By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS Staff Writer Catholic health care organizations in the state of Washington are already reacting to the passage of the state’s new assisted suicide bill by refusing to participate in the program. According to an article appearing on SpokesmanReview.com, eastern Washington's largest Catholic hospital system, Providence Health and Services, is forbidding its physicians from helping patients commit suicide in its hospitals, nursing homes and assisted care centers. "Providence will not support physician-assisted suicide within its ministries," the owner of Sacred Heart Medical Center and Holy Family Hospital said in a prepared statement. "This position is grounded in our basic values of respect for the sacredness of life, compassionate care of dying and vulnerable persons, and respect for the integrity of medical, nursing and allied health professions. We do not believe health care providers should ever be put in a position of aiding a patient in taking his or her own life." The new law, known as Initiative 1000 at the ballot box on Tuesday, won strong support from voters on Tuesday. The bill allows doctors to prescribe a lethal overdose of barbiturates or other drugs to adult patients if the doctor believes the patient has a life expectancy of less than six months. The law will not take effect until July, 2009 after state regulators write guidelines for the practice. The Washington State Medical Association, which opposed the measure, says doctors will not be forced to help their patients commit suicide.   A spokeswoman for Providence Health, which operates eight hospitals in Washington and seven in Oregon, said the organization is not planning to pursue legal action to stop the new law. "We believe we don't have to participate and plan to exercise a conscience clause allowing us to be exempt," she said. Prior to Tuesday’s vote, the Catholic Church was outspoken in its opposition to the new bill. Church teaching condemns any act, or omission of treatment, that causes death. The Church was joined in her opposition by many medical groups, such as the Washington State Medical Association and similar groups in 49 states that oppose assisted suicide and want to repeal the only other law in the country that allows the practice - Oregon's Death with Dignity Act. Many doctors believe assisted suicide runs counter to the Hippocratic Oath, which directs them to do no harm. © All Rights Reserved, Living His Life Abundantly/Women of Grace. http://www.womenofgrace.com