Cardinal blasts assisted-suicide bill

The head of the nation's largest Roman Catholic archdiocese called on his members Monday to defeat a proposal to legalize assisted suicide for the terminally ill in California.

Cardinal Roger Mahony urged parishioners of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles to pressure lawmakers to vote the proposal down. The archdiocese is estimated to have more than 4.3 million people.

"Assisted suicide is totally unnecessary _ not only is it against God's law, God's plan, we simply don't need something like that," he said at a lightly attended noon Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels.

An Assembly committee last week approved the bill, the fourth attempt in recent years to get it through the Legislature.

Modeled after an Oregon law, it would allow patients found by two physicians to have no more than six months to live to request a drug to end their lives. The drug would have to be administered by the patient, who would have to request the prescription in writing and orally.

A physician could require the patient to have counseling before receiving the drug.

It could face a veto by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has said the issue should be decided by voters rather than the Legislature and governor.

Mahony leveled sharp criticism at one of the bill's sponsors, Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, who recently met with the Cardinal to discuss the proposal. Nunez's support is viewed as crucial if the bill is to reach the governor's desk.

"We should be troubled that Fabian Nunez _ who has worshipped here in this cathedral, is a Catholic _ somehow has not understood and grasped the culture of life but has allowed himself to get swept into this other direction, the culture of death," Mahony said.

In a statement, Nunez's spokesman Steve Maviglio said while the speaker respects Mahony's opinion "this is another issue of individual choice where the overwhelming majority of Catholics have a different perspective than the official position of the church."

"Personal liberty and dignity are important values to Californians, regardless of their religious beliefs," Maviglio said.