Last month we predicted that voters in Oregon would decide against the repeal of their assisted-suicide law. We were right. By a huge margin of 60 to 40 percent, Oregonians secured their status as the only state that allows doctors to kill their patients. Chances are there will not be a net increase in migration to the state, though Dr. Kevorkian must surely be weighing a move.
As we previously noted, the pro-death forces also tend towards bigotry. The fight to maintain the doctor-assisted suicide law was strewn with anti-Catholicism, so much so that Auxiliary Bishop Kenneth Steiner of the Archdiocese of Portland said, “It’s popular to bash Catholics.” He added, “If they did it with any other minority, they wouldn’t get away with it.” Trish Conrad, campaign manager for the pro-life side, agreed: “To single out the Catholic Church from the hundreds of endorsements we’ve received is blatant bigotry.”
To demonstrate the anti-Catholic nature of the campaign, just consider the name of one of the organizations that opposed the position of the Catholic Church. It’s called, Don’t Let Them Shove Their Religion Down Your Throat Committee.
In the 1920s, Oregon was famous for the anti-Catholicism of the Klan. In the 1990s, it’s famous for the anti-Catholicism of the elite. So some things do change, after all.
