Joint CRLC/CRG Statement on “Life Issues”

COLORADO RIGHT TO LIFE COMMITTEE/
CITIZENS FOR RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT
STATEMENT OF POSITION ON THE "LIFE ISSUES" 

The Pro-Life movement in Colorado endorses the founding principles of America:

1. "All men are created equal" and "endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights," the first of which is the right to Life.
2. The purpose of government is to secure these rights for all its citizens.

We support those efforts in society and government that recognize and reaffirm the sanctity of all human life from fertilization to natural death. We oppose those efforts that diminish the dignity and violate the right to life of any human being based on age, race, religion, creed, color, "quality," or condition of dependency, whether born or unborn. For this reason, we oppose the legalization of abortion.

For this reason also, we oppose the recent trend to condone, and even to make legal, other actions that violate the sanctity of human life, such as:

1. medical decision-making for patients by persons who are not of the immediate family, who may not have the patient's best interests in mind, or who are not chosen by the patient himself
2. suicide and assisted suicide (also called "aid in dying")
3. the killing of patients, including causing their death by means not related to their medical condition
4. the killing of individuals whose lives are judged to be burdensome to themselves or others, or in some other way not worth living
5. the granting of immunity to those physicians who participate in such killing

In order to conceal their goals and gain public acceptance, the proponents of such measurers often employ misleading language, such as the expression "right to die," which many people understand to mean simply the right to refuse burdensome medical treatment. We urge the public and the media to be wary of such language and to insist that those who employ it explain their goals precisely.

We reject the representation of us by our opponents — and occasionally by the media — as "vitalists" who would require that all methods of medical technology be used to prevent or retard the natural death of persons in a terminal condition. We acknowledge the fact that death is the natural end for all living beings, and we recognize the right of persons to refuse useless, burdensome treatment and to die a natural death.

April 5, 1991