TO AIR OR NOT TO AIR?

December 3, 1998
		Did CBS' "60 Minutes" make the right decision to air the tape of a doctor-assisted suicide? CBS' Mike Wallace and Ned McGrath, spokesman for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit, answer your questions. Return to this forum's introduction.

How do you think the airing of this segment highlights the negatives or the positives of assisted suicide? Didn't the 60 Minutes segment illuminate the public debate by providing information on what actually occurs in euthanasia? Was it really necessary to air the segment up to the point of the patient's death? Given that Dr. Kevorkian told CBS hat he wanted to get arrested to bring the issue into the open, did CBS not do his bidding? Are you doing enough to promote honest, intelligent, informed discussion of difficult issues among your viewers or members (of your Church)?

Ron Thomas from New York, NY, asks: Are you doing enough to promote honest, intelligent, informed discussion of difficult issues among your viewers or members (of your Church)? Ned McGrath, spokesman for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit, responds: Since 1991, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit has been sending resources and information on end-of-life decisions to our 310 parishes here in southeast Michigan. During this time, we have partnered with religious leaders from Jewish, Muslim, and other Christian faith traditions, and with several hospice and health care organizations in our community. Many of our more recent materials are available online, at www.archdioceseofdetroit.org.... at www.projlife.org... and at ccc.infobase.org. Additional information can be obtained by calling 313.237.5929. Subsequent to the defeat of Proposal B, which would have legalized physician-assisted suicide, the archdiocese has facilitated discussions with local medical schools, health-care professionals, and patients, the so-called "end-users," to improve end-of-life and palliative care and, among Catholics, to develop a catechesis for death/a catachesis for life. Mike Wallace , senior correspondent and co-editor of "60 Minutes", responds: (Mr. Wallace failed to answer this question. -- editor)

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