Oregon Public Broadcasting

The Catholic Church has begun pouring money into the campaign to defeat Washington’s Death with Dignity ballot initiative.

This is the Oregon-style measure that would allow doctors to prescribe lethal doses of drugs to terminally ill patients. Olympia correspondent Austin Jenkins reports.

So far, Catholic groups from around the country have pumped more than $130,000 into the No on I-1000 campaign.

The single biggest check -- for $50,000 -- comes from the Seattle Archdiocese.

Sister Sharon Park runs the Washington State Catholic Conference. She says the Church gets involved politically on issues that have major cultural implications.

Sharon Park: “Allowing physicians to take the lives of their patients that’s a dramatic move in terms of changing the way one thinks about not only the doctor-patient relationship, but what we allow legally."

Supporters of I-1000 say the money being spent to defeat the initiative should go to compensate victims of sex abuse within the Catholic Church.

The single largest contributor to the yes campaign is Oregon Death with Dignity.