International
Australian euthanasia advocate Philip Nitschke has created a suicide machine that can be manufactured on so-called 3D printers. The “Sarco” – short for sarcophagus – is a detachable coffin with a nitrogen container and it is designed to “provide people with a death when they wish to die” the euthanasia doctor told the Agence-France Presse. Nitschke said he has provided safeguards including having a psychological test to ensure purchasers were sane and then they would be sent an access code for blueprint designs that could be downloaded to an additive manufacturing printer within 24 hours. If all works as planned, the person will pass out within a minute and die shortly afterward. Nitschke told Newsweekthat the design of the contraption resembles a spaceship because it is intended to give users the feeling they are traveling to the “great beyond.” The Sarco was on display at the Amsterdam Funeral Fair on April 14. Critics worry that the machine will be used in jurisdictions where euthanasia is not legal because it is designed to be built on demand.
The Buckinghamshire Healthcare National Health System Trust in the United Kingdom has appointed Lindsay van Dijk, a humanist, as its lead chaplain. The 28-year-old will oversee a team of three Christian chaplains. Guardiancolumnist Andrew Brown praised the decision saying that it reflects a change in religion, which he says is “not really about belief at all,” but rather “identity, morality, and myths.” Brown argues that chaplains in multifaith societies are merely counsellors who play no spiritual role and therefore van Dijk’s humanism is not only not an impediment but beneficial. But perhaps there is something more to Brown’s analysis of the situation. He clearly dislikes organized religion. He complains that “much of the story of religion” in the past half century is “about the rise of fundamentalism” and their obstinate opposition to the revolutionary changes in “gender roles” including a reluctance to embrace women clergy. It’s strange to make that observation in the United Kingdom. The Church of England began ordaining women ministers in 1994 and female bishops in 2014.
Marcha por la vida2018 took place in hundreds of towns and cities across Argentina on March 25, the Feast of the Annunciation. The march for life was attended by hundreds of thousands of Argentinians, as the government of President Mauricio Maci began debate on a proposal for “legal, free, and safe abortions, despite Macri’s insistence that he is against abortion. There is a number of videos on YouTube showing the massive turnout singing and waving flags and balloons in celebration of life.
The United Kingdom government is temporarily ruling Northern Ireland directly, since N.I.’s two main parties — the unionist DUP and the nationalist Sinn Fein — have not reached an agreement on forming a government. This hiatus is giving U.K. Members of Parliament the opportunity to overturn some of Northern Ireland’s more conservative laws. British Labour MP Conor McGinn says he is “living the message of the Gospel” by introducing a bill to legalize same-sex “marriage” while other MPs want to liberalize the region’s restrictive abortion law. Northern Ireland is the only part of the British Isles not to allow SSM or abortion-on-demand.
Following the creation of anti-free speech bubble zones in several cities in the United Kingdom, the Catholic Herald reports Philip Egan, Catholic bishop of Portsmouth, England, is calling on the pro-life movement to “change tack” in the wake of government attempts to ban pro-life vigils outside abortion clinics. He is asking the priests of his diocese to wear penitential purple vestments each October 23, the day the UK Abortion Actwas passed. He said that British society is entering a “frightening new Dark age” as people abandon faith. “No wonder a death-wish is arising for assisted suicide and euthanasia. We must ask Jesus to help us to reach out in love to those around us, (and) to assist people to develop a personal relationship with God.”
“The future of the pro-life movement is in Africa,” is the title of an article in The Public Discoursewhere Stefano Gennarini discusses how Africans must fight against the neo-colonialist mindset of the West, which pushes its ideology of abortion, sex and contraception on family-friendly Africa. Political and economic influences — including NGOs, the UN, Planned Parenthood and do-gooders like Bill and Melinda Gates—are hitting hard at African society and industry to force Africans to “bring their fertility in line with the rest of the world, through indoctrinating children on sexuality in pre-school, legalizing prostitution, promoting social acceptance of homosexuality, lowering the age of consent to sex, and enabling access to abortion and contraception for children without parental consent.” In other words African children will be “freed” from the guidance of their parents and sex will be detached from marriage and the family.