Free Republic

Euthanasia has come to Italy, and both jubilant right-to-die activists and heartbroken Catholics are giving Pope Francis part of the credit. Moreover, the law does not provide doctors the right to refuse participation via conscientious objection. Last Thursday the Italian government passed a law allowing adults to determine their end-of-life care, including the circumstances in which they can refuse treatment. Italians will now be able to write “living wills” in which they can refuse not only medical treatment, but also hydration and nutrition.  According to Catholic doctrine, the withdrawal of nutrition and hydration is passive euthanasia.  The Italian end-of-life bill...

More questions tonight surrounding a well-known animal rights group. PETA-- People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. It's the second time in a week the group has come into the spotlight. Last week, police arrested two PETA employees suspected of euthanizing more than 30 animals and disposing of many of them in a dumpster in Ahoskie. Now, Gates County Sheriff Edward Webb says he's had calls about PETA workers picking up pets from people’s property. One local family says they called PETA to pick up a couple of stray animals. But when they came home, their own pet was missing....

I've been searching for the right word to describe what is happening to Terri Schiavo, a word that has some real blood to it. It's important to find the right word now, because, by the time you read this, the severely brain-damaged woman might be dead. Perhaps you've noticed other bloodless words being flipped at her, words like "viability" and phrases like "pull the plug." These words were once the issue of bloodless people, of clerks and sophists who can prove almost anything with their fine arguments. The rest of us have fed on them until they shape how we...

A circuit court judge today denied a last-ditch effort by the parents of a disabled woman to reinsert a feeding tube that was disconnected by her husband. Supporters of Bob and Mary Schindler said the writ of mandamus would direct Gov. Jeb Bush to intervene in the case of Terri Schiavo. Leon County Circuit Court Judge Jonathan Sjostrom quickly rejected the writ. Randall Terry, the anti-abortion activist who has taken up the Schindlers' cause, said the legal move was made by the Schindler's attorneys in hopes it would give Bush legal standing to intervene. The governor has been sympathetic to...