Billboard's aim: Enliven controversial debate
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A new billboard erected Tuesday at the intersection of the Boulevard of the Allies and McDevitt Place in Oakland says simply, "Die with Dignity -- the Final Human Right."
Nothing much to argue with about that. But Final Exit Network, the national organization that paid for the billboard and offers its contact information on it, hopes there is plenty of debate in the next month over the right-to-die issues the sign raises.
"What we're trying to do is get a dialogue going and raise public awareness about the need for discussion and information with loved ones about their final wishes," said Frank Kavanaugh, a spokesman for the New Jersey-based nonprofit group.
Mr. Kavanaugh may get his wish.
"We don't take positions on billboards, but the message on this one sounds like an affront to the truth," said the Rev. Ronald Lengwin, a spokesman for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh.
"From a Catholic perspective, it's good to think about how you and your loved ones may make end-of-life decisions together," Father Lengwin said, but Catholic teachings do not allow assisted suicide.
The church does not consider medical treatment to prolong a life obligatory if it is "by extraordinary means with little hope of benefit to the patient," he said. But to commit suicide because of quality-of-life issues "is not morally permissible," he said.
Final Exit Network doesn't actively aid suicides but, rather, supports and guides those who decide to end their lives, Mr. Kavanaugh said.
"Our criteria is irreversible disease and unbearable suffering," he added. "We believe mentally competent adults have a right to end their lives when they suffer from a fatal or irreversible illness they can no longer bear, when their quality of life is personally unacceptable, and the future holds only hopelessness and misery," he said.
The group promotes the use of living wills, advance directives, durable powers of attorney for health care and do-not-resuscitate orders, and advocates for individuals when their advance directives are not being followed, Mr. Kavanaugh said.
Assisted suicide is illegal in most states, including Pennsylvania, although Oregon, Washington and Montana have passed right-to-die laws that allow, to one degree or another, "the hastening of a painful death from a terminal illness in the last six months of life," he said.
Final Exit Network has posted similar billboards all over the country, but Pittsburgh is the only site in Pennsylvania. While Lamar Outdoor Advertising agreed to erect the billboard, another billboard company in Philadelphia -- whose name Mr. Kavanaugh said he couldn't recall -- turned the group down.
First Published December 29, 2010 12:00 am
