By Elizabeth Tomlinson
Christ the King Parish, Missoula

When Garfield County Attorney Nicholas Murnion stood firm against the militia group “Freemen” for a year without federal support, it was his Catholic faith that kept him going. “They were their own rule of law. Death was their solution. I really relied on my faith during that time.”

In 1998 he was honored with the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award. He had “... rallied the people of the community ... taking strength from their resolve.”

A descendant of an Irish immigrant ancestor, who came to Garfield County in 1912, Murnion says that difficult time led him to seriously study the teachings of the Catholic Church. He would be called upon again to stand against interests that oppose what the majority of Montanans value.

Last December, First Judicial Court Judge Dorothy McCarter yielded to pressure to legalize euthanasia, despite the rejection of it by the legislators who represent Montana citizens. When the Attorney General appealed the decision to the Montana Supreme Court, Nick Murnion signed on as the supporting attorney for the Friend of the Court brief submitted by the International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide (ITF). The case will be heard later this year.

As a prosecutor, Nick Murnion looks at what kinds of defenses people use. The defense that the “Final Exit Network” (originally “The Hemlock Society”) and their lobbying arm “Compassion and Choices” use in their defense of the belief that death should be available by individual decision, is that it’s necessary to alleviate suffering. “This is rife with potential ways to get away with murder,” Murnion says.

The “Center for Disability Rights Inc.” formed the coalition “Not Dead Yet” to oppose a legalization of assisted suicide and euthanasia. They argue that legalization would make it open season on people with disabilities and anyone else who is considered undesirable, or a burden on society.

Those who are too poor to pay for their own pain medications and other treatments are victimized by the supposed freedom of euthanasia. The Oregon law used by “Compassion and Choices” to support their arguments has left those who are physically and economically marginalized without compassion or choices. Individuals have been denied payment for care, and told that instead the means for suicide would be covered.

Media reports on the ITF website document that in 2008 a woman was told by her oncologist that her lung cancer had returned after two years of being in remission. He prescribed the drug Tarceva, but the Oregon Health Plan – the state’s rationed Medicaid program for the poor – refused to pay. The letter said it would cover palliative or comfort care that includes physician-assisted suicide.

Another patient also received a letter from the Oregon Health Plan informing him that the chemotherapy drug prescribed for his prostate cancer would not be covered, but assisted suicide would be.

After these two individuals protested through the media, many others came forward to report that they had received similar decisions. ITF Director Rita Marker points out that “... if you transform the crime of assisted suicide into a medical treatment, that’s a really inexpensive medical treatment.”

Wesley Smith, Senior Fellow in Human Rights and Bioethics at the Discovery Institute, writes: “Euthanasia is like a parasitic infection. Once it enters the body – e.g., society, families, etc. – it takes the focus away from healthy approaches to illness, death and making the patient’s remaining life better, and instead makes prematurely ending the patient’s life the top priority. In this sense, euthanasia is cold. It is estranging. And it is dehumanizing. The ugly truth is right before our very eyes, if we will just see.”

Nick Murnion knows what death with dignity really means: “I’m a Catholic, prolife Democrat. People should know that there are pro-life Democrats, and I’m proud of my Catholic faith. There’s value in a person right up until their final breath. Up until your last breath, there’s always a purpose. Pope John Paul II is an example of how to die with dignity.”

Like the citizens of Garfield County, when threatened by the “Freemen,” we can stand with County Attorney Nicholas Murnion and the coalition of individuals and groups who are committed to protecting the disabled, the poor and the elderly. We can educate ourselves in the Catholic Church’s teachings on leaving to God the power over life and death, and be spokespeople against euthanasia and physicianassisted suicide.

We can promote the use of the “Will to Live” document at http://www.nrlc.org/medethics/WilltoL iveProject.html, rather than the “Living Will” (found state by state on the National Right to Life Coalition website). The “Will to Live” document has more options so you can be specific and guarantee that you are able to die according to Catholic teachings. We can encourage others to protect themselves and those whom they love with this end-of-life directive that is sanctioned by the Catholic Church.


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Justice Voices columns are coordinated by the Catholic Campaign for Human Development committee of the Diocese of Helena.


Published in The Montana Catholic Online, Volume 25, No. 8, August 21, 2009.