Euthanasia is “an act of respect to an incurable patient…to a dignified last act of medical care.” - Dr. Pieter Admiraal, Euthanasia pioneer, Holland. In the autumn of 1989, the season of new beginnings, the homes and offices of pro-life people are buzzing with plans for the coming year. We talk of the Daigle case and its enormous implications; of Operation Rescue’s [...]
You know you are out of place here, in Northrop Frye Hall at Victoria University on May 6, but you have come to ask questions and get information. “Dying with Dignity: a Canadian Society Concerned with the Quality of Dying” (DWD) is holding its annual meeting, and the initial coffee session is a subdued ritual of quiet confidence and renewed acquaintances. No [...]
Neurosurgeon and ethical philosopher, Dr. Harley Smythe, told members of the Catholic Doctors’ Guild gathered in Toronto April 27 that like abortion and infanticide, euthanasia is the triumph of unfettered freedom and power. In a reasoned and often eloquent address, Dr. Smythe exposed the philosophical roots of the arguments for euthanasia. His special target was the language of deceit. Defenders of euthanasia, [...]
There is a new proposal to decriminalize (in effect, to legalize) euthanasia in Holland. Dutch pro-life groups expect that it will be presented to the Dutch Parliament in April. They are very concerned that they will not be able to stop it on their own. They are asking for your help in the following ways: Send a letter of concern to the [...]
“The sound of splintering wood and shattering glass filled the house. Mother and father stood in the center of the room, a picture of fearlessness. But their little daughter, who stood beneath the shelter of her mother’s arm, could not suppress the tremors running through her body. Three policemen stepped quickly through the remnants of the front door. Their bulging black helmets [...]
Euthanasia is completely outlawed by the Penal Code of the Netherlands; so, too, is inciting or assisting in a suicide. Voluntary euthanasia is specifically for bidden by Article 293 of the Code which states: “He who robs another of life at his express and serious wish, is punished with a prison sentence of at most 12 years, or a fine of the [...]
“If pro-abortionists were in power in Canada at the time I was born,” said Rev. Bernice Gerard, MA, “I wouldn’t have been.” Her mother had been institutionalized in a psychiatric institute for 40 years. Today, a pregnant woman in such circumstances would be a prime candidate for abortion. Fortunately for Rev. Gerard, her father and the authorities at the time held more [...]
One pro-family group REAL Women of Canada has had its requests for funding consistently denied by the federal government. Another, the Alberta Federation of Women United for Families, actually got so far as to have a cheque for $8,000 in the mail, only to have Secretary of State David Crombie stop payment. Why? These groups are contaminated in bureaucratic eyes by standing [...]
In my half-century of life this is the second time I’m living through the acceptance and practice of euthanasia. As a child growing up in Poland during the Nazi occupation (alternately with the Russian occupation) I remember that most our difficult job was keeping Grandpa from being shot by the Nazis. By Nazi standards Grandpas life was already devoid of value: he [...]
A discussion paper given in Winnipeg at the Annual Directors’ Meeting of Campaign Life Canada – October 1986. Dr. Everett Koop warned us of the Slippery Slope and he predicted that abortion, by taking away the value of the life of an unborn child, would lead to the diminishing value of all human life. Three and a half centuries ago the clergyman-poet [...]
It seems that the “quality of life” ethic now encompasses more groups of people than the “unwanted” unborn, handicapped and elderly. In Britain, the Oxfordshire District Health Authority decided that a 44-year-old would no longer receive life-saving kidney dialysis treatment because “he would have died within weeks or months from his hypertension.” Both the British Kidney Patients Association and Labour MP Lewis [...]
Marguerite Liegeois, aged 73, a founding member of the Association for the Right to Die with Dignity, committed suicide in late February. According to a Reuter’s report from Paris, she sent a letter to the group’s members explaining that her health was failing and that the “only way to a dignified and upright death is to voluntarily interrupt life.” [...]
Helen Charlotte Hough, 60, divorced mother of four children and author of children’s and mystery books, was jailed for nine months after helping a friend to commit suicide. Mrs. Hough admitted to the attempted murder of Anneta Harding, age 83, described as frail, deaf, nearly blind, arthritic and lonely. She put a plastic bag over Miss Harding’s head after [...]
Euthanasia is “the deliberate intervention to bring about the death of another human being,” usually because the life of that person has been judged to be of little value. Euthanasia, which is illegal in Canada, can be divided into two major types, voluntary and involuntary. Involuntary euthanasia is effected towards those who do not participate in [...]
FRANCE: Dr. Christian Barnaard, pioneer of life-saving heart transplant surgery, said on September 21 that he supported euthanasia. He stated that it was a physician's responsibility to give terminally ill patients "a good death." He spoke at an international conference organized by the Association for the Right to Die in Dignity. Bernard denied that this was a contradiction with his life's work, [...]