Fighting Euthanasia in the Bible Belt

Alliance Defending Freedom has filed a friend-of-the-court brief in a Tennessee court on behalf of six pro-life organizations that oppose the legalization of doctor-prescribed death within the state. “Suffering patients need understanding and sound medical treatment, not encouragement to kill themselves. The government has an obligation to protect life, not assist in promoting death,” said ADF Litigation Counsel Catherine Glenn Foster. “A person can claim they should be allowed to do anything they want, but that does not override the government’s responsibility to protect the weak and vulnerable. We are encouraging the court to uphold this principle, which is completely consistent with Tennessee’s public policy.” “The overwhelming majority of states – and the U.S. Supreme Court – reject a fundamental right to die or to physician-assisted suicide,” explains the brief filed in Hooker v. Slatery. “Tennessee, too, has banned physician-assisted suicide to assert its compelling interests in preserving life, protecting the vulnerable, and upholding the integrity of the medical profession.” “Tennessee, likewise, has an interest in affirming the medical profession as a healing profession with the duty to ‘do no harm,'” the brief continues. “Prescribing fatal medication with the express intent to kill flies in the face of that duty. The integrity of the profession depends on its ability to utilize the best practices, with the best information, to promote patient well-being.” “People who are ill often suffer from depression and are in need of compassion and help, not a prescription for death,” said ADF Senior Counsel Kevin Theriot. “This lawsuit seeks to turn the humanitarian nature of the medical profession on its head.” ADF filed the brief on behalf of the Bioethics Defense Fund; the Catholic Medical Association, Nashville Guild; the Christian Medical and Dental Associations; Concerned Women for America; Family Action Counsel of Tennessee; and Tennessee Right to Life.