716 - Peace & Life: Euth Veto/Stop Arms/Executions - September 27, 2024
Good News – Governor Vetoes Euthanasia
Governor John Carney of Delaware last Friday (September 20) vetoed HR 140, providing for physician-assisted suicide. See his veto message. This keeps Delaware from being the 12th state to legalize the lethal practice.
There is also a positive referendum in West Virginia this November 5 to protect patients from medically assisted suicide.
Action News – Arms Sales
U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders just announced (on September 25) that he and colleagues are filing “Joint Resolutions of Disapproval” on sending specific weapons to Israel. While weapons whose sole function is to kill people are always a bad idea, these weapons have been especially egregious in breaking U.S. and international law, killing tens of thousands of civilians including children. What was already intolerable has recently escalated into Lebanon.
We encourage our U.S. readers to write their Senators to encourage them to support these resolutions.
Bad News – Executions
Two men whose guilt was contested were nevertheless executed recently in South Carolina and Missouri.
Governors in those states claim to be pro-life. We hold that their failure to apply the principle across the board is not just grievously wrong, but also hurts the ability to reach hearts and minds in a way that would ultimately stop abortion.
We made this case in our blog on a previous occasion:
The Death Penalty Information Center offers a page on upcoming executions.
The Pope on Voting
On September 13, this among several articles reported:
Pope Francis on Friday slammed both U.S. presidential candidates for what he called anti-life policies on abortion and migration and advised American Catholics to choose the 'lesser evil' in the upcoming U.S. elections.
“Both are against life, be it the one who kicks out migrants or the one who (supports) killing babies.”
He didn’t specify which candidate would be the lesser evil.
Note this wasn’t a prepared announcement nor a well-thought-out document, but a spontaneous answer to a reporter’s question.
Several perspectives fit under the consistent-life umbrella:
This is great – it shows the common consistent-life understanding about not having a throwaway culture, and that both major candidates have major problems. It helps break the left/right stereotypes, a major obstacle for us.
This is terrible – migrants don’t have any other rights if they don’t have the right to life, which is foundational for everything else. Anything less than intentional killing, as in abortion and war, shouldn’t be treated as equivalent.
We do have third parties and independent candidates we can vote for, with no obligation to select one of the top two. Voting for the “lesser” evil is still voting for evil. This hardly seems the thing to encourage Catholics and other people of goodwill to do.
Our recent blog post looks at the current U.S. presidential election. It includes comments and a list of other posts about consistent-life voting strategy.
Our Latest Blog Posts
Ms. Boomer-ang explains how the Worthiness Concept Threatens Equality.
Several of us respond to an anti-war organization taking a pro-abortion stand in Another Blind Spot: Win Without War.
Quotation of the Week
Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, cancer specialist
Whose Right to Die? The Atlantic, March, 1997, pp. 73, 79
Broad legalization of physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia would have the paradoxical effect of making patients seem to be responsible for their own suffering.
Rather than being seen primarily as the victims of pain and suffering caused by disease, patients would be seen as having the power to end their suffering by agreeing to an injection or taking some pills; refusing would mean that living through the pain was the patient's decision, the patient's responsibility.
Placing the blame on the patient would reduce the motivation of caregivers to provide the extra care that might be required and would ease guilt if the care fell short.
To apply this point to both abortion and euthanasia, see our post: When “Choice” Itself Hurts the Quality of Life