LifeNet

EWTN: Anti-suicide advocate "JJ Hanson's Legacy of Life"

This remarkable fellow spoke in April, 2016 at a "Forum" in Scarsdale about assisted suicide. Thinly disguised promotion of it actually. That's JJ with the microphone (seated next to Ed Mechmann). Hanson was fabulous. Diagnosed with a brain cancer, he outlived his initial prognosis by three years before dying in December, 2017. His wife Kristen is carrying on his work.

 

NY State Appeals Court rules against assisted suicide - unanimously

This is good news , but it doesn't mean assisted suicide cannot be passed legislatively. It simply means there is no right to suicide in the NY State Constitution.

From the decision as covered in the Journal News -

The court ruled 5-0 against the plaintiffs, two of which have died since the lawsuit was first filed two years ago.

"Although New York has long recognized a competent adult's right to forgo life-saving medical care, we reject plaintiffs' argument that an individual has a fundamental constitutional right to aid-in-dying as they define it," the court's opinion read.

Thanks to Ed Mechmann, Director of Public Policy for the Archdiocese of NY, for sending this around -

Incredible good news!! The New York State Court of Appeals has unanimously refused to legalize assisted suicide. Here's the decision: https://www.nycourts.gov/ctapps/Decisions/2017/Sep17/77opn17-Decision.pdf  This is a gigantic win for the cause of human life. God is great!

 

 

 

Reminder: Forum on Assisted Suicide this Saturday, February 18th in Manhattan

This from Sr. Lucy Marie, the Archdiocese Respect Life Coordinator.

Dear Friends,

Please join us at this important forum on Physician Assisted Suicide.  The day will be especially geared toward medical students and doctors but is also open to the general public.  RSVP required. 

 

Do you have questions about Physician Assisted Suicide?

Did you know that NYS is planning on voting on the bill this spring?

Do you want to understand the bill and help us defend the dignity and sanctity of life at the end-of-life?

Please join the Faith and Ethics Forum, the Dominican Friars Healthcare Ministry of NYC, the Frassati Fellowship, and the Family Life/Respect Life Office of the Archdiocese of New York for an informative session on

Physician Assisted Suicide and the Bill in NYS – with:

 

Edward Mechmann - Director of Public Policy, Archdiocese New York

Harvard Law School Alumnus

Sr. Lucy Marie - Respect Life Coordinator, Archdiocese of New York

Dr. Donald Landry - Chair of Medicine, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons

Sat, February 18th, 2017

9AM - 11:30PM @

St. Dominic Hall at St. Catherine of Sienna Priory

411 E. 68th Street

New York, NY

Muffins and coffee will be available!

To estimate number for breakfast and facilities, if you plan to attend, please add your name here.

Sr. Lucy Marie

Respect Life Coordinator

Archdiocese of New York

1011 First Ave, 7th floor

New York, NY  10022

646-794-3192

Mon-Thurs 9:45am-4:45pm

Canada Senate passes straight-up euthanasia bill

UPDATE: Still not good enough for the Canada Civil Liberties Union - The euthanasia lobby is wanting to extend euthanasia to “mature” minors, to people with dementia (through advanced directives), and to people with psychiatric conditions alone.

No doubt, when you read the Bill -

The controversial issue was the requirement that a medical or nurse practitioner could approve a lethal injection if the person’s “natural death is reasonably foreseeable.” Parliament insisted that this requirement remain in the bill while the Senate argued that the Supreme Court did not state that a person must be “terminally ill.”

 

The final bill maintains that “natural death must be reasonably foreseeable.”

 

Isn't everyone' s "natural death ... reasonably foreseeable"?

 

And it gets worse -

 

Canadian Senate Passes Bill Allowing Anyone to Kill Someone by Euthanasia or Assisted Suicide

 

Yesterday, the House of Commons removed a controversial amendment and a protective amendment in the Senate version of the bill and then sent it back to the Senate for approval.

 

This morning the Senate considered an amendment that would have referred the terminal illness provision in the bill (natural death is reasonably foreseeable) to the Supreme Court of Canada, but that amendment was defeated.

 

The controversial issue was the requirement that a medical or nurse practitioner could approve a lethal injection if the person’s “natural death is reasonably foreseeable.” Parliament insisted that this requirement remain in the bill while the Senate argued that the Supreme Court did not state that a person must be “terminally ill.”

 

The final bill maintains that “natural death must be reasonably foreseeable.”

 

I was disappointed that House of Commons withdrew the amendment that prohibited a beneficiary from participating in a persons assisted death or signing the person’s request for assisted death. This was an amendment that protected people from a greedy beneficiary or an unscrupulous family member.

The final bill allows a beneficiary to participate in the act, even to lethally inject.

The Senate then passed Bill C-14 by a vote of 44 to 28.  The response from parliament was to declare a summer recess.

 

The bill that determines how Canadians will kill Canadians was passed on the last day of the parliamentary schedule in time for the summer recess.

Bill C-14 now goes to the Governor General to be signed.

 

No attempts were made to amend the most grievous parts of Bill C-14.

 

1. Bill C-14 provides medical practitioners or nurse practitioners legal immunity for decisions or acts that contravene the law.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

No jurisdiction in the world offers legal immunity to anyone who does anything for the purposes of assisting death. Bill C-14 is the most wide-open bill in the world. It is even worse than the Belgian law. Recent studies from Belgium indicate that more than 1000 assisted deaths occur without request each year.

Wesley Smith: "Euphemisms for Killing"

A good, short summary. As the late Msgr. William Smith said "Before social engineering comes verbal engineering."

The current favorite of the culture of death: "Aid in Dying."

Excerpts below; the entire article is nine paragraphs.

Words matter. The terminology we employ not only reflects our values but helps to define them. Language is particularly important in bioethical debates, in which dehumanizing verbiage can distance us from our fellow human beings.

Words also have the power to degrade the human dignity of born and grown people. A classic example is the pejorative term “vegetable,” referring to those with severe cognitive disabilities and impairments. Even the diagnostic term used to describe the condition of permanently unconscious patients—“persistent vegetative state”—is pejorative, perhaps the only explicitly demeaning medical term. (Why not use the perfectly accurate “persistent unconscious state”?) The V-word has the effect—and in some cases, indeed, the purpose—of excluding these human beings from the moral community and exposing them to oft-proposed forms of oppression and exploitation—such as allowing them to be used for live-organ harvesting and as subjects in medical experimentation.

We see the same phenomenon in our debates around end-of-life care and assisted suicide. The Dutch euthanasia practitioner Dr. M.A.M. Wachter, ethicist/director for the Institute of Health in the Netherlands, made this point explicitly when he appeared at a 1990 international euthanasia society convention. “The definitions build the road to euthanasia,” he stated, explaining that even the word “euthanasia” (“good death”) could harm the cause, because people naturally recoil from the killing act.

Thus, Wachter urged his audience to prevaricate and obfuscate: “Definitions are not neutral. They are not just the innocent tools that allow us to describe reality. Rather, they shape our perceptions of reality. They select. They emphasize. They embody a bias. Therefore, definitions constantly need redefinition.” This is precisely why the Hemlock Society, an assisted-suicide advocacy organization, changed its name to Compassion and Choices and now deploys the euphemism “aid in dying” in its media and advocacy materials.

Assisted Suicide/Euthanasia Bill losses in California for this year

The bill the California State Senate passed to make the state the next to legalize assisted suicide has died. SB 128 is reportedly off the table for the rest of the year after Democrats had trouble finding enough votes in a state Assembly committee to move the bill ahead.

... though Democrats are expected to file the legislation again next year — prompting yet another battle to protect seniors, the terminally ill and disabled. ...

“Senator Wolk’s office confirms they have pulled the bill from Assembly Health. Will it be a 2-year bill.. will they put their chips on court action? On an initiative?” Johnston asked.

The pro-life advocate credited looming questions surrounding the assisted suicide death of Brittany Maynard as one of the reasons the bill stalled.

“If the Death with Dignity bill, SB128, requires a consistent request, 15 days apart, then why was Brittany Maynard killed the day after she told the world she had changed her mind and wanted to live?” Johnston asked. “We never found out why, just hours later, she was killed anyways, and we must presume, it was at her own hand. Who ‘counseled her? What was the nature of the counseling? Did she feel media pressure to be ‘back on schedule’? Did she feel even subtle pressure from those around her to, ‘just get it over with’?”

But they always have the Supreme Court to suddenly discover that under the 14th Amendment Equal Protection Clause assisted suicide/euthanasia is a "right".

"Death with Dignity" to be introduced in NY State Senate.

As people who read this blog understand, this was very predictable. Assisted suicide & euthansia fit in with the general consistent ethic of death of these people. After all "whose body is it", "pro-choice", etc.

The verbal engineering is sickening. And here's a sad poll on this issue from this past October, which we posted. Rasmussen poll: By 2 to 1, Americans favor euthanasia/assisted suicide

"Death with Dignity" AKA assisted suicide/euthanasia will be introduced in the NY State Senate by two "progressive" Democrat State Senators. Eventually, the "right" will become an unspoken duty ... After all, caring for people at the end of life chews up vast amounts of medical resources. Death Panels, anyone?

“There are only five states in the country that allow for people to make end of life decisions similar to what Oregon does, and New York is not one of them,” State Senator Diane Savino told the Observer.

The senators are working with Compassion and Choices, the advocacy group that published a video of Maynard discussing her choice to move to Oregon and set a date for the end of her life that put her—and the issue of aid in dying legislation—in the spotlight late last year. The group is continuing to lobby on her behalf for similar laws nationwide, along with Maynard’s husband Dan Diaz, who this week gave his first interviews since his wife’s death. Compassion & Choices also lobbied on behalf of another priority of Ms. Savino’s—the medical marijuana law passed last year.

“Compassion & Choices, as Diane proved, is a terrific partner and has a lot of experience in the New York State legislature. That’s why I’m thrilled to partner with Sen. Savino on this issue,” Mr. Hoylman said, also noting Ms. Savino’s ties to leadership as a member of the Democratic Independent Conference.

Plenty more if you hit the link.