UK Lifeleague, campaigning to end abortion - end the murder of innocent children

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Ruth Kelly Expected to Leave Cabinet Over HFE Bill

29th September 2008

Miss Kelly, who is a Catholic, will step down voluntarily after telling Gordon Brown she could not reconcile her strict Catholic faith with the Government's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill.

Pro-Life Victory as Catholic School Stands Against Contraceptive Gimmick

29th September 2008

Governors at St Monica's High School in Prestwich, Greater Manchester, believe the school is "not the right place" to administer the injections.

Euthanasia

“I am not ashamed to say that some lives are more worth living than others.” The words of pro-death activist, Baroness Mary Warnock.

“What kind of society treats the suicidal by holding their coat?” The words of American bioethicist, Wesley J. Smith.

The term ‘euthanasia’ comes from the Greek expression ‘good death’. The culture of death; which chants, "my body, my life, my choice" regarding abortion, also chants (by the same logic), "my body, my death, my choice" concerning euthanasia.

The LifeLeague, as an organisation dedicated to defending human life from conception until natural death, unreservedly oppose euthanasia in all its forms and under all circumstances.

Like the vast majority of those involved in frontline services, who actually care for the sick and dying on a continual basis, we believe that care, not killing, is the only ethical treatment for illness. Universal access to palliative care is proposed as a civilized and successful alternative by field experts like Dr George ( Kings College, London) and Baroness Professor Finlay (a member of the House of Lords select committee on Lord Joffe’s Bill).

It is worth remembering that even Diane Pretty, the advanced motor neurone disease sufferer who won so much sympathy in her unsuccessful legal bid to commit suicide, passed away in a manner described by her doctor as “normal, natural and peaceful.”

At a recent debate in London (13.03.06) - packed to capacity with lawyers, lobbyists, medical professionals and members of the public - the pro-life side scored an overwhelming victory. This may explain why campaigners in other countries find that public support for euthanasia declines sharply as more people find out what it actually means.

There are of course various factors suggested to explain the rise in euthanasia. For a start, there is a real lack of resources directed toward caring alternatives for the vulnerable. Traditional values are being diluted, therefore the family unit is progressively becomming more rare and fragmented than ever before. One direct result of this is the fact that many family members simply don’t care or can’t be bothered looking after ill relatives - frequently one family member is left to struggle under the full workload. A once strong sense of duty and community is now all but gone.

Consider the testimony of Dr. Michael Miller, professor of medicine at the New York Medical College and medical director at a nursing home:

“Ninety-five percent of the patients come in [to his nursing home] with families already distanced. ... They have had diminished contact, constant struggles, are constantly attacking the nursing home staff, and make demands for premature death. ... It’s not the dementia or the sickness that causes family problems. Family problems began long, long ago and re-emerge when the person gets old and sick. And the major way that family ‘pathology’ can get expressed, he said, is to tell the doctors, ‘don’t feed her,’ or ‘don’t treat the pneumonia,’ or, if the parent needs to walk to remain mobile, ‘that will only disturb her. leave her alone.’ That’s all a way for the family to say, ‘We’ve had enough.’ ... But if such efforts to cut life short were directed, for example, toward Tenderloin derelicts, you’d be guilty of homicide. And it’s no different with nursing home patients” (San Francisco Examiner, November 20, 1983)

Due to the ‘values void’ and general tenor of our busy, fickle, modern lives; the elderly are increasingly made to feel undervalued, that their contribution to life or society no longer counts and isn’t worth anything, and really, they would do us all a favour if they just trundled off and died. Unsurprisingly, a forum on end-of-life issues held in New York (November, 1996), noted that the preferred means of euthanasia today is starvation.

Many of those demanding a change in the law have seen relatives suffer an unnecessarily painful death. A common argument is that it is cruel not to end the dying process prematurely because “we wouldn’t treat an animal that way”. And indeed wouldn’t – because these patients are not animals, they are people.

The dying should be cared for - receiving affection and attention. To kill, as treatment, would create a society where the vulnerable become hunted and we, if we’re fortunate enough not to be ill, become the hunters.

A just society is one that values all human life, including those who are ill - even when they are unable to see value in their own lives.

A society that champions euthanasia is one that will actively encourage those already conscious of ‘being a burden’ to regard themselves as such. If killing becomes a treatment option, then those who are suicidal will not be reassured, ministered to or comforted – through time they will be encouraged to kill themselves.

We don’t want the kind of society that treats the weak and vulnerable like they are a burden, less in value to the rest of us. Rather, we wish to echo the sentiments of Mary Kenny, when she said, “to be a burden is to be truly human” (The Times, 18.08.06).The Apostle Paul pointed us to a better way when he said “bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2).

Therefore, let us seek a genuinely compassionate approach to dying:

one that tries to kill the pain and not the patient.

That is why The LifeLeague will and must ALWAYS oppose euthanasia.

The LifeLeague

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Ruth Kelly Expected to Leave Cabinet Over HFE Bill

Pro-Life Victory as Catholic School Stands Against Contraceptive Gimmick

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Euthanasia

Euthanasia