“The passage of physician-assisted suicide, which comes on the eighth legislative attempt in Maine, legalizes a practice which has devastating effects on the common good. Suicide is always a tragedy. Allowing doctors to prescribe deadly medications to hasten a person’s death is a horrendous wound to the dignity of the human person. With this law, the elderly will feel undue pressure to view this as an option to prevent being a burden to others; there will be a further desensitization of the value of human life; and young people will now think that people can and should be disposable. This law devalues individual human life and the essential human bonds that call us to value one another and care for one another. This is a sad day for Maine. Let us all pray for an increase in the understanding and respect for the value and dignity of human life from conception to natural death.”