[8mmMauser]

From Toronto...

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TORONTO, December 3, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - At the first International Symposium on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide in Toronto this past weekend there was a true coalition of diverse individuals with often diametrically opposed views on abortion, faith, homosexuality and other issues. However, they were all generally united in the common belief that the world has now entered a very dangerous phase of increasingly approved killing of handicapped, seriously ill and otherwise vulnerable persons via euthanasia or assisted suicide.

There were religious people, atheists, pro-life leaders fighting abortion and others strongly in favour of abortion, pro-family and pro-homosexual advocates. However, those issues were largely set aside for most of the two day conference as some of the very best speakers made awesome presentations on the issues they all came to discuss - euthanasia, assisted suicide and directly related other issues, such as the wide variety of definitions of brain death.

Although the above might sound rather macabre, the speakers and attendees were anything but doom and gloom types. On the contrary there was a very alive, joyful spirit and determination to fight this latest advance of the culture of death.

Three speakers gave their presentations from their wheelchairs. Their personal witness to their determination to resist the discrimination that often wants to end their lives as not worthy to be lived was instructive about the reality of what is now happening in our hospitals, nursing homes and other institutions.

Hospitals across North America and Europe have become battlegrounds where relatives of patients wage war against hospital doctors, staff negligence and increasingly willfull deprivation of life sustaining treatment. After hearing some of the talks and from discussions in the halls with participants, the realization quickly developed that no relative should be left alone in any hospital or nursing home without regular visits and lots of questions from family regarding treatment and nutrition and hydration being provided. 

As for anyone who might have been in favour of euthanasia for themselves or others before arriving at the conference (as more than a few anti-abortion people are - especially the elderly) it would have been difficult to retain that mistaken view after hearing the presentations and discussions at the conference.

Bobby Schindler moved many participants to tears with the story about his sister Terri Schiavo's forced death by removal of food and water and the terrible lack of support from many elements of the establishment, including local bishops and other clergy.

Wesley Smith gave a sweeping overview of current developments on the issues. Dr. Paul Byrne generated intense discussions for hours afterwards over his disturbing revelations about what are often fraudulent, arbitrary definitions of brain death designed to facilitate quicker removal of vital organs for transplants from living people.

Barbara Farlow related the devastating story of her tiny handicapped daughter's death from deliberate negligence by the medical staff at a prominent Toronto region children's hospital. Physicians had decided that the baby's life was not worth living despite her family's constant care and overflowing love for her................

International Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide Conference an Impressive Event

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[8mmMauser]

Sometimes I am baffled at how supposedly pious people can apply a little lie or two from the liberal mantra to reverse a conclusion. Hence:

As Sulmasy notes, most people’s reaction to the prospect of being kept alive in a condition like Terri Schiavo’s is one of horror. That moral instinct has long been recognized in Catholic teaching, as has the distinction between removing feeding tubes from someone in PVS, thus allowing him to die, and intending his death.

It is hard to imagine a step that could discredit the church’s opposition to euthanasia more than Rome’s insistence that those afflicted with PVS are essentially condemned to spend the last ten, fifteen, or twenty years of their lives-even against their own wishes-in such a condition. Some may consider this a call for moral heroism on the part of PVS patients, their families, and the wider community, but the church has never taught that heroism is morally obligatory.

Utmost Care

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[floriduh voter]

Democrat Senator Bill Nelson is interested in how nursing home residents are being treated or should I say, mistreated. He may be a liberal but he doesn’t want seniors to get poor care.

[floriduh voter]

A man was on a ventilator in Tampa the last day or two and his family was fighting w/the docs and w/each other. The ventilator was unhooked and the patient continued breathing without it. (newsblurb from wfla 970 am radio early this morning). I was half asleep and didn’t catch the names. The family members were throwing stuff at the doctors and each other in the room. That’s what I call being pro-active.

[floriduh voter]

Story Man on Ventilator as reported by the police there to break up a fight. (gee, Terri had battalions of occifers to insure her murder).

http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/florida/news-article.aspx?storyid=97297