This week on the Pro-Life World View we bring you stories about the push for adult voluntary euthanasia in Belgium, the review of the End of Life Choice Act, and the stand some African countries are making to keep LGBTQ ideology out of their countries.
Assisted dying: Complaints raised over services as review looms
Nicole Bremner – 1News
Review of End of Life Choice Act, 2019
Over Easter weekend, 1News ran a two-part story ahead of a statutory review of New Zealand’s euthanasia and assisted dying legislation.
The first story clearly sets out to undermine the vital conscientious objection rights of health services (including Hospices) and health or palliative care workers, by opining that the exercise of these rights may be a barrier to fully informed consent in patients seeking to know more about euthanasia or assisted dying.
The second story highlights the opinion of the only Hospice in New Zealand that hosts assisted death (out of 33). They advocate dropping the ability of organisations like Hospices to exercise a conscientious objection, and for the removal of the ‘gag’ provisions in the Act preventing a health professional from initiating inquiry about assisted dying. Such provisions are a vital protection for patients from undue and unwarranted pressure from health care providers to actively consider assisted suicide.
Terms of reference for the legislatively mandated review of the Act are being drafted, and stories like this could adversely influence the direction these take.
‘We’re not puppets of the West’: Ghana MP defends law banning sodomy, LGBTQ promotion
EmilyMangiaracina – LifeSite
We’re not puppets of the West
Ghana have a Bill before their parliament which contains an outright ban on so-called same-sex “marriage,” same-sex adoption, and other public displays of homosexual or transgender behaviour, including so-called sex reassignment surgical interventions. This story demonstrates strong Ghanaian reaction to political and economic pressures being exerted by Western governments and international organisations for Ghana to accept Western ideas and approaches to these issues. Sam George, the sponsor of the Bill, points to Ghana’s constitution which takes into account “the morality of our country and the moral fiber of (the) country.”
Kenyan Catholic bishop urges Parliament to reject LGBT ideology
Louis Knuffke – LifeSite
African Bishops once again provide clarity
Several Kenyan Bishops have spoken directly against the threat to traditional marriage and family that LGBTQ ideologies represent. And Kenya’s Conference of Catholic Bishops has condemned a recent Supreme Court ruling that grants the ‘right of association’ to pro-LGBT groups. The Bishops have reminded Kenya and its politicians that the common good requires laws to give primacy to family as the primary unit of society, and therefore promote and protect marriage from the undermining effect of pro-homosexual and LGBQT ideologies.
Belgian Health Fund Chair Proposes ‘Voluntary’ Elderly Euthanasia
Tristan Vanheuckelom – The European Conservative
A Belgian health fund pushes for ‘voluntary’ elderly euthanasia
Facing rising costs of care for the elderly, the chairman of the largest Belgian health insurance fund, Christelijke Mutualiteit (Christian Mutual Insurance), is promoting euthanasia as a money-saving solution. Using a strawman argument – that the debate is currently about the quantity of life – he proposes shifting the focus to obviously subjective quality of life criteria, and thus move beyond a medical debate.
The article also notes the potential for Belgium to follow the same deadly path as Canada’s MAiD (Medical Assistance in Dying) programme. Such schemes provide perverse incentives to “health professionals to actively seek out whoever might be eligible for that ‘treatment’ and promote it to them”. Canada had a 34% increase in people registering to end their lives via MAiD last year – a bleak witness to the effect of such utilitarian approaches.
In view of the upcoming review of the operation of New Zealand’s End of Life Choice Act, FLI will have more comment on the effect of euthanasia laws, so please watch this space.
Simon Harris, who led push for legalized abortion in Ireland, appointed nation’s prime minister
Michael Haynes – LifeSite
Simon Harris, who led push for legalized abortion in Ireland, is the new Taoiseach (Prime Minister)
The previous Taoiseach – Leo Varadkar – resigned unexpectedly on March 20, opening the way for Mr Harris to step up to the top political appointment. Mr Varadkar (openly homosexual) was anti-Catholic in his rhetoric, promoted LGBT ideology, so-called same-sex ‘marriage’ and abortion, and also set in motion a draconian hate-speech law.
Under Varadkar’s leadership, it was Mr Harris who pushed through the changes to Ireland’s Constitution that opened the way to abortion in Ireland. Liam Gibson, policy and legal officer of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children in Britain and Northern Ireland, commented:
Simon Harris was the health minister who introduced abortion to Ireland. He had run for election on a pro-life agenda but when it became politically convenient to do so, he betrayed that trust and introduced, with fervent determination, a radical reversal of laws which protected human life. It’s a tragedy that Ireland has so few men of principle capable of political leadership at this time.
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