Items and Articles in the paper:
What is Euthanasia?
The word euthanasia in the recent past was generally used in reference to
animals. It was often referred to as “putting an animal to sleep”, meaning, a
painless or minimally painless merciful way of ending the life of an animal.
Common understandings of the word euthanasia in Canada now refers to either
animal or human, covering all situations that humans might be in, generally
referring to those who suffer from terminal illness or who are (or might be)
suffering from “tiredness of life”. So with this in mind, a better definition
of the word euthanasia would be:
The putting to death, by painless method, of a terminally-ill or
severely-debilitated person through the omission (intentionally withholding a
life-saving medical procedure, also known as “passive euthanasia”) or
commission of an act (“active euthanasia”).
Duhaime Law:
http://www.duhaime.org
What is the law of Canada regarding
Euthanasia?
Two sections of Canada’s Criminal Code are relevant:
14. No person is entitled to
consent to have death inflicted on him, and such consent does not affect the
criminal responsibility of any person by whom death may be inflicted on the
person by whom consent is given.
241. Everyone who counsels a person to commit suicide or aids or abets a
person to commit suicide, whether suicide ensues or not, is guilty of an
indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding
fourteen years.
What is assisted suicide?
Euthanasia in a wider sense
includes assisting sufferers to commit suicide. Assisted suicide or
intentional killing, even to reduce suffering, is criminal conduct. More
interesting is the situation where a doctor decides to withhold or withdraw
medical care for euthanasia reasons. Section 215 of the Criminal Code says
that “every one is under a legal duty to provide the necessities of life to a
person under his charge if that person is unable, by reason of (...) illness,
mental disorder, or other cause, to withdraw himself from that charge and is
unable to provide himself with the necessities of life”. The Courts have
captured medical treatment under this section, essentially preventing doctors
from withholding or withdrawing life-sustaining procedures.
What is the position of the Catholic
Church on euthanasia and assisted suicide?
From the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
2277. Whatever its motives or
means, direct euthanasia consists in putting an end to the lives of
handicapped, sick, or dying persons. It is morally unacceptable.
Thus an act of omission which, of
itself or by intention, causes death in order to eliminate suffering
constitutes a murder gravely contrary to the dignity of the human person and
to the respect due to the living God, his Creator. The error of judgment
into which one can fall in good faith does not change the nature of this
murderous act, which must always be forbidden and excluded.
What about those who experience
uncontrollable pain?
The better response to patients in pain is not to kill them, but to make sure
that the medicine and technology currently available to control pain is used
more widely and completely. According to a 1992 manual produced by the
Washington Medical Association, Pain Management, and Care of the Terminal
Patient, “adequate interventions exist to control pain in 90 to 99% of
patients”. The problem is that uninformed medical personnel using outdated or
inadequate methods often fail in practice to bring patients relief from pain
that today’s advanced techniques make possible.
What about medical procedures that might be burdensome, dangerous, or
extraordinary?
From the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
2278 Discontinuing medical
procedures that are burdensome, dangerous, extraordinary, or
disproportionate to the expected outcome can be legitimate; it is the
refusal of “over-zealous” treatment. Here one does not will to cause death;
one’s inability to impede it is merely accepted. The decisions should be
made by the patient if he is competent and able or, if not, by those legally
entitled to act for the patient, whose reasonable will and legitimate
interests must always be respected.
Why is it important to know about this
issue now?
At the time of producing this publication, Bill C-407 is before Parliament.
This bill, if passed, will “amend the Criminal Code to allow any person, under
certain conditions, to aid a person close to death or suffering from a
debilitating illness to die with dignity if the person has expressed the free
and informed wish to die” (Summary, Bill C-407, House of Commons, Canada).
Has euthanasia come before Parliament
previously?
Yes. In Canada, three private members’ bills have attempted to address various
aspects of euthanasia and end-of-life decision-making. Each has failed to pass
through Parliament.
What can I do to help stop Bill C-407?
“In our Catholic tradition, life is a gift from God and is, therefore, to be
respected and protected from conception to natural death. Please contact the
Prime Minister and your Member of Parliament to make clear your opposition to
any effort to legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide in Canada. We must act
without delay”.
† Richard W. Smith
Bishop of the Diocese of Pembroke
If this bill does not pass, it is likely that this issue will come before
Parliament again in the near future. Be sure to find out where your candidates
stand on this issue before electing him/her to Parliament.
What can I do to help stop Bill C-407?
“In
our Catholic tradition, life is a gift from God and is,
therefore, to be respected and protected from conception to
natural death. Please contact the Prime Minister and your
Member of Parliament to make clear your opposition to any
effort to legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide in Canada.
We must act without delay”.
† Richard W. Smith
Bishop of the Diocese of Pembroke
If this bill does not pass, it is likely that this issue
will come before Parliament again in the near future.
|
2280 Everyone is
responsible for his life before God who has given it to him. It is God
who remains the sovereign Master of life. We are obliged to accept life
gratefully and preserve it for his honor and the salvation of our souls.
We are stewards, not owners, of the life God has entrusted to us. It is
not ours to dispose of.
Catechism of the
Catholic Church |
Stop Bill C-407
News and information in the fight against
this proposed legislation
http://www.stopbillc-407.com |
“I will neither
give a deadly drug to anybody if asked for it, nor will I make a
suggestion to this effect”.
Medical Profession’s Hippocratic Oath |
DEBATING BILL C-407
On Monday, October 1, 2005, while debating Bill C-407, which would legalize
euthanasia in Canada, Jason Kenney, MP, noted the results of Holland’s
legalization of euthanasia. “Three separate studies have concluded that an
estimated 1,000 cases of active euthanasia occur a year without the consent of
the patient. According to one study, Dutch doctors have gone from killing the
terminally ill who asked for it, to killing the chronically ill who asked for
it, to killing the depressed who had no physical illness but who asked for it,
to killing newborn babies because they have birth defects even though by
definition they cannot ask for it”.
100 Doctors and Lawyers
Warn Canada’s
Parliament Against
Assisted Suicide Bill
Doctors: “We do not want to become the
executioners of our patients”.
OTTAWA, October 26,
2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A group of 100 physicians and lawyers has issued
a strong warning not to legalize physician assisted suicide or euthanasia in
Canada. This statement has been issued in advance of the second reading of
private members Bill C-407 scheduled for October 31st. The Bill seeks to
legalize physician, assisted suicide.
The document was signed by 61 physicians (comprising essentially all medical
specialties including several professors, practising in such diverse fields as
family and internal medicine, oncology, surgery, anaesthesiology, psychiatry,
neurology, radiology, medical ethics, and palliative care), and is being sent
to all MPs to alert them to the dangers of altering existing legislation. The
document has also been endorsed by 39 lawyers.
The brief warns that in the Netherlands, where euthanasia and
physician-assisted suicide have been legalized, at least 1,000 patients,
including children and newborn babies, are being killed every year without
their consent by doctors. Nearly one in ten deaths of newborn babies in
Holland occurs after doctors administer medication to babies with the explicit
purpose of hastening death.
The statement quotes UK palliative care specialists who warn that “Euthanasia,
once accepted, is uncontrollable for philosophical, logical, and practical
reasons. Patients will certainly die without and against their wishes if any
such legislation is introduced”.
The doctors state: “It is easier and cheaper to kill a patient than to treat”.
The brief warns that once euthanasia or physician- assisted suicide has been
legalized, it would put immense pressure on those who, due to illness or
disability, consider themselves to be a burden to relatives or society.
Patients or individuals with disabilities will be pressured, warns the letter,
into euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide.
The document warns that it is impossible to legislate without this legislation
being abused. A change in the legislation, it suggests, will only lead to
further devaluing of human life, especially for the vulnerable members of
society.
See the complete document at:
www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/oct/05102603.html
STATEMENT ON EUTHANASIA
FROM THE BISHOPS OF CANADA
23 September 2005
Gathered in Plenary Assembly, the Catholic Bishops of Canada note with grave
concern, reports that the Government of Canada intends to study Bill C-407, An
Act to Amend the Criminal Code (right to die with dignity).
As our elected federal representatives prepare to return to Ottawa for the
next session of Parliament, we stand firmly opposed to this draft Bill, and we
call upon the Government and all members of Parliament to reject this new
effort to legalize assisted suicide and euthanasia in Canada.
Founded on an erroneous understanding of compassion and of freedom, these
practices are an extremely serious threat that concerns all citizens but
especially the most vulnerable. It is for the common good that Canadian
society must reject Bill C-407 in order to ensure a basic trust among all
citizens.
In order to respond to the physical, emotional, and moral sufferings of people
of all ages, particularly those seriously ill or handicapped, including those
in a terminal phase, we call on Canadians, including our elected
representatives, instead to promote palliative care and end-of-life care. Our
legal system should be inspired by a culture of life in which each person
feels responsible for the well-being of others until their natural death.
At the moment a basic question is being raised: Can Canadians, who are so
concerned about abuse against the sick, the elderly, the handicapped, and the
vulnerable, entertain the possibility of legalizing the most extreme abuse,
killing another person?
The adoption of Bill C-407 or any proposal encouraging euthanasia and assisted
suicide would be a major social failure.
|
Born December 3, 1963
Departed this Earth February 25, 1990
At Peace March 31, 2005 |
I recently had the
privilege of blessing the grave of Terri Schindler-Schiavo, who was murdered
on March 31, 2005 by dehydration. Her grave is not far from the place where
she died, and where people from around the world had gathered to protest and
pray.
Those who visit the gravestone, however, will notice something highly unusual.
While on most graves there is an inscription of two dates - when the person
was born and when he or she died - on Terri’s there are three.
Here’s exactly what the grave says:
Born
December 3, 1963
Departed this Earth February 25, 1990
At Peace
March 31, 2005
The whole world knows that she died on March 31, 2005. National and global
media were present at the scene for days, covering every detail. Media were
present again when I preached at her funeral mass. We know when she died.
But her gravestone has become a pulpit for the euthanasia movement. Those who
killed her are now using her grave as a platform for their twisted ideology.
What they are trying to say is that once her brain was injured in 1990 and she
was no longer functioning like most of us, she wasn’t one of us anymore. She
“departed this earth”.
This is actually a variation on an ancient heresy, which says that we are
really spirits inhabiting a body. Terri couldn’t communicate normally. So, her
“spirit” must have left her. The body was just a shell left behind. Those who
believe she really “departed this earth” in 1990 can therefore pretend it was
OK to kill her in 2005. After all, it wasn’t really her. She was already gone.
This is heresy, because Christianity teaches that we are a unity of body and
soul, not simply a soul “using” a body. The body matters. What we do to the
body, we do to the person.
Moreover, the gravestone inscription is a deep insult to all who are disabled,
and to all those who love and care for them. Should they be considered already
dead, too? Are we just wasting our time caring for them? Euthanasia advocates
would have us think so.
A recent news story about a disabled unborn child quoted one as saying,
“There’s no human life there”. Isn’t that the same idea? They think the baby
has already “departed this earth”, so they don’t hesitate to abort the body.
As I blessed Terri’s grave, I also prayed that God’s people would be kept safe
from this falsehood. And I recalled being in Terri’s room the day she died. I
remembered her face, dehydrated from not having had a drop of water in two
weeks. I recalled seeing the flowers, inches away, on her night table. They
were immersed in water. And as I left the grave, I gave a final glance to the
vase of flowers that was standing by the stone.
Fr. Frank Pavone
National Director,
Priests for Life (USA)
EUTHANASIA DEFINITIONS
Voluntary euthanasia: When the person who is
killed has requested to be killed.
Non-voluntary: When the person who is killed made
no request and gave no consent.
Involuntary euthanasia: When the person who is
killed made an expressed wish to the contrary.
Assisted suicide: Someone provides an individual
with the information, guidance, and means to take his or her own life with the
intention that they will be used for this purpose. When it is a doctor who
helps another person to kill themselves it is called “physician-assisted
suicide”.
Euthanasia by Action: Intentionally causing a
person’s death by performing an action such as giving a lethal injection.
Euthanasia by Omission: Intentionally causing
death by not providing necessary and ordinary (usual and customary) care or
food and water.
What Euthanasia is NOT: There is no euthanasia
unless the death is intentionally caused by what was done or not done. Thus,
some medical actions that are often labeled “passive euthanasia” are not a
form of euthanasia, since the intention to take life is lacking. These acts
include not commencing treatment that would not provide a benefit to the
patient, withdrawing treatment that has been shown to be ineffective, too
burdensome, or is unwanted, and the giving of high doses of pain-killers that
may endanger life, when they have been shown to be necessary. All these are
part of good medical practice, endorsed by law, when they are properly carried
out.
The above definitions are from:
www.euthanasia.com. Check this site for more information on euthanasia.
|
Refusal of Medical
Care and Treatment
Canadian citizens have a basic
right to refuse medical care and treatment and they have a right to
decide what medical treatment they accept or reject, even if the
rejection of a life-saving procedures leads to their death. This is part
of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms : “every one has the
right to (...) security of the person and the right not to be deprived
thereof”. Quebec's Civil Code reiterates this principle.
|
Euthanasia Prevention Coalition Offers a
Power of Attorney document to protect
you against Euthanasia
For more information on the power of attorney document, contact Alex
Schadenberg at the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition - 1-877-439-3348. |
The Catholic Church Beatifies a Cardinal Who
Defends Life Against Nazi Euthanasia
Clemens August von
Galen was born on 16 March 1878 in Dinklage Castle, Oldenburg, Germany, the
11th of 13 children born to Count Ferdinand Heribert and Elisabeth von Spee.
Clemens August was ordained a priest on 28 May 1904 for the Diocese of Münster
by Bishop Hermann Dingelstadt.
Parish priest, concern for poor
His first two years as a priest were spent as vicar of the diocesan cathedral
where he became chaplain to his uncle, Bishop Maximilian Gerion von Galen.
From 1906 to 1929, Fr von Galen carried out much of his pastoral activity
outside Münster: in 1906 he was made chaplain of the parish of St Matthias in
Berlin-Schönberg; from 1911 to 1919 he was curate of a new parish in Berlin
before becoming parish priest of the Basilica of St Matthias in Berlin-Schönberg,
where he served for 10 years; here, he was particularly remembered for his
special concern for the poor and outcasts.
On 5 September 1933, Fr. Clemens was appointed Bishop of Münster by Pope Pius
XI. On 28 October 1933, he was consecrated by Cardinal Joseph Schulte,
Archbishop of Cologne. Bishop von Galen was the first diocesan Bishop to be
consecrated under Hitler’s regime.
Nec laudibus, nec timore
As his motto, he chose the formula of the rite of episcopal consecration: “Nec
laudibus, nec timore” (Neither praise nor threats will distance me from God).
Throughout the 20 years that Bishop von Galen was curate and parish priest in
Berlin, he wrote on various political and social issues; in a pastoral letter
dated 26 March 1934, he wrote very clearly and critically on the “neopaganism
of the national socialist ideology”.
On 14 March 1937, the Encyclical, Mit Brennender Sorge (To the Bishops of
Germany: The place of the Catholic Church in the German Reich) was published.
It was widely circulated by Bishop von Galen, notwithstanding Nazi opposition.
Lion of Munster
In the summer of 1941, in answer to unwarranted attacks by the National
Socialists, Bishop von Galen delivered three admonitory sermons between July
and August. He spoke in his old parish Church of St Lambert and in
Liebfrauen-Ueberlassen Church, since the diocesan cathedral had been bombed.
In his famous speeches, given on 3 August 1941, Bishop von Galen spoke out
against the State confiscation of Church property and the programmatic
euthanasia (mercy killings of over 70,000 German people) carried out by the
regime.
“Once admit the right to kill unproductive persons . . . then none of us can
be sure of his life. We shall be at the mercy of any committee that can put a
man on the list of unproductives. There will be no police protection, no court
to avenge the murder and inflict punishment upon the murderer. Who can have
confidence in any doctor? He has but to certify his patients as unproductive
and he receives the command to kill. If this dreadful doctrine is permitted
and practiced it is impossible to conjure up the degradation to which it will
lead. Suspicion and distrust will be sown within the family itself.A curse on
men and on the German people if we break the holy commandment ‘Thou shalt not
kill’ which was given us by God on Mount Sinai with thunder and lightning, and
which God our Maker imprinted on the human conscience from the beginning of
time! Woe to us German people if we not only license this heinous offence but
allow it to be committed with impunity!”
(Source: The above is from the book, Cardinal von Galen, by Rev. Heinrich
Portmann, translated by R.L. Sedgwick, 1957, pp. 239-40.)
The clarity and incisiveness of his words and the unshakable fidelity of
Catholics in the Diocese of Münster embarrassed the Nazi regime, and on 10
October 1943, the Bishop’s residence was bombed. Bishop von Galen was forced
to take refuge in nearby Borromeo College.
From 12 September 1944 on, he could no longer remain in the city of Münster,
destroyed by the war, he left for the zone of Sendenhorst.
In 1945, Vatican Radio announced that Pope Pius XII was to hold a Consistory
and that the Bishop of Münster was also to be present.
Creation of a Cardinal
On 21 February 1946, the Public Consistory was held in St Peter’s Basilica and
Bishop von Galen was created a Cardinal. On 16 March 1946, the 68-year-old
Cardinal returned to Münster. He was cordially welcomed back by the city
Authorities and awarded honorary citizenship by the burgomaster.
Cardinal von Galen died just three days later, on 22 March. He was buried on
28 March in the Ludgerus Chapel, which has become a place of pilgrimage to
this defender of the faith in the face of political oppression.
Beatified
On 9 October 2005, Cardinal Clemens August von Galen, known as the “Lion of
Munster”, was beatified, a step on the road toward being declared a saint in
the Catholic Church.
See the complete sermon delivered by Bishop Clemens August von Galen on August
3, 1941, at:
www.priestsforlife.org/preaching/vongalen41-08-03.htm
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