If you want to see what happens when a society enthusiastically swallows the euthanasia poison, look at Belgium. Perhaps influenced by its neighbor the Netherlands — which pioneered euthanasia permissiveness — Belgium legalized euthanasia in 2002. The country has since leaped head-first off a vertical moral cliff. As usual, when the law was being debated, […]
My wife, LaRee, and I were asked to address a conference about critical life issues sponsored by the Diocese of Metuchen in New Jersey. They wanted us to speak about a Christian perspective on suffering, disability and end of life care. It is a timely topic because New Jersey is considering a law to allow […]
A few days ago, a dear friend and fellow pro-life warrior Ione Whitlock, author of the Belbury Review blog, sent me this e-mail: I took my cat to the vet for a checkup. While I waited to be seen, I noticed an elderly couple apparently also waiting. We struck up a conversation. The woman was […]
A 44-year-old Belgian woman struggling with gender confusion has been legally euthanized after her sex change procedure was botched, resulting in physical deformities she said made her look like “a monster.” Nancy Verhelst was killed last Monday by the same team of doctors who euthanized Marc and Eddy Verbessem, 45-year-old deaf twins who asked to […]
I came across a headline that posed a bold idea: Killing MS Patients VIA Assisted Suicide to Harvest their Organs? As a theoretical question for provocative bioethicists to ponder or advocate, it may be interesting, but I live in the real world far from academia. The real world is being asked to answer that very […]
We’ve all heard the “quality of life” argument applied to everything from an excuse for abortion to the reason posited to justify assisted suicide or some other form of euthanasia. Ongoing debates relating to various segments of Obama’s national health care law—the Affordable Care Act—challenge us to sort out and explain the problematic nature of using a slide rule […]
Pope Benedict writes in Spe salvi, “The true measure of humanity is essentially determined in relationship to suffering and to the sufferer.” These words recently took on new meaning for me as I encountered the story of Edwarda O’Bara, who passed away at the age of 59 in late November. In January 1970 Edwarda slipped into […]
Australia’s leading euthanasia advocate, Dr. Philip Nitschke, was detained on Sunday night at London’s Gatwick Airport as he was attempting to enter the UK. He was held for over two hours overnight but eventually allowed to proceed. Dr. Nitschke has arrived to conduct his European “Nitro & Nembutal” workshops and speaking tour teaching people how […]
As I write this in mid-March I look forward to soon being with two special families, who because of the depth of their love for a family member, found themselves in the midst of an international spotlight they did not seek, and a fierce conflict they did not shirk. They are the families of Terri […]
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not suggesting there really were tears in Barack Obama’s eyes during his Sandy Hook press conference. After all, he has demonstrated utter contempt for human life from the very start of his career. Remember, this is someone who, as a state senator, tried repeatedly to decriminalize the murder of newborn children. […]
Many of you probably read the recent heartbreaking news of Marc and Eddy, deaf twins who requested, and were granted, euthanization in Belgium after discovering they were going blind.Later this year, Belgium’s ruling party is set to consider allowing the euthanasia of children and Alzheimer’s sufferers. This news was on my mind recently when I read about Robert Gleason, […]
On June 15, 2012, the Canadian province of British Columbia Supreme Court struck down a law prohibiting euthanasia and assisted suicide. It won’t be long before the other provinces follow suit. My country is on the same slippery slope as Switzerland, Netherlands, Belgium, Oregon and Washington. Within minutes of the law being struck down, my […]
Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) has taken another well-deserved hit. The Wisconsin Catholic bishops have issued a brilliant statement entitled “Upholding the Dignity of Human Life.” In this statement, the bishops make clear that the POLST form has serious problems, outlining them as follows: The POLST document raises concerns as to whether it accurately […]
In his 2007 book Boomsday, Christopher Buckley writes of a fictional future where an overwhelming number of elderly baby boomers are given tax incentives to end their lives early. With recent developments out of Switzerland, Buckley’s tongue-in-cheek novel may prove all-too-prescient. The Swiss canton of Vaud just passed a law mandating that doctors in hospitals and nursing homes provide […]
This characterization of the many facets of being pro-life is so brilliant I wish I could say I thought of it. Scott Rae, in an interview with John Stonestreet at BreakPoint.org, brings the pro-life movement into the 21st century in an attempt to get us all to wake up to the perils we are facing. […]
The late medical essayist Lewis Thomas once described Alzheimer’s as “the worst of all diseases, not just for what it does to the patient, but for its devastating effects on family and friends.” For anyone who has witnessed the ravages of Alzheimer’s firsthand, as I did during the dozen-plus years that my father battled it, […]
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) is an advisory body to the European Union. Based in Strasbourg, France, PACE has more than three hundred delegates. Their pronouncements of human rights issues are highly influential within the E.U. Last month, PACE passed a resolution (No. 1859) that made a strong statement against euthanasia. […]
The problems of euthanasia and end-of-life issues are extremely complicated ones, and trying to solve these problems through legislation is often difficult. While the intentional killing of an innocent human being is always morally wrong, one cannot deny that there are real-world cases where the line blurs between what is permitted and what is not. […]
With a court battle over Canada’s laws against euthanasia and assisted suicide proceeding just north of the border, a lawyer in Washington State has proposed that his state expand their Death with Dignity Act. Currently Washington’s law allows doctors to prescribe lethal medication upon request to a competent, terminally ill patient, but Olympia attorney Brian […]
A study published in one of the most respected medical journals in the world this month has found that many “vegetative” patients are in fact fully conscious and aware. Experts at the University of Western Ontario conducted the experiment by applying an electroencephalogram (EEG) machine, a common mechanism for measuring brain waves, to a large […]
The Holy See condemned attempts to inject euthanasia into the right to health and Latin American and Caribbean delegations called for a new UN treaty at two recent UN meetings on the rights of the elderly. At the Human Rights Council in Geneva the Holy See representative said his delegation took “strong exception” to a […]
The death of Terri Schindler Schiavo in 2005 is a distant memory for most Americans. But for the family that spent seven years fighting Terri’s estranged husband and the court system to stop the starvation of their daughter and sister, recollections of the 13 days Terri lingered without food or water before finally succumbing to […]
Dr. Lawrence Egbert, the medical director for the Final Exit Network (FEN) euthanasia advocacy organization, has been dubbed the new “Dr. Death,” after he admitted to the media that he and his organization have helped direct the deaths of nearly 300 people across the U.S. Euthanasia activist Jack Kevorkian, who died in June of natural […]
After years of opposition from disability advocates, more experts are beginning to question the validity of the “persistent vegetative state” (PVS) diagnostic label that paved the way for Terri Schiavo’s starvation death. A Discover magazine article published online July 6 explained that PVS often fails to account for a broad swath of traumatic brain injury […]
