Debates about assisted suicide

Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony appealed to the members of the largest Roman Catholic archdiocese in the U.S. Monday to abandon an idea of legalizing assisted suicide for the terminally ill in California, and accused a leading Democratic state legislator of being swept into a "culture of death."Mahony, speaking at a noon Mass, said the legislation was "a new danger, a new assault" on what he termed the sanctity of life.

Photo: Debates about assisted suicide

"What really, really saddens me and troubles me and confuses me is why Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez has added his name as a sponsor to this legislation," Mahony said.

"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.