Martin Sheen in ad opposing euthanasia legislation in State of Washington

Here’s my Martin Sheen story.

A year or two before he became the President in the series, The West Wing (Prez. Barrett? Bartlett? Whatever – I never watched it) I spent a couple of hours with him in a midtown Manhattan precinct lock-up. Sheen is/was an anti-war activist and we were arrested at a planned civil disobedience thing on Good Friday, ten or 11 years ago. Protest was over U.S. WMD’s.

I didn’t know Sheen was going to be there, but he went along with a Jesuit priest I know, Fr. Ned Murphy, who runs a grass roots anti-poverty operation in the Bronx, called POTS (Part of the Solution).

Anyway, Sheen was really a good guy – very down to earth regular person, and quite a raconteur. The sort of person you could easily hang with and have a couple of beers.

He takes his Catholicism seriously, although I find his knee jerk support for Democratic candidates very unfortunate.

He does support pro-life initiatives though, and did a commercial opposing the euthansia initiative coming up for a vote in Washington State.

Martin Sheen Stars in Ad Opposing Assisted Suicide in Washington State

Off lifesitenews.com

Sheen said in his radio spot for “No I-1000” campaign, “It’s a step backwards and I urge you to vote no.” He called it a “dangerous idea that could hurt thousands of low-income people who need medical care.”

Out of state euthanasia activists, including those in Oregon, where assisted suicide has been legal since 1994, have thrown their support behind I-1000, hoping its passage will create a domino effect across the country. The initiative would redefine suicide as medical treatment and allow doctors to order lethal drug overdoses even if the patient is simply depressed.

Sheen warned the initiative would undermine efforts to provide quality health care for poor and low income disabled people, presenting medical insurers with suicide as a cheaper alternative. The initiative, he said, could “open up a loophole” in the law that could be used to “cut payments for the disabled and working poor, encouraging them to use assisted suicide.”