By Judie Brown
In Canada, the parents of a deceased woman are suing the hospital because, they allege, their daughter’s right to request her death at the hands of hospital employees was violated. The Catholic St. Paul’s hospital chose to transfer its patient rather than comply with the medical aid in dying law requirements. The parents are now requesting that the religious exemption conferred on the hospital be canceled. They say that their daughter died a horrific death, and their lawsuit represents an action they hope will help future dying patients be given the right to be killed regardless of hospital policies against euthanasia.
But Alex Schadenberg, a leading anti-euthanasia voice in Canada, said regarding Canadian pro-death tactics, “We need to be caring for people, not killing them. . . . The other side changed the language and they want to call it something else; and no, we have to say what it is and stick to the point and be very vocal about that. Silence is not our friend.”
His words are prescient given the mood of hospitals and others to “help” people who are suffering by ending their lives prematurely.
Sadly, even once-pro-life political types like Senator Bob Casey have changed their stripes, viewing a pro-abortion posture to be more advantageous. Casey recently said that being pro-life never meant a total ban on abortion!
Referencing the flawed Supreme Court Dobbs decision, he said: “This dangerous ruling won’t end abortions in this country, but it will put women’s lives at risk. And make no mistake—this is not the end goal, it’s just the beginning. Republicans in Congress want to pass federal legislation to completely ban abortion. Our daughters and granddaughters should not grow up with fewer rights than their mothers.”
In other words, Casey currently views the act of killing a preborn child as a maternal right! If that isn’t a contradiction defying logic, then I need to go back to school.
We are living in an age when a turtle named Turbo—who faced euthanasia and was rescued—has more rights than a preborn baby human. This attitude is evidenced in a recent report stating that Democratic women are more motivated to vote in November’s election in states where abortion rights could be on the ballot as opposed to states where such a vote is unlikely. Thus, one can posit that it is essentially more appealing to be pro-animal life than it is to be pro-human life.
Considering this carefully requires us to ponder a current mentality that holds respect for the human person in contempt. Why people detest the right to life of the preborn as vehemently as they do is a problem that defies rational explanation.
This inspired us to look into the views of Church doctor Saint Thomas Aquinas, as discussed by the Catholic library:
We should beware lest our anger grow in intensity, having its beginning in the heart, and finally leading on to hatred. For there is this difference between anger and hatred, that anger is sudden, but hatred is long-lived and, thus, is a mortal sin: “Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer.” And the reason is because he kills both himself (by destroying charity) and another. Thus, St. Augustine in his “Rule” says: “Let there be no quarrels among you; or if they do arise, then let them end quickly, lest anger should grow into hatred, the mote becomes a beam, and the soul becomes a murderer.” Again: “A passionate man stirreth up strifes.” “Cursed be their fury, because it was stubborn, and their wrath, because it was cruel.” . . .
It is for all this that Christ taught us not only to beware of murder but also of anger. The good physician removes the external symptoms of a malady; and, furthermore, he even removes the very root of the illness, so that there will be no relapse. So also the Lord wishes us to avoid the beginnings of sins; and anger is thus to be avoided because it is the beginning of murder.
These words ring so true for those of us who find it difficult to comprehend the somber truth that at least 2,800 times on a given day, a preborn child will be surgically killed. And only God knows how many more by the ingestion of chemical abortion agents such as the birth control pill and the abortion pill regimen of mifepristone and misoprostol.
All of these people are human beings created in the image of God. Thus, we fight on for their rights, recommitting our efforts on behalf of those whose only voice is our own.
May we never lose sight of the fact that there is no more savage, angry act than the killing of an innocent preborn baby, a vulnerable human being, or a terminally ill person.