At this website by various means we seek to defend life, to encourage Christian faith, to promote Catholic tradition, to edify Marriage in its link to the Creator, to encourage families and individuals, and to support missionary disciples of Jesus. G.S.
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Killing people is not compassion – religious leaders unite against assisted suicide Ottawa, Canada, Nov 3, 2015 / 12:36 am MT ().- As Canada moves toward legalizing assisted suicide, Catholic bishops and a large Protestant coalition – along with Jewish and Muslim leaders – have joined together to reaffirm the need to help the suffering without killing them. “On the basis of our respective traditions and beliefs, we insist that any action intended to end human life is morally and ethically wrong. Together, we are determined to work to alleviate human suffering in every form but never by intentionally eliminating those who suffer,” the joint statement said.
The Declaration on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide is a joint statement from the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, a coalition of over 40 affiliated denominations. The statement, released Oct. 29, also has support from more than 30 other Christian denominations as well as 20 Jewish and Muslim leaders. “Humanity’s moral strength is based on solidarity, communion and communication – particularly with those who are suffering,” the statement continued. “It is personal attention and palliative care and not assisted suicide or euthanasia that best uphold the worth of the human person.” “It is when we are willing to care for one another under the most dire of circumstances and at the cost of great inconvenience that human dignity and society’s fundamental goodness are best expressed and preserved.”
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DECLARATION AGAINST EUTHANASIA AND ASSISTED SUICIDE
The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops and The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada Wednesday, January 13 2016 - CCCB-EFC Joint statement This past October 29, the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC) and the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) launched a joint Declaration on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide. At the launching of the Declaration at the National Press Gallery in Ottawa on Parliament Hill, the CCCB and EFC were assisted by Rabbi Dr. Reuven P. Bulka, C.M., from the Congregation Machzikei Hadas in Ottawa, and Imam Samy Metwally from the Ottawa Main Mosque / Ottawa Muslim Association. At the time of its release, the Declaration had 56 signatories from Catholic, Orthodox, Evangelical, Jewish and Muslim faith leaders across Canada.
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MEDICAL ASSISTANCE IN DYING: A PATIENT CENTRED APPROACH
Report of the Special Joint Committee on Physician-Assisted Dying - Hon. Kelvin Kenneth Ogilvie and Robert Oliphant Joint Chairs - FEBRUARY 2016 - 42nd PARLIAMENT, 1st SESSION (70 pages) - (Pages 59-60) New Democrats see these issues as not only intrinsically linked to the issue of medical aid in dying, but fundamental to a successful model of public healthcare in Canada for the 21st century. Canadians want better access to primary care, as a well as a stronger continuum of care, including home care, long term care and palliative care. They want greater equality of access and outcomes, regardless of their postal code. They want a government that not only strongly supports the Canada Health Act, but that is committed to ensuring its full implementation from coast to coast to coast. And they want to see the shameful deficiencies in on-reserve healthcare addressed and Aboriginal peoples respected as full partners in the development and implementation of health programs.
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Canadians will regret legal assisted suicide, Cardinal Collins predicts
By Kevin J. Jones - Toronto, Canada, Apr 17, 2016 - The coming legalization of assisted suicide in Canada will threaten the vulnerable, hide killing with euphemisms, and threaten the consciences of those who oppose it, Cardinal Thomas Collins of Toronto has said. On Thursday the Canadian government introduced legislation to legalize assisted suicide and euthanasia under the federal criminal code. “We’re all deeply concerned that this is a sad day for Canada,” the cardinal told CNA April 14. While people see assisted suicide as a “simple solution,” he said, once people begin to consider what the practices really means to society, and its threats to the vulnerable, “they begin to realize that this is not the way to go.” Catholics, Evangelical Protestants, Jews, Muslims and the Salvation Army, all opponents of legalization, will hold an April 19 press conference on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, the Canadian capital. “The very people who are most involved in helping people by the bedside while they are dying or while they are suffering are the ones most opposed to killing those entrusted in their care,” Cardinal Collins said. The gathering would say to Parliament: “thus far and no further. This is just not right. It’s not right.” He characterized the effort as “the ecumenism of practical love.”
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June 20, 2016: Statement from Cardinal Thomas Collins
...on Passing of Bill C41 on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide - Previous Statement from Cardinal Collins--April 2016 - On April 14, 2016, the federal government introduced legislation that, if passed, will amend the criminal code to make euthanasia/assisted suicide legal in Canada. At a time when our priority should be fostering a culture of love, and enhancing resources for those suffering and facing death, assisted suicide leads us down a dark path. At first sight it may seem an attractive option, a quick and merciful escape from the suffering that can be experienced in life, but fuller reflection reveals its grim implications, not only for the individual but for our society, and especially for those who are most vulnerable. Such fuller reflection is sorely need now. Just days ago, Pope Francis stated, “Care and concern for the final stages of life is all the more necessary today, when contemporary society attempts to remove every trace of death and dying…Euthanasia and assisted suicide are serious threats to families worldwide.”
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The Euthanasia Deception - 1 Hr. Documentary Belgium’s 15 year experiment with euthanasia has gone terribly wrong. This film is a dire warning for the rest of the world. The Euthanasia Deception is a one-hour documentary featuring powerful testimonies from Belgium and beyond - of those devastated by the false ideology of ‘mercy killing’. Director Kevin Dunn sets out to expose three main deceptions of doctor assisted dying: First, that euthanasia and assisted suicide are a form of compassion. The second is the myth of autonomy: that decisions made between doctor and patient operate in a vacuum. And finally, that government ‘safeguards’ can truly protect the vulnerable.
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Dutch want right-to-die for people who feel 'their life is complete'
Amsterdam, Netherlands, Oct 15, 2016 / 03:02 am MT ().- The Dutch government is set to legalize euthanasia for people who don’t want to live anymore but are not necessarily terminally ill or experiencing extreme suffering. In a briefing to parliament on Wednesday, the health and justice ministers said that people who “have a well-considered opinion that their life is complete, must, under strict and careful criteria, be allowed to finish that life in a manner dignified for them.” The option would be limited to “the elderly,” though the briefing did not define an age limit. The move is the latest expansion of the country’s euthanasia policy, which critics have already have said does not protect vulnerable populations, including children, the disabled and those with mental illnesses.
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The dark side of a DC bill that no one wants to talk about
By Matt Hadro - Washington D.C., Oct 18, 2016 / 05:15 pm MT ().- Treatable depression, financial gain from a patient's death, doctors who can write a fatal prescription with little knowledge of the person it's for – all things that supporters of physician assisted suicide in the District of Columbia would perhaps prefer not to discuss. But as the city council in the nation’s capital may soon legalize the procedure, both the Church and local citizens have taken up arms to label it as prejudiced against the “most vulnerable.” The bill is immoral, unethical, and unjust, said Dr. Lucia Silecchia, a law professor at the Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law, and a D.C. citizen.
“Thus, while the Catholic and Christian understanding of the dignity of human persons, made in the image and likeness of God undergirds the moral critique of such statutes, the medical opposition long predates Christ, and the legal objections should compel anyone who observes how easily disregard for the life of one spreads,” she stated to CNA. On Oct. 18, the city council for the District of Columbia voted to put legalization of physician-assisted suicide on their legislative agenda. The bill was introduced in January 2015 by council member Mary Cheh. In the summer of 2015, citizens of the city showed up in large numbers to support or oppose the bill; a public hearing went on for hours as many advocates, one after another, insisted that the city not legalize the measure. Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington has been outspoken against the measure, and other assisted suicide measures that have been introduced in states around the country in what he called “a concerted aggressive campaign…which plays on people’s darkest fears and exploits their vulnerabilities to advance ideas and practices that have long been understood to be grave infamies opposed to human dignity and which poison human society.” What is at stake is nothing less than how society views human life, he maintained.
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Lack of love behind euthanasia, assisted suicide
By PAUL PAPROSKI, OSB - The Prairie Messenger HUMBOLDT, SK — The legalization of suicide and euthanasia in Canada is more a sign of a culture dying for lack of love than a nation being open to choice, said Jackie Saretsky at a Dying Healed workshop held mid-November at St. Augustine Parish hall in Humboldt. The sick and the elderly may actually have less choice and feel pressure to end their lives prematurely, said Ms. Saretsky, chaplaincy co-ordinator with the Diocese of Saskatoon. Modern attitudes about independence and success have led many to believe that their lives are worthless or have less value as they age or become ill. People feel they have become burdens to their families or society when they are unable to work or need the assistance of others. Saretsky recalled a conversation with a patient who had been diagnosed with terminal cancer and was terrified at the thought of needing help to bathe or use the bathroom. The idea of wearing a diaper was humiliating. "At what point in life do we become undignified?" Ms. Saretsky asked.
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A Lesson in Dying - Margie Harper (1919-2017)
Sisters find joy, tears, and renewed faith thanks to palliative care - Posted in Archdiocesan News By Archdiocese Communications - By Thandiwe Konguavi, Staff Writer - Margie Harper entered the hospital this year on the first day of Lent, her forehead still bearing a dark smudge from the Ash Wednesday Mass. At first, her daughters Margo Harper and Carolynn Bilton thought their mother had pneumonia and that she would recover. But it quickly became clear that she would not be going home to Paintearth Lodge, the seniors home in the central Alberta town of Castor where she had lived her last years. So Margo and Carolynn settled into the palliative care room of Our Lady of the Rosary Hospital for the longest sleepover they’d had with Mom since they were children — and a life-changing Lenten journey by her side. “At one point in Mom’s last days, she asked … if we were all together in hospital on a spiritual retreat,” said Margo. “We didn’t know it then, but Mom, the answer is yes. ‘Yes we were, and yes we are.’” Margie died on April 1, a full 30 days after entering the Castor hospital. She was 97. Her end-of-life journey was featured in Lasting Impressions, the 2017 annual report to the community by Alberta-based Covenant Health, Canada’s largest Catholic healthcare provider. The story underscores the significant impact that palliative care — the practice of alleviating pain and suffering for patients as they near death — can have on a person and their family. It’s a growing discipline in medicine, but one to which the majority of Canadians have no access.----------------------------------------------------------------
EUTHANASIA AND ASSISTED SUICIDE: WHY NOT? QUICK ANSWERS TO COMMON ARGUMENTS - Catholic Organization for Life and the Family
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At this website by various means we seek to defend life, to encourage Christian faith, to promote Catholic tradition, to edify Marriage in its link to the Creator, to encourage families and individuals, and to support missionary disciples of Jesus. G.S.
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© 2004-2021 All rights reserved Fr. Gilles Surprenant, Associate Priest of Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montreal QC
© 2004-2021 Tous droits rĂ©servĂ©s AbbĂ© Gilles Surprenant, PrĂȘtre AssociĂ© de Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, MontrĂ©al QC
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The theory of intelligent design has supporters and detractors both among religious believers and among atheists and agnostics. An atheist sympathizer like