Oregon Right to Life has had long-standing opposition to the use of force, intimidation, and violence by any person pursuing pro-life activities. Our commitment to the well-being of all human life requires that we respect the inherent value and dignity of all people. Just as we condemn abortion and euthanasia, we oppose private acts that take human life, inflict bodily harm, or destroy another's property. No board member, officer, employee, or chapter officer may participate in any illegal or harmful act against another person or property in pursuing pro-life activity. Oregon Right to Life will not knowingly do business with any organization or business which endorses violence in any way toward pro-abortion persons or businesses.
Abortion ends the life of a genetically distinct, growing human being. We oppose abortion at any point of gestation.
In rare cases, a mother may have a life-threatening condition in which medical procedures intended to treat the condition of the mother may result in the unintended death of her preborn baby. At the same time, ORTL recognizes that modern medical practice has and will continue to increase the ability to save both the life of the mother and the baby.
Oregon Right to Life supports the sanctity of human life from the moment of conception until natural death. We oppose all cases of euthanasia, whereby a person is deliberately killed through direct action or omission even if that act is by their permission.(In contrast, a person who chooses to refuse life-prolonging treatment is not committing physician-assisted suicide but is rather allowing nature to take its course.)Examples of euthanasia include allowing disabled newborns to die of routinely treatable medical conditions, withholding food or water from the comatose or lethally injecting a terminally ill patient.In Oregon, the legal form of euthanasia is physician assisted suicide, and is euphemistically called "death with dignity." In this act, a physician prescribes lethal drugs knowing their patient intends to use the drugs to commit suicide.
Advance Directives and POLST
Advance DirectivesHealth care decisions at the end of life may include decisions that must be made after a person becomes incapacitated and unable to make decisions for themselves. Before that stage is reached, Oregon Right to Life recommends that a trusted person be appointed to make those decisions for the patient if he/she becomes incapacitated.Oregon law requires that "living wills" and "durable powers of attorney" for health care decisions be set forth on a standard form called anAdvance Directive.Part B of this form is called "Appointing a Health Care Representative." Oregon Right to Life recommends that you complete this section. Use Part B to appoint someone you trust as your health care representative to make end-of-life treatment decisions for you when you are no longer capable of making those decisions for yourself.Part C may limit the decisions your trusted health care representative can make. Oregon Right to Life encourages you to leave Part C blank.Fill out Part D and E to finish the authorization for your health care representative. Make sure your physician, your health care representative, and you have copies.POLSTThe Physician Order for Life Sustaining Treatment (POLST) is different from an Advance Directive.The POLST form, initially designed to decrease unnecessary health care interventions at the end of life, is being promoted as a tool to decrease healthcare costs and has several limitations:
- Becomes a physician'sorder and must be followed
- Is simplistic and may not reflect current medical circumstances
- Can easily be misused
- It is inflexible and in most cases, overrides any decisions the person you have appointed as your health care representative would make
Unless you have a prognosis of less than one year to live, Oregon Right to Life discourages filling out a POLST form.View and print advanced directive form here
The natural process of human conception is the union of egg and sperm within the maternal body, which provides the safest and most supportive environment for the maturation of the newly created, fragile human being. Oregon Right to Life (ORTL) upholds the natural process of human conception. ORTL opposes all techniques of human conception occurring outside of the maternal body which leads to the destruction of human life, whether for family growth or experimentation. Presently, this includes any method of assisted reproduction that employs in vitro fertilization.
Oregon Right to Life opposes both the destruction of human embryos created by any method, and any research conducted with human embryonic stem cells. This is in agreement with the American Medical Association statement policy for research which states: "It is fundamental social policy that the advancement of scientific knowledge must always be secondary to the primary concern for the individual." Research is unethical if it is predicated on the destruction of one human being for the gain of another.Oregon Right to Life supports the current successful medical research with non-embryonic stem cells (e.g. those from umbilical cord blood and adult tissues). Medical treatments requiring stem cells are to be developed using ethical sources. Currently, thousands of people have been cured or helped by successful adult stem cell or umbilical cord blood stem cell treatments.ORTL affirms the inherent value of all human beings from the moment of conception to natural death. As such, ORTL asserts that all human lives started by any form of natural or assisted reproduction or cloning, for any purpose, are to be protected from intentional harm.