Ecumenical Euthanasia: Galluping to Death

From the pages of Life Matters! . . .

"Reporting a number that will surprise some," Editor & Publisher informs us, "the Gallup Organizations today said its latest poll found that 75% of Americans support euthanasia—allowing a doctor to take the life of a patient who is suffering from an incurable disease and wants to die. This, Gallup noted, was up 6% since 2004."

While the anti-life media casts the fight against euthanasia as a cause of "rightwing fundamentalists" in the divide-and-conquer strategy described in my latest op-ed for Spero News, faith-based opponents often play into their hands by stereotyping euthanasia supporters as "leftwing secular humanists." Yet Gallup reports that "even evangelical Christians said they backed euthanasia, at 61%, as did 71% of rural residents."

Weekly churchgoers also support the concept (51%). So do self-described conservatives (63%), though that trails liberals (82%).

The wording of poll questions is crucial, but one would have to swallow camels while straining at gnats to find much solace in Gallup's query:

When a person has a disease that cannot be cured, do you think doctors should be allowed by law to end the patient's life by some painless means if the patient and his family request it?

Even more disturbing is the conclusion of Editor & Publisher's account:

In another interesting finding, 59% of the overall sample said they would consider ending their own life, if in severe pain, by some painless means.

The man who is prepared to murder himself—under the "appropriate" circumstances—will be quite willing to sanction ending the lives of others, whose condition is worse than his own, especially when it is rationalized by secularists and religious alike in the practice CURE calls "ecumenical euthanasia."

Supplemental Reading:

• For a more detailed breakdown of the survey results, see David Moore, "Three in Four Americans Support Euthanasia," Gallup News Service, May 17, 2005.