US nuncio: To heal society’s wounds, Catholics must be Good Samaritans

Washington D.C., Feb 4, 2020 / 04:06 pm (CNA).- Ahead of President Donald Trump’s annual State of the Union address on Tuesday, Feb. 4, pro-life activists and Christian leaders say they hope the president will use his address to advocate for the right to life and to protect religious minorities.

“I hope President Trump takes the opportunity to call Americans to unity on the human right to life. We need to move beyond partisanship and rally around a shared vision for Americans who especially need solidarity, love, and care,” said Tom Shakely, chief engagement officer at Americans United for Life.

Trump could offer, “a national appeal to build a culture of life, a real spectrum of life-affirming choices that rejects violence and self-harm, in every state, city, and town,” said Shakely. This potential message “would be a powerful and important moment in our history.”

On Tuesday afternoon, the White House revealed that two of the guests at the State of the Union would be Ellie and Robin Schneider, from Kansas City, Missouri. Ellie, who is two years old, was born to her mother Robin at just 21 weeks and six days gestation.

“With the help of an incredible medical team–and the prayers of her parents and their community–Ellie kept beating the odds, exceeding milestones, and fighting for life,” said a press release announcing guests attending the address.

Across the country, there were 36 state laws passed in 2019 that sought to preserve a legal right to abortion. This number is an increase from just five in 2018. Many states passed laws that legalizes abortion in the third trimester.

The Schneiders’ presence at the State of the Union suggests that Trump will endorse a new pro-life policy initiative at the federal level.

The State of the Union address covers a multitude of topics, but does not always include nods to each of the president’s policies. Last year, Trump did not mention religious freedom or the plight of persecuted religious minorities worldwide in his address.

While in the year since his speech, the president has pledged to support those groups, advocates hope he will raise the issue during his speech.

Edward Clancy, director of outreach at Aid to the Church in Need, told CNA that he hopes Trump uses his address “to remind the world community that there are vulnerable religious minorities in harms’ way around the world, and to deal proactively with the conditions that cause danger.”

Those conditions, explained Clancy, include governmental corruption, a lack of access to education, particularly among women, and “foreign actors who seek to instill violence and repression to control or eliminate” minority groups.

Kristen Day, president of Democrats for Life, told CNA that while she is interested in what Trump will have to say related to abortion and family leave, she is more concerned with how her party chooses to respond to the address. The official Democratic Party response will be delivered by Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

“Clearly, President Trump is going after the pro-life vote,” said Day. “So what I’m more interested in this evening is what the the governor of Michigan says to the pro-life voters out there.”

Day said that she will be waiting most to see how Whitmer categorizes the abortion issue.

“Is she going to talk about abortion and how important that is to the values of the party,” asked Day. “Or is she going to try to think about the big tent, diversity, and trying to appeal to the pro-life voters to bring them back to the party?”

A 2019 Gallup Poll showed that 14% of Democrats said they believed that abortion should be illegal in all circumstances, and that 39% said it should be legal under any circumstances.

Approximately 59% of Democrats support at least some restrictions on abortion.

The Democratic Party’s 2016 platform called for abortion to be available without any restrictions, as well as a repeal of the Hyde Amendment.

Pro-Life Democrats are “most interested in what the Democrats are saying cause you know, we’re told we don’t belong and we’re no longer going to be taken for granted,” said Day.

“We need to hear that we are part of this (Democratic) party. No more litmus tests, no more telling us that we can’t run unless we change our position. We should be valued members of the party and not left out, and it’s a big tent.”

[…]

Washington D.C., Mar 23, 2019 / 04:17 am (CNA).- As multiple states consider assisted suicide legislation, disability activists are speaking out, saying the bills are slippery slopes that put the lives of people with disabilities at risk.

Connecticut lawmakers are now considering HB 5898, “An Act Concerning Aid In Dying For Terminally Ill Patients,” which would permit doctors to prescribe lethal medication to people with less than six months to live. The patient would be permitted to self-administer the medication when they wish to end their life.

HB 5898 is modeled after Oregon’s assisted suicide law, which was the first in the nation. On Monday, members of the state General Assembly’s Public Health Committee heard testimony from those who are in favor of the bill, and from those who are opposed.

Cathy Ludlum, one of the leaders of the group Second Thoughts Connecticut and a woman who lives with a disability, provided written testimony that was emailed to all members of the public health committee.

In the testimony, which was forwarded to CNA by Second Thoughts Connecticut, Ludlum explained that the language of the bill puts people with disabilities at risk.

“But the harsh reality is that (persons with disabilities) will be the collateral damage in any formalized death-by-choice system,” said Ludlum. “Many of us with severe and obvious disabilities are already too frequently thought of by medical practitioners as having reached a final stage, where death might be expected in the near future.”

Ludlum said the definitions in the bill mean that she herself would be defined as someone who is terminally ill, even though she is not.

That section defines a “terminal illness” as “final stage of an incurable and irreversible medical condition that an attending physician anticipates, within reasonable medical judgment, will produce a patient’s death within six months.”

“Nowhere does it say ‘with or without treatment,’” Ludlum pointed out.

“Most people assume this legislation is for people who have exhausted all their treatment options, but that is not what it says.” Ludlum explained that she eats with a feeding tube and requires respiratory support when she sleeps.

“Without these treatments, I would not last six months,” she said. “I probably would not last six days. What is to prevent someone like me from showing up at a doctor’s office and saying, ‘I have had enough. I will be stopping all my treatment’?”

A typical person in this situation would not be allowed to kill themselves, and would instead receive counseling. Ludlum is concerned that someone with a disability “would be more likely to get compassionate nods of approval.”

Ludlum is also concerned that the law would enable doctors to steer patients with disabilities into ending their own lives, or stopping treatment needlessly. She noted that due to the language of the bill, which states that the lethal medication “may” be self-administered, as opposed to that it “shall be” self-administered, there would be nothing to prevent someone else from ending the patient’s life.

Another group opposed to assisted suicide laws is the United Spinal Association, which is a nonprofit organization dedicating to “improving the quality of life of Americans with spinal cord injuries or disorders.”

United Spinal’s President and CEO James Weisman told CNA that his organization was opposed to these bills not for religious or political reasons, but because “people – family members, and in the medical profession – often don’t understand the latent capacity of quadriplegics to live full, meaningful lives with jobs and families in the community, after (they) break their neck.”

He believes that assisted suicide laws are rooted in discrimination, because people are afraid of what life would be like with a disability.

“Nobody wants to have a broken neck. Everybody says they’d rather be dead,” said Weisman.

“Every single one of our members who’s a quadriplegic says they wanted to die when they found out they were going to be a quadriplegic. But the overwhelming majority go on to leave meaningful, full lives.”

Weisman told CNA that he would like to see expanded access to palliative care for those who are in pain, as well as increased education for people in the medical field about how it is possible to live a meaningful life with a disability.

“The medical profession and the uninformed public encourage those who break their necks or have other injuries to end (their lives),” said Weisman. “It’s such a slippery slope when we decide who can live and who can die.”

Elsewhere in the country, 16 other states are in the process of passing similar legislation, including Maryland and Nevada.

Members of Maryland’s Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee approved the “End-of-Life Option Act” on Friday. The bill had advanced through the state House of Delegates earlier in March.

In Nevada, the state Senate is considering SB 165, which would allow doctors to prescribe lethal doses of medication to terminally ill patients over the age of 18. The bill has passed through one working session of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee.

That bill, similar to Connecticut’s, defines “terminal condition” as “an incurable and irreversible condition that cannot be cured or modified by any known current medical therapy or treatment and which will, in the opinion of the attending physician, result in death within 6 months.”

Also like Connecticut, the bill does not specify if death will occur “with or without treatment.”

[…]

CNA Staff, Sep 24, 2020 / 04:07 pm (CNA).-  

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