WASHINGTON, D.C.—National Right to Life has praised President Trump and his administration for the Civil Rights Bulletin issued by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) which provides guidance on ensuring equal protection to patients during the COVID-19 pandemic.

FEMA’s guidelines follow those released by the Office of Civil Rights in response to news reports of proposed rationing guidelines.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency issued the guidelines to “state, local, tribal, and territorial partners” stating that entities should:

Make medical treatment decisions, including denials of care under Crisis Standards of Care and allocation of ventilators, after an individualized consideration of each person, free from stereotypes and biases, including generalizations and judgments about the individual’s quality of life or relative value to society, based on the individual’s disability, age, race, income level, or any protected basis. This individualized consideration should be based on current objective medical evidence and the expressed views of the patients themselves as opposed to unfounded assumptions.

III. Respect for life in exercising the right to choose medical treatments

American law and medical ethics by and large recognize a right of patients to choose their own treatments. But no right, no ethical principle, is unlimited. We do not make up ethical principles for ourselves; we search for principles that are consistent with the inherent dignity that we share as human persons. How could we claim the equal protection of the laws if we did not each possess an inherent human dignity, a dignity that clothes us with certain unalienable rights that must be honored by the government and other people? One of those rights is the fundamental right to life. To claim equal protection, we must begin by respecting every human life, including our own.

Unfortunately, an attitude is growing in our society to judge certain classes of people to be unworthy of life. Some medical professionals attempt to persuade people to forgo treatment if their “quality of life” is perceived as defective. These professionals appear to envision quality of life in terms of ability to enjoy life, which in turn is cast in terms of pleasing sensations, like a beautiful sunset or a day at the beach. If a patient is perceived as being unconscious or in serious discomfort when there is not much chance of a cure, then under this theory, a sufficient quality of life may be lacking.

Some other medical professionals increasingly call treatment in such circumstances “futile,” and they deem “futile” treatments to be wrong. Proponents of “futility” are slipping away from respecting patients’ choices; rather, they would increasingly impose their views of a good life on patients, denying care even when patients desire it.

It is the rise of these attitudes that suggests people may want to use advance directives as a tool in defending their own lives and human dignity.

Link - The National Center for Health Statistics has published an alarming report about the increasing suicide rate — which has been increasing at 2 percent per year since 2006.

June 26-27 - Virginia - Join us in Herndon, VA for the 50th annual National Right to Life Convention. Register today at nrlconvention.com

July 11 - Jefferson City - Pregnancy Help Center 5K Walk/Run, 8:30 am in Memorial Park.

September 12 - Jefferson City - Missouri Right to Life Statewide Leadership Meeting. Details coming soon. 

MRL Eastern Region has copies of Abby Johnson’s presentation at the 43rd Annual Respect Life Convention, October 13, in St. Louis. They also have copies of the movies Gosnell and Unplanned. If anyone would like to arrange a showing in their chapter or church group, please contact [email protected].