid terminally ill patients from commiting suicide.

The Rev. Dennis Schnurr, general secretary of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops and the U.S. Catholic Conference, the bishops’ social policy arm, said in a letter to members of Congress that the legislation is needed”if the federal government is not to be drawn into supporting the killing of vulnerable patients.” The proposed legislation, sponsored in the House by Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., and in the Senate by Sen. Don Nickles, R-Okla., was introduced in response to a June ruling by Attorney General Janet Reno that said doctors could prescribe or give lethal doses of drugs to patients without losing their licenses.

Under Oregon’s assisted suicide law _ the only such law in the nation _ terminally ill patients may ask their doctors to prescribe them a lethal dose of drugs.

The proposed legislation would bar the use of any federally regulated drug for such purposes.

In his letter to Congress, Schnurr gave members a legal analysis arguing that the proposed legislation is consistent with the history and purpose of the federal Controlled Substances Act, the nation’s main drug use law, and that it is also consistent with longstanding principles of federalism, or the relationship between the federal and state governments.”Some medical groups have reacted negatively to this legislation, distrusting any new federal law regulating health professionals _ especially legislation perceived as confirming the authority of the Drug Enforcement Administration to prevent wrongdoing by those professionals,”Schnurr said.

But, he said, medical experts”who have looked beyond this prejudice have found the actual provisions of this bill to be reasonable and helpful.”

Baptist ethicists urge probe of attack on Sudan drug plant

(RNS) A group of Baptist ethicists and church leaders has called for an investigation of the U.S. missile attack on a pharmaceutical plant in Sudan to determine if the Sudanese facility was actually being used to make chemical weapons for terrorists.

The plant was destroyed Aug. 20 as part of the U.S. response to the terrorist attack on U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

U.S. officials defended the attack on the Sudanese drug plant on the basis of a soil sample secretly collected from outside the facility that suggested the factory was used to manufacture the deadly nerve gas VX.

But the Baptist group, in an open letter to President Clinton, said it appeared American military officials may have erred in selecting the plant for destruction.

They noted that some officials have conceded the facility produced human and veterinary medicines for the Sudanese people even as they insisted it was a legitimate target.”We, Baptist ethicists and congregational leaders, urge you to encourage inspection by international scientists, preferably chosen by the United Nations, to verify whether the plant was in fact producing a chemical or chemicals that can be used only to produce poison VX gas,”the letter said.”The credibility of United States’ actions to combat and prevent terrorism depends on it,”it read.

The Baptist letter also said that should it be verified that the wrong target was destroyed,”we urge you to give a sincere apology to the people of Sudan, and to follow that apology with a sincere effort to assist in reconstruction.” The letter said that because it has already been verified that the factory was producing medicines”essential to the health of the people of Sudan … many of us believe there is already cause to apologize and to help rebuild, even if evidence verifies production of a `precursor’ component of VX gas.” The letter was initiated by Robert Parhan of the Baptist Center for Ethics in Nashville, Tenn. It was signed by Glen Stassen, Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, Calif.; Rob Anderson, Montreat College, Montreat, N.C.; Rick Axtell, Centre College, Danville, Ky.; Jim Ball, Union of Concerned Scientists, Washington, D.C.; Kent Blevins, Gardner-Webb University, Boiling Springs, N.C.; Daniel Buttry, Gavel Memorial Peace Fund, Warren, Mich.; Curtis Freeman, Houston Baptist University, Houston; Stan Grenz, Carey Theological College, Vancouver, B.C.; Ray Higgins, Second Baptist Church, Little Rock, Ark.

Adventists launch sunset calculator on the Internet

(RNS) The Seventh-day Adventist Church has launched a new Web page that allows people to calculate precise sunrise and sunset times for any place in the world for any date.”The `Sunset Calculator’ provides an easy user interface for anyone to access sunrise and sunset times for any given day and for any given spot on the globe,”said Jonathan Gallagher, Webmaster and news director at the denomination’s world headquarters in Silver Spring, Md.”This calculator will be helpful not only to Adventists, but also to many others for whom knowledge of daylight time is important, and we are delighted to provide this as a service on the Web.” Gallagher noted that Adventists observe the seventh-day Sabbath from sunset Friday to sunset Saturday, so knowing precise sunset times is significant.”Of course, we do not go down to the last minute in a legalistic way, because keeping Sabbath special is a matter of enjoying this wonder gift of God to us, a sanctuary in time,”he said.

He said the calculator should be helpful to people from other faiths that observe the seventh-day Sabbath, such as Jews, as well those who simply want to know hours of daylight on any given day, such as filmmakers, vacationers and the just plain curious.

The site can be accessed at: http://news.adventist.org/sun.

Quote of the day: Singer Stevie Wonder

(RNS)”In all times, wherever I go, I’m always aware of where the blessings come from and that is why I am here tonight.” _ Singer-songwriter Stevie Wonder, in an appearance at a musical gala Sept. 9 during a meeting of the National Baptist Convention, USA, the nation’s largest historically black denomination.

DEA END RNS