Interim Staff

Newfoundland & Labrador Right to Life celebrated its 30th year anniversary dinner in St. John’s on Oct. 23, during its annual respect for life week. The organization recounted 24 years of its operating St. Elizabeth house, a place of refuge for pregnant women that it opened in 1980.

Thanks were offered to past presidents, board members, volunteers and the women who have volunteered at St. Elizabeth house. Also honoured was current president Collette Fleming.

Although the fruits of pro-life work are sometimes not seen, Fleming was able to share a joyful story about a women who only two days before the dinner, came to St. Elizabeth house to offer thanks for helping her 20 years ago. She was visiting family members and decided to thank St. Elizabeth house for helping her through a difficult time in her life.

As a token of her gratitude, she bought NL Right to Life a brand new computer with all accessories and made a significant monetary donation. Everyone present was thankful that they have helped countless women over the past 30 years.

The work of St. Elizabeth House is an excellent example of an action which builds a culture of life.

The dinner speaker was Alex Schadenberg, executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition. He explained to the gathering his concerns relating to the Evelyn Martens case in British Columbia. (Martens has since been found not guilty in aiding the suicide deaths of two women.)

Schadenberg also offered a primer on how to effectively respond to people who want to know more about euthanasia and spoke about his concerns related to the intentional dehydration of patients to end their lives. Intentional dehydration is becoming more common a practice and is euthanasia when it is done to cause death of a person who is not otherwise dying. Schadenberg also talked about the current social attitudes in Canadian society that are feeding the culture of death. He explained the need to build a culture of life to counter this current culture of death.

The dinner concluded with a resounding commitment by the executive to continue work until human life is respected from womb to tomb.

NL Right to Life ended respect for life week with a LifeChain the following Sunday. The LifeChain was prayerfully done across from the Morgentaler clinic in St. John’s. Statistics Canada reports 800 abortions are committed annually in St. John’s.