OAS Secretary General backs ‘essential’ right to life

March 10, 2020 CNA Daily News News Briefs 0 Print

Washington D.C., Mar 10, 2020 / 02:00 pm (CNA).- Pro-life advocates praised the Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS) Tuesday for stating that the right to life should be protected from conception.

Luis Almagro, formerly the Uruguayan foreign minister, has previously drawn criticism for the organization’s apparent support for abortion.

Last week, at a forum for candidates for OAS Secretary General, the current OAS head, Almagro, said that “definitely, the principles of religious freedom that I have mentioned and the principles of the right to life are fundamental principles and rights.” Almagro is running for re-election as secretary general.

Almagro also said that it is “essential” that Article 4 of the American Convention on Human Rights be fully applied.

That article states that “Every person has the right to have his life respected,” and that “[t]his right shall be protected by law and, in general, from the moment of conception.”

In response, two pro-life leaders—who opposed Almagro’s re-election last year in a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo—offered praise of the secretary general’s statements.

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List, praised Almagro’s remarks March 10, expressing her hope that “they are heard throughout the region and the world.”

“He could not have been clearer: the right to life is a fundamental principle and right,” Dannenfelser said.

Alfonso Aguilar, president of the Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles, also applauded Almagro’s remarks on Tuesday, calling them a significant step toward respecting the decisions of OAS member states to uphold the sanctity of life.

Almagro “fully understands that multilateral organizations like the OAS should respect the sovereignty of members states on matters of their internal jurisdiction such as the issue of abortion,” Aguilar said.

In his remarks at the candidate forum, Almagro—who is running for a second term as secretary general—also defended the ability of pro-life groups to make human rights claims to the body.

The Organization of American States (OAS) is made up of 35 member states from the Western Hemisphere, and promotes cooperation and solidarity among member countries as well as sovereignty and independence.

It has attracted criticism in recent years for alleged abortion advocacy. In 2019, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that the U.S. would be reduce funding to the OAS under the Siljander Amendment, which prohibits U.S. funding of pro-abortion lobbying. The U.S. cited “recent evidence of abortion-related advocacy” at the OAS for the decision.

“Our reduction equals the estimated U.S. share of possible OAS expenditures on these abortion-related activities,” Pompeo said.

Dannenfelser and Aguilar were two of more than two dozen pro-life leaders who called for the Trump administration to oppose Almagro’s re-election in October.

In a letter to Secretary Pompeo in October, the leaders pointed to Almagro’s alleged abortion advocacy and called it “gravely inappropriate.” The secretary general had met with the International Planned Parenthood Federation, as well as the Center for Reproductive Rights.

“Upon assuming the leadership of the OAS, Mr. Almagro made good on his promise to promote abortion as a human right,” they said at the time.

However, according to SBA List on Tuesday, the Trump administration subsequently reached out to Almagro, who assured them that he had no intention of promoting a right to abortion in member states.

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How will palliative care fare in Canada?

November 16, 2018 CNA Daily News 0

Edmonton, Canada, Nov 16, 2018 / 03:02 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A member for Canadian Physicians for Life says requiring provision of assisted suicide by Catholic hospitals and by hospices will have disastrous results for palliative care throughout the country.

Karol Boschung, a second year medical student at University of British Columbia, wrote an opinion piece in the Edmonton Journal Nov. 15 expressing concern for the effects of forcing out Catholic healthcare providers.

“Bullying Catholic health-care providers into compliance will not result in expanded access to medical care for all Canadians. If forced to perform procedures which compromise its morals, the Catholic Church may be pressed into withdrawing from the administration of organizations like Covenant Health,” she said.

Covenant Health is one of the major health care administers for Alberta, she said, noting the Catholic health service provides over one-third of palliative-care beds for this province.

According to Covenant Health’s figures in 2008, the organization had more than 8,800 staff across 11 sites. The report states that the budget for 2008 was $514 million, which helped served more than 2,300 beds.

“What might happen to these beds if the government found itself on the hook for purchasing these facilities?” she asked.

“Indeed, attempting to push the Catholic Church out of the administration of Covenant Health would reduce, not improve, access to palliative care and other essential services.”

Boschung spoke on the recent media attention around Doreen Nowicki, who had ALS and committed physician-assisted suicide in 2017. On Covenant Health property, Nowicki had been denied access to the exams to determine the patient’s eligibility for assisted suicide

While sympathizing with the struggle of ALS, Boschung said assisted suicide is not an intrinsic human right as argued by the ethicist Arthur Schafer, who supported Nowicki in a story last month by the CBC.

“We are talking about a fundamental human right, not a privilege to be bestowed at the discretion of a Catholic or religious bureaucrat,” Schafer told the CBC, noting that Covenant’s position was morally inexcusable.

Boschung said that since assisted suicide was decriminalized by the Supreme Court of Canada’s Carter v Canada decision in 2015, assisted suicide “has gone from a criminal offence to a broadly-accepted practice — even a ‘fundamental human right,’ even though legally it is nothing of the sort.”

She added that pressure to provide assisted suicide has affected not only Catholic organizations.

“For example, the Delta Hospice Society, a secular hospice in B.C., was embroiled in controversy earlier this year when the local health authority attempted to bully them into making physician-assisted suicide available on their premises, despite strenuous objections by hospice founders and operators.”

“The operators correctly maintained that PAS was incompatible with the philosophy of hospice palliative care, and that to force them to provide this service was incompatible with the mission of the hospice itself,” Boschung wrote.

Boschung said enforcing PAS is a shorted-sighted solution – a move which will reduce palliative care to ensure the availability of assisted suicide.

“If we really care about the sick and dying, the last thing we need is an approach that leads to a reduction in the availability and diversity of end-of-life care,” she said.

“To push for such an outcome would be a triumph of ideology over practicality.”

[…]

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