Spain moves forward on euthanasia bill

February 12, 2020 CNA Daily News News Briefs 2 Print

Madrid, Spain, Feb 12, 2020 / 03:01 pm (CNA).- After Spain’s socialist party tried and failed twice last year to legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide, the lower house of the country’s parliament has now voted to consider a bill that would legalize the practices in certain circumstances.

According to Spanish newspaper El País, the bill was approved for consideration in the 350-seat Congress of Deputies by 201 votes to 140, with two abstaining. It now goes through additional steps of consideration in a committee and by the Senate before a final vote.

If passed, the law would permit euthanasia or assisted suicide in cases of “clearly debilitating diseases without a cure, without a solution and which cause significant suffering,” government spokesperson Maria Jesus Montero told Reuters.

Voluntary euthanasia occurs when a doctor kills a patient at the patient’s request. Assisted suicide is the prescribing of a lethal dose of drugs by a doctor to a patient, who then administers the drugs themselves. Euthanasia and assisted suicide are currently legal in Belgium, Luxembourg, Colombia, Canada, the Netherlands, and the Australian state of Victoria, while Switzerland and some U.S. states allow assisted suicide.

The bill being considered in Spain would legalize both procedures. It allows for conscientious objectors among doctors, although it stipulates that patients must be referred to alternate doctors.

According to the AP, the bill also stipulates that patients would not be made to wait more than a month after making their initial request for either euthanasia or assisted suicide. Initial requests will be considered by two doctors, and then a patient must make a subsequent request for the procedure, which will go to a committee for approval.

The bill has faced strong objections from the Catholic Church, as well as from the conservative People’s Party and the far-right party Vox.

In a statement on their website, the Spanish Bishop’s Conference said that the Church “has always considered euthanasia as a moral evil and an attack on the dignity of the person. St. John Paul II affirmed that ‘according to the Magisterium of my predecessors and in communion with the bishops of the Catholic Church, I confirm that euthanasia is a serious violation of the Law of God, since it is the deliberate and morally unacceptable killing of a human person.’”

The bishops added that euthanasia and assisted suicide are “alien” to the field of medicine and violate the Hippocratic oath taken by doctors, which states: "I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody who asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect.”

They also noted that the arguments for euthanasia and assisted suicide as acts of autonomy are flawed. “…it is not possible to understand euthanasia and assisted suicide as something that refers exclusively to the autonomy of the individual, since such actions involve the participation of others, in this case, of health personnel,” they said.

The bishops said that instead of killing people, the country should instead bolster its palliative care efforts to ease the pain and suffering of the dying and to accompany their families and loved ones.

Vox spokesperson Rocio Monasterio told Reuters that her party will have “fierce” resistance against the bill, which calls for the “elimination” of people who are no longer useful to society.

Pope Francis has frequently condemned euthanasia, calling it a “sin against God” and saying that it is “based on a utilitarian view of the person, who becomes useless or can be equated to a cost, if from the medical point of view, he has no hope of improvement or can no longer avoid pain.”

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Want to engage secular culture? An Irish bishop provides a guide.

May 9, 2017 CNA Daily News 0

Norwich, England, May 9, 2017 / 03:04 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Neither the narrow narrative against religion nor the real failings of the Church should define the role of Catholics in public life, Archbishop Eamon Martin of Armagh has said.

“Our challenge is to present to the world the edifying and inspiring witness of people of faith,” said the archbishop. “We are impacted by the process of secularization. We live, breathe, work and believe alongside people of other traditions, faiths and none and the pressure on believers to conform, to become just like everyone else, is often immense and overpowering.”

The Northern Ireland-based Archbishop Martin, who is Primate of All Ireland, delivered the 2017 Newman Lecture May 8 at the University of East Anglia in Norwich. He gave an Irish perspective on the Church in the public sphere, and his speaking notes were published on the website of the Irish bishops’ conference.

About 78 percent of Ireland’s 4.76 million citizens self-identify as Catholic, according to the most recent census. This is a decline of five percentage points over a five-year period.

While Archbishop Martin noted that this is still a remarkable number of Catholics, he said social commentary in Ireland has focused on “the decline of the Church.” Some have again called to remove the Church’s perceived influence in schools, health care, and public policy.

“Such a narrative clearly challenges the Church to find new ways of presenting the Joy of the Gospel, and for example the Gospel of the Family, in the public sphere,” the archbishop said.

“There is no question that the practice of faith in Ireland has been hugely exposed to, and challenged by, the prevailing culture,” he said, according to the notes. At the same time, there seems to be little appetite for “any substantial critique of culture by people of faith,” especially if this means presenting serious questions about the “almost compulsory consensus on controversial issues.”

Archbishop Martin said scandals in the Church should not be used as an excuse to silence well-founded religious critiques of society, nor should they be allowed to conceal the dedication of Catholic priests and religious.

“When we attempt as Church to speak in the public sphere about the right to life of the unborn, some are quick to point to the scandals and to shameful stories of the past,” he said. “Decades of service by countless religious sisters and priests to the education and healthcare of the people of Ireland and all over the world is almost obliterated by a revised and narrow narrative that religious ethos cannot be good for democracy and stands against the progress and flourishing of society and the rights of citizens.”

At the same time, the archbishop said the Church has been too defensive in its reaction to criticisms. These responses show simple denial or claim unfairness or conspiracy “rather than being thankful that the lid has been lifted on a terrible and shameful chapter of our history and at last giving a voice to those who for years have been carrying a lonely trauma.”

“I am convinced, however, that the failures of the past must not be allowed to define us, but should instead help all of us in the public sphere learn lessons for the present about where Church and society might today be similarly marginalizing the poor, stigmatizing the unwanted or failing to protect the most vulnerable.”

As a model for striking a positive tone in the public sphere, Archbishop Martin cited the French bishops’ October 2016 statement to the nation, in which they cautioned against aspirations to be a “church of the pure” or “a counterculture removed from society, posing as a judge from above.”

“They speak as people of faith, but also as fellow French citizens, pastorally accompanying their troubled people with empathy and concern,” the archbishop said. “With faith and conviction we will sometimes bring uncomfortable questions into the public sphere e.g. about the impact of economic policies on the most vulnerable, or to point out the contradictions of populism, all the while being careful not to become too sensitive to criticism or always claiming to be offended.”

He rejected false claims that the Church desires to create a “theocracy.” At the same time, “the Church does expect that in a true pluralist democracy or republic, religion and faith will continue to have an important part to play in the national conversation.”

The archbishop was critical of tendencies to see faith-related institutions, like hospitals and schools, as unconnected to reason. Every Catholic position on morals is argued from reason, even when there is biblical justification.

He also countered claims that the bishops are overly interested in sexual morality, saying bishops in both north and south “makes it clear that the Bishops seek to bring the Joy of the Gospel to bear on a whole range of issues.”

The importance of culture was also a focus. While the Church may be “counter-cultural,” she is not “extra-cultural.”

Archbishop Martin noted three potential possibilities for Catholics: a “culture of openness,” which some fear dilutes Catholic beliefs and leads to unjustified compromise; a “culture of identity” that stresses Catholic distinctiveness instead of what Catholics have in common with all people of good will; and the “culture of engagement,” with two-way critical interaction and conversations between religious traditions and the broader culture.

“Despite the voices nowadays which might tempt the Church into pointless culture wars, or even suggest that Christians might opt out of the public square to some sort of ‘parallel polis,’ I am completely convinced that the voice of faith can and should remain engaged in the public square,” the archbishop said.

“Our faith is not simply for the privacy of our homes and churches. The Gospel is meant for mission. It is not to be cloistered away from the cut and thrust of public discourse.”

[…]

2 Comments

  1. Just as in Western Europe and Canada, it always first starts ‘in limited circumstances’ only to show its true colors in time.

    Going for the lie.

    Reply

  2. People are afraid of suffering, and don’t see the redemptive side of suffering, which is a choice to love others and be united to the sufferings of Christ so that others might be able to love, and thus live in eternal paradise.

    It is the story of the two thieves on the cross. One wanted to end suffering, and couldn’t believe in a God who “didn’t get off the cross” by ending suffering. The other thief accepted his share of the suffering for his sins, and wanted a God who would love him forever in a Kingdom of Love.

    It is the ultimate act of evil, to murder in the name of mercy. To take life, rather than give life, and to claim to be acting in the name of a merciful God as the soul is crushed with cruelty.

    Too bad a once religious country as Spain and resorted to this, the same country that gave the world so many saints, is now listening to the devil.

    Reply

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