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Pro-Life Times: July 2003

Euthanasia by neglect on government agenda

by Anthony Ozimic

The Government has moved to set up a parliamentary committee to consider its draft Bill proposing euthanasia by neglect. As the Pro-Life Times went to press, the membership of the committee - to be chosen from among both MPs and Lords - had yet to be selected.

SPUC general secretary Paul Tully commented, "The Government's draft Mental Incapacity Bill, published last month, would establish a system in which unqualified, unaccountable appointees could force doctors deliberately to kill incapacitated patients by denying them food and fluids. This could apply not just in cases of serious brain injury like Tony Bland but also in a wider range of cases in which the patient can't communicate.

"We are concerned that this new select committee may advance these ideas by approving the draft Bill," said Mr Tully.

"Whenever ministers say they are against euthanasia it is qualified to mean only actions such as lethal injections. They clearly plan to allow omissions such as denial of tube-feeding, even when the aim and object is to kill the patient. The Government also wants to redefine what counts as a patient's best interests. Doctors must pursue best interests when offering treatment. Traditionally it meant preserving life, restoring health, preventing suffering, etc. But the Government now wants it to mean the individual's alleged wishes. Saving someone's life may no longer be sufficient reason for doctors to treat a patient.

"Legalised euthanasia is coming to Britain unless all who have a voice and vote act to stop it. It is therefore crucial that as many people as possible write to parliamentarians asking them to call for a free vote on the committee's membership and to support the selection of anti-euthanasia parliamentarians to the committee," Mr Tully concluded.

Meanwhile Lord Joffe's Patient (Assisted Dying) Bill, aimed at legalised assisted suicide, seems set to run out of parliamentary time, partly through pressure from pro-life lobbying.

Comment

Matthew Else

Current trends in the Western world are nothing less than alarming. People have a low view of life, and this is because they are inspired by a society that discards some of the essential values of human existence. As a Christian, I believe in the sacred nature of life as a gift from God. I believe that God alone is the Author and Giver of all life, and therefore instinctively oppose direct killing by medical personnel.

We do not need doctors who are 'licensed to kill'. We need good medical practitioners, whose perceived role is to alleviate suffering, not to end the sufferers' lives. One of the consequences of legalised voluntary euthanasia will be a drastic change in the doctor-patient relationship. The elderly, the handicapped and the terminally ill will no longer feel comforted and reassured by their doctor. Instead they will feel threatened by him.

This is a chilling prospect. The elderly, and the handicapped, sensing that they are seen as inadequate, useless and unproductive, could actually feel obligated to die. The terminally ill could feel obligated to request a lethal injection, so as not to be a burden to their relatives, or a drain on the health service.

No one should be made to feel worthless, because no one is worthless. Whether people are disabled or able bodied, whether they are robustly healthy or terminally ill, their lives are of inestimable value. Whereas euthanasia devalues life, we who march under the 'pro-life' banner emphasise the value of human existence, and those who are Christians recognise that life is a gift from God.

Lord, help me to appreciate that my life is a gift from Your benevolent hand.
You give, and You take away. Blessed be the Name of the Lord.
Help me to use the life that You have given me for Your honour and glory,
Redeeming the time, for the days are evil.
Through Jesus Christ the Lord. Amen

Matthew Else is the minister of Grace Baptist Church, Peel, Isle of Man. He was born in 1945 in Edinburgh. After training in the Irish Baptist College, Belfast, he moved to the IOM, where he founded two churches. He is chairman of a charity that works among homeless and handicapped children in India (Grace Third World Fund). He was one of the leading opponents when the Manx Government legalised abortion, and intends to oppose the anticipated "Medically Assisted Dying" bill, presently being discussed by the island's politicians.

Stop starvation in British hospitals

John Smeaton

During the past ten years the starvation to death of incapacitated patients has become more and more common in British hospitals.

This starvation policy has the approval of the Government and the BMA.

It began in 1993 when the Law Lords let medical staff withdraw food and fluids from Mr Anthony Bland, who was being tube-fed and was in a so-called persistent vegetative state (PVS). He died of dehydration soon afterwards.

In 1999 the British Medical Association suggested that doctors might starve and/or dehydrate patients who had dementia or a stroke.

And in 2003, as I write this column, the Government's proposals for legislation would allow a welfare attorney to order medical staff to deny tube-feeding to an incapacitated patient for any reason if this power has been given in a 'living will'.

In recent weeks, one of SPUC's most active supporters, a gentleman of 90 years old, became a potential victim of government and BMA policy. One of the hospital doctors who had care of him approached his daughter, who was at her father's bedside, to suggest that he might be starved.

Fortunately, this story had a happy ending. Our member's daughter and her brother persuaded the hospital to feed their father. They were successful because, through an SPUC contact, they were able to get the advice of a senior pro-life doctor who did not agree with the proposed course of action.

But what would have happened had a pro-life doctor not expressed a different view?

SPUC and, more importantly, vulnerable patients in hospitals need your support. Get in touch with me and I will send you more details of the case I describe above. It's important to get the message out so that patients' relatives and friends can take appropriate action.

We must also do everything we can to defeat the Government's proposals obliging medical staff to deny tube-feeding to patients. Once again, contact me for details on how you can help.

Write to me at johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk or telephone 020 7222 5845.

Hospice doctor warns against euthanasia

by Amanda Logan

The Medical Director of a hospice centre has expressed concerns at proposals to legalise euthanasia in Britain, saying that resources should go to improving hospice care. Dr John Ellershaw's remarks come as the Voluntary Euthanasia Society (VES) is intensifying its campaign for a change in the law to allow doctors to kill people. The VES has launched a poster campaign coinciding with a euthanasia Bill in the House of Lords, which targets those who are sick or suffering.

Mr Brian Pretty, widower of Mrs Diane Pretty who died a year ago, is supporting the initiative. Mrs Pretty, who suffered from motor neurone disease, unsuccessfully sought legal immunity for her husband if he helped her kill herself. Postcards featuring Reg Crew, a motor neurone sufferer, who went abroad to receive "assistance to die", are being used to promote VES aims.

Dr Ellershaw of the Marie Curie Centre, Liverpool, warned that legalising euthanasia could encourage vulnerable people to feel that they should opt for death.

No need for euthanasia on Isle of Man

A Baptist minister is mobilising people on the Isle of Man to oppose proposals to legalise euthanasia on the island. "We have excellent hospice care here. We don't need euthanasia," said Matthew Else (see Comment). Mr Else, who campaigned rigorously against legalised abortion on the Isle of Man, has set up a web site setting out the Christian and humane arguments against euthanasia to help local people lobby the Manx Parliament.

The move has come in response to the demand from just one man, who has prostate cancer. Patrick Kneen has been told he has between two and ten years to live. Both Mr Kneen and his wife are members of the Voluntary Euthanasia Society.

The House of Keys, the island's parliament, voted to introduce a Private Member's Bill, subject to the findings of a five-member select committee.

Euthanasia in every Belgian hospital

by Joe Kingston

All Belgian hospitals could be forced to provide euthanasia, according to proposals by politicians who are putting together a new coalition government. Euthanasia was legalised in Belgium last year. Both the liberals and the socialist parties in Belgium, who look set to join forces, are in favour of extending the scope of legalised euthanasia.

80% of all hospitals in Belgium are Catholic and, although they have objected strongly to the proposal, they still want to be able to deal with cases of "extreme necessity".

Belgian doctor Philippe Schepens said, "It is clear that the secular humanist politicians who are forming this coalition will try to make euthanasia compulsory in all hospitals. They are desperate to reshape the age pyramid in this country, which is top heavy with old people. Social security systems will collapse in the near future."

News in Brief

· Argentina - An Argentine judge has banned the production and sale of oral so-called contraceptive pills and intra-uterine devices (IUDs) on the grounds that they are abortifacient. Cordoba province judge Cristina Garzon de Lascano ruled last Thursday that such drugs and devices were "abortive" and ordered the destruction of existing supplies. In February, Judge Garzon de Lascano blocked the implementation of the government's so-called 'sexual health and responsible procreation' programme because it would involve the provision of abortifacients. The Argentine health minister has described the ruling as "absurd" and predicted that it would lead to a "health catastrophe".

· Wales - Two candidates for the recent Welsh assembly elections who displayed a picture of an aborted baby during campaigning will plead not guilty to public order charges at Cardiff magistrates' court tomorrow. The South Wales Argus newspaper supported Mr Joseph Biddulph and Miss Fiona Pinto of the ProLife Party and published a picture of a third trimester abortion.

· England - The Catholic bishop of Hexham and Newcastle attended a meeting in his diocese in the north-east of England about the dangers to school-children of abortifacient morning-after pills. Rt Rev Ambrose Griffiths OSB and 60 others met in Morpeth, Northumberland, under the auspices of SPUC's Wansbeck branch. The British government is promoting morning-after pills through schools and SPUC is using meetings such as this and a petition to alert parents and others to the dangers.

· Australia - The decision in Melbourne to allow the withdrawal of tube-feeding from a 68-year-old dementia sufferer has been criticised by Dr John Fleming of the Southern Cross Bioethics Institute. "To regard tube-feeding as an optional medical treatment which can be removed at the direction of a guardian potentially affects all the elderly, disabled and unconscious persons who rely upon such assistance," said Dr Fleming.

Profile on Poland

In 1990 there were 59,417 abortions in total in Poland and in 2001 (the latest year for which official figures are available) there were 124. What has brought about this massive change? The most significant is a law, passed on 7 January 1993, entitled "On Family Planning, protection of the foetus and conditions for pregnancy termination". This legislation prohibits most abortions and, far from forcing Poland's women into the hands of back-street abortionists, the evidence shows both women and babies benefiting. Antonia Tully spoke to Lech Kowalewski and Ewa Kowalewska, who live in Gdansk, about the situation in Poland and the struggle of the pro-life movements there to resist the anti-life attacks on their country.

We are experiencing very intensive activity on the part of people associated with the International Planned Parenthood Federation, who are telling lies to the Polish people about back-street abortions. They are saying that 200,000 back-street abortions have taken place since 1993," Ewa told me.

However, a look at the figures published by the Government Population Commission shows that during the 1990s the number of spontaneous miscarriages became stable at around four miscarriages per 1,000 women of reproductive age. A large number of illegal abortions would appear in the number of reported miscarriages. Equally, for the duration of the current law, there is no evidence of women trying to induce miscarriages themselves.

So many back-street abortions would also be reflected in the number of deaths related to obstetric reasons. Again, the figures do not bear this out. In fact, one of the benefits of the anti-abortion legislation is that the Polish medical services have been obliged to promote pre- and post-natal care for women. The number of deaths due to pregnancy and childbirth dropped steadily during the 1990s. Moreover, the rate of still births fell from 7.3 per thousand in 1995 to 5.5 in 2001 and infant mortality fell from 19.3 per 10,000 in 1990 to 7.7 in 2001.

Apart from the lies, what other threats does Poland face? "Well, as you know, the people of Poland voted overwhelmingly in favour of entry into the EU," said Lech. "The Polish Federation of Pro-Life Movements, which comprises 136 pro-life and pro-family groups, worked for a year to secure pro-life and family values as part of the treaty of our entry into the EU. All we have is a declaration from our government and parliament that our laws should be respected. We have no protection from international law and we are not able to safeguard tax-payers' money from being used for anti-life purposes by the EU."

I asked Lech and Ewa about Polish politicians. Are their politicians truly supportive of the current law, or are they really looking for ways to undermine it? In reply, they explained how people feel about politics in Poland. The Poles, they say, are tired of politics. In elections they always vote against an enemy and the enemy is those in power. So political parties alternate, coming and going. Entry into Europe will bring a rise in unemployment and the cost of living, which will fuel discontent with the socialist government. Lech and Ewa see a more right wing, pro-life party coming in and security for the law on abortion. They also point out that Polish politicians are well aware of the huge number of pro-life voters.

There are other problems facing Poland which worry pro-lifers there. The country is awash with pornography. The media is flooding Poland with permissiveness and, of course, it is young people who are most vulnerable. Contraception is legal in Poland, but abortifacients are not. The fact that most hormonal contraceptives are in fact abortifacients means that the Polish pro-life groups have a serious concern about this issue. From the West we can look at Poland and see a remarkably low rate of surgical abortions, but we can also see a tragedy of increasing numbers of very early human lives lost through abortifacient contraceptives.

"Poland is like an island," said Ewa. "We feel surounded by pressure. We have a saying that Polish people want to reconnect with the clear springs of European Christian culture, but we have been connected to the sewer instead. We know we have difficult times ahead of us."

When a group of Poles visited Pope John Paul in Rome for his birthday earlier this year, he said that Poland cannot remain an island, that it must integrate into Europe where it belongs. Here in the West our hope must be that somehow Poland can influence us and not the other way round.

From the desk of Joanna Bogle

A COMMUNITY SPEAKS OUT It is an amazing sensation to stand in front of a microphone and look out on a sea of faces at a protest meeting. You have the sensation of sharing in something larger than the speeches and leaflets - something human and vital. There was a real feeling of community strength at a well-attended meeting in the North East called to protest about the distribution of the "Morning After" pill to teenage girls without parental knowledge or consent. Dr Seyi Honutu, a local gynaecologist, spoke calmly and wisely about the realities of this pill and, with the aid of an excellent power-point presentation, alerted us all to what its widespread use could mean for the young. Parents spoke up with concern and there was much discussion about the pressures on the young, especially from TV soaps and teenage magazines (this was my topic as a journalist - I am sickened by the pornographic and obscene material in these publications). How can we convey to school governors, head teachers, and health and education administrators the great wrong that is being done to today's teenagers by a policy of distributing this powerful and largely untested drug, and its accompanying assumptions about the normalising of teenage and pre-teenage sexual activity? How can we face history if we don't at least try?

GOOD NEWS FROM THE USA

We hear a lot about sex education, and have seen the failure of so many schemes which claimed to be able to break the cycle of sexually transmitted diseases and teenage pregnancy. But America is showing a fresh approach, which seems to be working. The idea is to teach young people that saving sexual activity for one lifelong committed union is the way to health and happiness. An article about this in the Christian Herald has been drawn to my attention by a group called United for Life, which itself is also doing great work in this field. You can contact them at 22 Moreton Close, Bishops Cleeve, Cheltenham GL52 8AW or by email: info@unitedforlife.com.

RAISING HAPPY CHILDREN

Many people today seem scared of the whole idea of raising children - you hear the cry, "Oh, it's so difficult. Who would be a parent these days?" Certainly, there are huge pressures from the pop culture, and from a materialistic society which obsessively nags children into demanding more and more consumer goods. Society seems to frown on parents passing on their religious values to their offspring, or even exerting normal family discipline. So it is encouraging to see the re-publication of an excellent and cheerful book on the subject "Good Children", by Lynette Burrows, herself the mother of a large family. One of the best chapters is on the raising of a handicapped child - Lynette writes movingly about the achievements of her oldest son, who has Down's syndrome, and of the love and solidarity that he has brought to the family. This is a book brimming with optimism, in which everyday things like meals and household skills, coping with quarrels and teaching about God, all have their place. £8.50 from Family Publications, 6a King St, Jericho, Oxford OX2 6DF

ETHICAL RESEARCH FOR DOWN'S SYNDROME

A Scottish SPUC member has drawn my attention to some research to help those with Down's syndrome. This is a project being undertaken by the Down's Syndrome Research Foundation who "urgently need to hear from parents living in the UK who have a baby with Down's syndrome under age 12 months to participate in a vitally important research project: testing a very safe new anti-oxidant therapy to improve health and development. Participants will get free first class specialist health care for the 18 months they will be in this project. Research centres are located at children's hospitals in London, Birmingham, and the West Country." Parents who come to the Clinic for Down's Children, which is funded by the Anna Fund, are invited to participate in the trials. If you can help in this please contact project@dsrf.co.uk.

OOPS - SORRY!

A major mistake in my column in the last edition of the Pro-Life Times. Describing the situation in South Africa, I should have said that the recent series of talks concerning the work of the Anna Fund was given by the excellent Dr Tony Cole, and not by Dr Margaret White. Dr Cole is a paediatrician who has done a great deal for children with Down's syndrome, and combines this with leadership of the Catholic Union and work for a number of worthwhile causes. He has an article in the latest Catholic Medical Quarterly - well worth reading. Contact: Catholic Doctors' Guild, Brampton House, St John and St Elizabeth Hospital, 60 Grove End Rd, London NW8 9NH

EU sets up committee to counter pro-life lobby

by Paul Tully

Despite the fact that the EU has no jurisdiction over abortion or euthanasia law, Euro-Commissioner Poul Nielson has set up a unit to counter the work of SPUC and other pro-life groups in Europe. An extensive memo has set out the need to be "aware and alert for new campaigns to undermine the work of [the Commission] and its partners in addressing reproductive health." Mr Nielson attacked pro-life groups whom he described as "politically astute" and able to "use the media effectively".

Mr Nielson's memo was prompted by the growing effectiveness of pro-life organisations operating in Europe. For example, in December 2002, 160 MEPs responded to pro-life lobbying to vote against 'reproductive health funding'. They failed to defeat the proposals, but Mr Nielson comments in his memo, "... the speed at which this campaign was mobilised was remarkable."

The memo makes no effort to conceal the apparent use of EU resources for a unit to spy on groups mobilizing public concern over the activities of the Parliament and the Commission.

Mrs Dana Rosemary Scallon, the Irish pro-life member of the European parliament, is leading opposition to the unit. She is questioning whether the commission can legally use EU taxpayers' money to fund such a unit and says it compromises the commission's impartiality. She has asked for details of the unit's scope, budget and staffing, and suggests that its funding would be better spent on more deserving causes.

SPUC's political secretary Anthony Ozimic said, "Not only do pro-abortion non-governmental organisations get EU funding, but EU money is now also going towards this attempt to thwart pro-life work in defence of mothers and their unborn children."

Tell whole truth about birth control pills says SPUC

SPUC has called for women to be told the truth about the potentially fatal effect of birth control pills on their newly-conceived children as well as risks to their own health. SPUC was commenting after researchers at Tromsø University, Norway, found a 45% increase in the risk of breast cancer among women who took second generation birth control pills for three years or longer.

John Smeaton, SPUC's national director, said, "It is quite right that women should be told the truth about how birth control pills may threaten their own health. However, they also need to be told that the pill can cause an early abortion. Many birth control pills can prevent ovulation, and thus prevent conception. But they can disrupt the womb-lining too, so that if conception does occur the embryo cannot implant, and is aborted instead. It is not only the morning-after pill that does this."

When SPUC sought a judicial review on the basis that morning-after pills could cause an early abortion, two of the witness statements in support of the drug company stated that non-barrier birth control could affect the lining of the womb, and interfere with an embryo trying to implant in the womb. Ironically this was taken up by the judge as a key point in defence of the morning-after pill.

Abortion takes its toll on women's mental health

Two recently published studies of abortion in the USA have indicated the extent of its toll on the mental health of women. Women who have abortions are almost two-thirds more likely to become clinically depressed, one long-term study reveals. Another looking at women receiving state-funded healthcare shows that after an abortion a woman is at least one-and-a-half times more likely to receive psychiatric treatment within 3 months, compared to those who give birth.

Both studies were carried out by Dr David Reardon and the Elliott Institute of Illinois. The first study, published in the Medical Science Monitor, looked at a national survey of nearly 1,900 women who first became pregnant between 1980 and 1992. Some had abortions, and some gave birth. Those having abortions were 65% more likely to suffer from clinical depression.

For the second study, published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, Dr Reardon and his team looked at the medical records of more than 56,000 women in California who were receiving state-funded healthcare. Women who had abortions were more likely to need psychiatric help within the following three months, and remained significantly more likely to undergo such treatment during at least another four years.

Many therapists dismiss women's concerns about having had abortions, but Dr Reardon calculates that even by the conservative estimates of his critics, (for example, that only 1.4% of women suffered post-traumatic stress disorder after abortion), more than half a million women have been affected since 1973, when abortion was made legal throughout the US. This, he argues, is only the tip of the iceberg of post-abortion problems.

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