CMA commentary published in The Washington Examiner, February 3, 2013
By CMA VP for Govt. Relations, Jonathan Imbody
Re: "New Obama rule would spare churches but not believers" Editorial
In an otherwise excellent editorial on the Obamacare abortifacient
contraceptives mandate, the Examiner warns, "It would be a mistake for
conservatives to frame this issue in terms of cost" because the ubiquity of
cheap contraceptive pills disproves the case for a government mandate.
True, but the Obamacare mandate also forces insurers to also provide
expensive sterilization surgeries and implanted contraceptives for free for
everyone from Newark to Beverly Hills. The administration claims without proof
that it's justified forcing insurers to provide products and services for free
because it will be cheaper to prevent babies than to deliver them.
So besides trampling religious freedom, respect for the sanctity of life and
private enterprise, the administration is also foisting its population control
ideology on the nation. Now it's up to the courts and Congress to stop this
blatant deprivation of our Constitutional rights to "life, liberty or
property."
Action
Use our Freedom2Care
legislative action center to tell HHS to stop the abortifacients mandate.
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Rick Warren on Religious Freedom
Excerpted from "Rick Warren’s Shadow SOTU," National Review Online, February 18, 2013--‘I’m not
interested in politics,” Rick Warren announced to a small press gathering.
Warren, the Evangelical author of The Purpose-Driven Life, which has
sold more than 30 million copies and been translated into more than 50
languages, leads southern California’s Saddleback Church, where he once hosted a
presidential forum between John McCain and Barack Obama, back in the day. But on
this particular day Warren was focusing on an issue here at home, an issue he
has been speaking out about this past year. He was challenging the leaders in
our nation’s capital to do a little soul-searching about the nation’s
stewardship of the gift of religious liberty.
“Freedom is fragile. It never, ever, ever lasts unless we protect it, preserve it, defend it,” Warren said, sitting in Georgetown University’s Gaston Hall. The "first freedom," Warren says, “is the freedom to practice my faith and values and not just to believe it.” He adds that “it’s also the freedom to convert,” though “it isn’t faith if it’s forced.”
“Religious liberty is not given by the state,” he observes. “It is given by God. Some people are so afraid of coercion, they oppose persuasion.” Clearly not this preacher man.
Warren was asked why he was digressing from his mission abroad, where he is fighting poverty, disease and human trafficking and working to make sure kids have clean water. Why is he setting all that aside to quibble with the Obama administration about an issue widely perceived to be about access to contraception? Warren was firm, contending that there are enough of us to fight all the various forms of injustice. He stands “100 percent” with his Catholic brothers and sisters. Under the current rule, he said, “You have to change your beliefs or pay a fine.”
He continued: “We’re not going to agree on values in America. Because we don’t. We have different values. But can we all agree on freedom? Can freedom be a unifying factor? History proves that freedom is incredibly fragile and it never, ever, ever lasts unless it is nourished and protected and it is defended.” He says we can lose it out of neglect, surrender it out of fear or “license it away.” “It is the duty . . . of every generation to re-preserve the freedom.”
CMA Vice President for Govt. Relations Jonathan
Imbody: “I met privately with Pastor Warren just before this news
conference. As we discussed challenges to protecting religious liberty in the
U.S., I handed him a replica of an anti-slavery coin minted in the 18th century
by Britain's William Wilberforce and the Clapham Group abolitionists. We
discussed the importance of imitating the ingenuity of those abolitionists by
taking our religious freedom message to our culture in creative ways--notably
through the entertainment industry and the arts.
"Pastor Warren agreed and said he would contact several Hollywood producers. He also noted, 'People remember slogans, not sermons: 'We shall overcome,' 'Ask not what you can do… .'' He observed that the model for advancing religious liberty in our culture is the civil rights movement, adding, 'The power of non-violent protest is enormous and Christ-like. The willingness to suffer will win even more people than advertising.'
"For this reason, Warren has told the owners of Hobby Lobby, a Christian-owned company facing millions of dollars in fines by the administration for declining to participate in the HHS abortifacients mandate, 'If you guys go to prison, let me know and I'll go with you.' As Warren explains, 'If I don't have the right to believe what I want, [all other] freedoms are irrelevant.' Protecting our religious liberties is protecting the right to share our faith, to live according to conscience guided by God and to help others in the name of Christ. May God prepare us, as he did Queen Esther in biblical days, for 'such a time as this' and give all of us such courage to stand up for what is right."
Action
CMDA Ethics Statement: The Beginning of Human Life
Video presentation on religious liberty by Pastor Rick Warren: Religious Freedom Project website
“Freedom is fragile. It never, ever, ever lasts unless we protect it, preserve it, defend it,” Warren said, sitting in Georgetown University’s Gaston Hall. The "first freedom," Warren says, “is the freedom to practice my faith and values and not just to believe it.” He adds that “it’s also the freedom to convert,” though “it isn’t faith if it’s forced.”
“Religious liberty is not given by the state,” he observes. “It is given by God. Some people are so afraid of coercion, they oppose persuasion.” Clearly not this preacher man.
Warren was asked why he was digressing from his mission abroad, where he is fighting poverty, disease and human trafficking and working to make sure kids have clean water. Why is he setting all that aside to quibble with the Obama administration about an issue widely perceived to be about access to contraception? Warren was firm, contending that there are enough of us to fight all the various forms of injustice. He stands “100 percent” with his Catholic brothers and sisters. Under the current rule, he said, “You have to change your beliefs or pay a fine.”
He continued: “We’re not going to agree on values in America. Because we don’t. We have different values. But can we all agree on freedom? Can freedom be a unifying factor? History proves that freedom is incredibly fragile and it never, ever, ever lasts unless it is nourished and protected and it is defended.” He says we can lose it out of neglect, surrender it out of fear or “license it away.” “It is the duty . . . of every generation to re-preserve the freedom.”
| Commentary |
CMA Vice President for Govt. Relations Jonathan
Imbody: “I met privately with Pastor Warren just before this news
conference. As we discussed challenges to protecting religious liberty in the
U.S., I handed him a replica of an anti-slavery coin minted in the 18th century
by Britain's William Wilberforce and the Clapham Group abolitionists. We
discussed the importance of imitating the ingenuity of those abolitionists by
taking our religious freedom message to our culture in creative ways--notably
through the entertainment industry and the arts.
"Pastor Warren agreed and said he would contact several Hollywood producers. He also noted, 'People remember slogans, not sermons: 'We shall overcome,' 'Ask not what you can do… .'' He observed that the model for advancing religious liberty in our culture is the civil rights movement, adding, 'The power of non-violent protest is enormous and Christ-like. The willingness to suffer will win even more people than advertising.'
"For this reason, Warren has told the owners of Hobby Lobby, a Christian-owned company facing millions of dollars in fines by the administration for declining to participate in the HHS abortifacients mandate, 'If you guys go to prison, let me know and I'll go with you.' As Warren explains, 'If I don't have the right to believe what I want, [all other] freedoms are irrelevant.' Protecting our religious liberties is protecting the right to share our faith, to live according to conscience guided by God and to help others in the name of Christ. May God prepare us, as he did Queen Esther in biblical days, for 'such a time as this' and give all of us such courage to stand up for what is right."
Action
- Use our Freedom2Care legislative action center to tell HHS to stop the abortifacients mandate.
- Have an idea for a slogan to help advance religious liberty in our culture? Post your suggestion as a comment to this article.
CMDA Ethics Statement: The Beginning of Human Life
Video presentation on religious liberty by Pastor Rick Warren: Religious Freedom Project website
What the contraception fight is about
CMA commentary published in The Washington Post, February 8, 2013
By CMA VP for Govt. Relations, Jonathan Imbody
Reprising Neville Chamberlain's infamous "peace for our time" speech, E.J. Dionne Jr. pontificates, "America’s Big Religious War ended Friday" ("Obama's olive branch to Catholics," Opinion, Monday). After a slew of federal court losses, the administration now grudgingly exempts from its contraceptive mandate certain organizations it deems sufficiently religious. Dionne calls that concession "a clear statement that President Obama never wanted this fight."
The president and his campaign gleefully promoted this fight as a "war on women." President Obama undermined any pretense of a compelling health justification for a government mandate by unwittingly observing that 99 percent of women already access contraceptives. His health department dismissed concerns of economic consequences, blithely contending that preventing babies is cheaper than having them.
Dionne castigates the faith community for claiming First Amendment infringement since the government coercion did not restrict the "freedom to worship or to preach." The founders clearly construed the First Amendment to protect not only worship and preaching but also free exercise of conscience.
The First Amendment also protects all individuals--not merely government-certified religious institutions. Yet the administration continues to coerce conscience-objecting individual employers. Thomas Jefferson asserted, "The rights of conscience we never submitted, we could not submit. We are answerable for them to our God."
We shall never surrender.
Action
Use our Freedom2Care legislative action center to tell your lawmakers to protect conscience rights.
CMDA Ethics Statement: Right of Conscience
News Release: New HHS Mandate Terms Unacceptable
February 2013- Radio interview with Todd Wilkin of Issues, Etc. on the HHS Mandate
By CMA VP for Govt. Relations, Jonathan Imbody
Reprising Neville Chamberlain's infamous "peace for our time" speech, E.J. Dionne Jr. pontificates, "America’s Big Religious War ended Friday" ("Obama's olive branch to Catholics," Opinion, Monday). After a slew of federal court losses, the administration now grudgingly exempts from its contraceptive mandate certain organizations it deems sufficiently religious. Dionne calls that concession "a clear statement that President Obama never wanted this fight."
The president and his campaign gleefully promoted this fight as a "war on women." President Obama undermined any pretense of a compelling health justification for a government mandate by unwittingly observing that 99 percent of women already access contraceptives. His health department dismissed concerns of economic consequences, blithely contending that preventing babies is cheaper than having them.
Dionne castigates the faith community for claiming First Amendment infringement since the government coercion did not restrict the "freedom to worship or to preach." The founders clearly construed the First Amendment to protect not only worship and preaching but also free exercise of conscience.
The First Amendment also protects all individuals--not merely government-certified religious institutions. Yet the administration continues to coerce conscience-objecting individual employers. Thomas Jefferson asserted, "The rights of conscience we never submitted, we could not submit. We are answerable for them to our God."
We shall never surrender.
Action
Use our Freedom2Care legislative action center to tell your lawmakers to protect conscience rights.
CMDA Ethics Statement: Right of Conscience
News Release: New HHS Mandate Terms Unacceptable
February 2013- Radio interview with Todd Wilkin of Issues, Etc. on the HHS Mandate
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Problem with Medical Student Debt
Excerpted from "Tackling the Problem of Medical Student Debt," New York Times, by Pauline Chen, MD. December 13, 2012--The announcement from the University of California, Los Angeles, of a $100 million medical student scholarship fund should inspire all of us to question the fact that medical education in the United States is paid for largely by student debt. The new merit-based scholarships, established by entertainment executive David Geffen, will cover all educational, living and even some travel expenses for a fifth of next year's entering medical school class, some 33 students. Mr. Geffen and school officials hope that eventually the school will be able to pay for all medical students and free them from the obligation to take out student loans. "The cost of a world-class medical education should not deter our future innovators, doctors and scientists from the path they hope to pursue," Mr. Geffen said in a statement. "I hope in doing this that others will be inspired to do the same."
There are several reasons for the runaway costs. One is that the academic medical centers that house medical schools have become increasingly complex and expensive to run, and administrators have relied on tuition hikes to support research and clinical resources that may have only an indirect impact on medical student education. An equally important contributor to the problem has been our society's placid acceptance of educational debt as the norm, a prerequisite to becoming a doctor. Obtaining a medical education is like purchasing a house, a car or any other big-ticket item, the thinking goes; going into debt and then paying over time with interest is just the way the world works. And, say many observers, newly minted doctors will earn big salaries, allowing them easily to reimburse their loans.
While it is true that most doctors can pay off their debt over time, those insouciant observers fail to consider how loan burdens can weigh heavily on a young person's idealism and career decisions. These choices have enormous social repercussions. Despite the well-studied benefits of a diverse physician workforce, more than half of all medical students currently come from families with household incomes in the top quintile of the nation. Even more worrisome, student concerns about debt are exacerbating the nation's physician shortage. By the end of this decade, we will be short nearly 50,000 primary care physicians and an additional 50,000 doctors of any kind. Educators and groups like the Association of American Medical Colleges have been trying to address the problem of medical student debt for more than a decade. Some have suggested simply freezing costs or prorating debt according to the earning potential of a student's chosen area of specialty. But the real importance of Mr. Geffen's donation for the rest of us lies in not its historic largesse, nor its hopeful vision. Rather, it is in the dramatic impact one individual can make when he makes medical education a priority, and the inevitable question such a gesture raises: Why has our society been so slow to do the same? Click here to read full article.
National Director of Campus & Community Ministries J. Scott Ries, MD: “The philanthropic commitments of people like Mr. Geffen and the Lerner family are certain to be influential on the lives of a number of future doctors. Their generosity not withstanding, the rising costs of medical education are well documented, as are its persuasive effects on specialty choice and practice location. But the question is, even if medical education were “free” for all students, would that be enough? The answer is no.
The primary areas in which Christian doctors struggle consistently fall into four categories:
There is a subtle, but strong, undercurrent toward a perspective of entitlement pervasive in medical training, and it doesn’t let go when we graduate. Perpetually elusive, “enough” seems always just around the next corner. And it’s this entitlement mentality that leads to the financial struggles so common among students and doctors alike.
The best antidote to entitlement is found in the occasional email I receive from a medical or dental student relating their desire to give a financial gift to CMDA. It’s not the largesse of the gift or even the fact that God brought CMDA to their mind that makes my day. It’s the outpouring of their entitlement-free heart that brings a sense of grateful joy. “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matthew 6:21, NIV 1984).
You may not have the resources to endow the medical education costs of a cadre of future doctors. But you do possess the antidote for entitlement…giving. It’s just what the Good Doctor ordered."
There are several reasons for the runaway costs. One is that the academic medical centers that house medical schools have become increasingly complex and expensive to run, and administrators have relied on tuition hikes to support research and clinical resources that may have only an indirect impact on medical student education. An equally important contributor to the problem has been our society's placid acceptance of educational debt as the norm, a prerequisite to becoming a doctor. Obtaining a medical education is like purchasing a house, a car or any other big-ticket item, the thinking goes; going into debt and then paying over time with interest is just the way the world works. And, say many observers, newly minted doctors will earn big salaries, allowing them easily to reimburse their loans.
While it is true that most doctors can pay off their debt over time, those insouciant observers fail to consider how loan burdens can weigh heavily on a young person's idealism and career decisions. These choices have enormous social repercussions. Despite the well-studied benefits of a diverse physician workforce, more than half of all medical students currently come from families with household incomes in the top quintile of the nation. Even more worrisome, student concerns about debt are exacerbating the nation's physician shortage. By the end of this decade, we will be short nearly 50,000 primary care physicians and an additional 50,000 doctors of any kind. Educators and groups like the Association of American Medical Colleges have been trying to address the problem of medical student debt for more than a decade. Some have suggested simply freezing costs or prorating debt according to the earning potential of a student's chosen area of specialty. But the real importance of Mr. Geffen's donation for the rest of us lies in not its historic largesse, nor its hopeful vision. Rather, it is in the dramatic impact one individual can make when he makes medical education a priority, and the inevitable question such a gesture raises: Why has our society been so slow to do the same? Click here to read full article.
| Commentary |
National Director of Campus & Community Ministries J. Scott Ries, MD: “The philanthropic commitments of people like Mr. Geffen and the Lerner family are certain to be influential on the lives of a number of future doctors. Their generosity not withstanding, the rising costs of medical education are well documented, as are its persuasive effects on specialty choice and practice location. But the question is, even if medical education were “free” for all students, would that be enough? The answer is no.-
1. Overload
2. Marriage
3. Parenting
4. Finances
There is a subtle, but strong, undercurrent toward a perspective of entitlement pervasive in medical training, and it doesn’t let go when we graduate. Perpetually elusive, “enough” seems always just around the next corner. And it’s this entitlement mentality that leads to the financial struggles so common among students and doctors alike.
The best antidote to entitlement is found in the occasional email I receive from a medical or dental student relating their desire to give a financial gift to CMDA. It’s not the largesse of the gift or even the fact that God brought CMDA to their mind that makes my day. It’s the outpouring of their entitlement-free heart that brings a sense of grateful joy. “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matthew 6:21, NIV 1984).
You may not have the resources to endow the medical education costs of a cadre of future doctors. But you do possess the antidote for entitlement…giving. It’s just what the Good Doctor ordered."
Opt-out of contraception
Excerpted from "Obama proposal would let religious groups opt-out of contraception mandate," CNN, by Dan Merica. February 1, 2013--The Obama administration proposed updated guidelines on February 1 that would allow religious-affiliated organizations opposing contraception to opt out of a federal mandate requiring that they provide their employees with insurance coverage for birth control. The draft rule would give women at non-profit, religious-based organizations, like certain hospitals and universities, the ability to receive contraception through separate health policies at no charge.
As part of the new initiative, groups that are insured -- such as student health plans at religious colleges -- would be required to let their insurer know that certain participants would like contraception coverage. "The insurer would then notify enrollees that it is providing them with no-cost contraceptive coverage through separate individual health insurance policies," the HHS statement said. Although the agency has not estimated final costs of the plan, it said that offering free coverage would actually lower expenses over the long term, partly due to improvement in women's health and fewer childbirths. Because the insurer would be covering the costs, the changes would allow religious organizations morally opposed to contraception to avoid paying for it.
An original mandate on providing contraception was part of the new federal healthcare law spearheaded by Obama, the Affordable Care Act. It required that insurers provide, at no cost to those insured, all forms of contraception approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Houses of worship were exempt immediately and the administration widened those exemptions last year to include other religiously affiliated organizations, like universities and hospitals. That still left groups across a wide spectrum of faiths, many of which teach that contraception is morally wrong, covered by the mandate. They denounced it as an infringement of religious liberty. A group of 43 Catholic organizations challenged the rules in federal court in May.
Not all groups characterized it as a compromise, however. Frank Pavone, National Director of Priests for Life, a group that launched a federal lawsuit against the mandate last year, said he was far from happy with the update and welcomes the opportunity to provide feedback. "We at Priests for Life remind the administration that religious liberty does not just belong to religious groups and individuals; it belongs to all Americans," Pavone said. "We see only one acceptable change regarding the mandate: rescind it completely." The Family Research Council, a conservative pro-life group, released a similar statement. "The proposal does not expand religious freedom to all organizations and does nothing to change the current policy that forces religious entities to pay for insurance plans that include abortion-inducing drugs, sterilizations and contraception," said Anna Higgins, director of the group's Center for Human Dignity. Full story can be found here.
CMDA CEO David Stevens, MD, MA (Ethics): “In CMDA’s news release on the new 'accommodation,' I said, 'This latest version of the contraceptives and sterilization mandate remains unacceptable. Since when does the government get to pick and choose which groups will get to enjoy First Amendment protections?'
"The amended regulations give no conscience exemption to businesses run by people of faith including Hobby Lobby and Tyndale House. It gives no exemption to individuals having to buy insurance that pays for abortifacients like Ella.
"For non-profit religious organizations, this is only smoke and mirrors as the administration employs verbal engineering to make sure every woman in the country has free so-called 'contraceptives.' HHS will require every insurance company to issue a separate policy that provides 'free' contraceptives and sterilization. Using its own government staff as 'experts,' it claims that there is no net cost to insurance companies in that mandate. That is a very debatable point, but this new process is just a smoke screen to obscure the moral complicity it imposes.
"Imagine this. You are required to put bottles containing lethal prescriptions on a shelf in your break room for your employees who may take the drugs if they decide their lives are not worth living. Co-pays or deductibles are not a hindrance as the medicines are a 'free benefit' provided by your health insurance provider by order of the government. They say it will save healthcare costs.
"Are you morally complicit? Of course you are. If you hadn’t bought the insurance, they would not have had this 'lethal benefit.'
"Religious freedom advocates are not fooled by this phony accommodation. The lawsuits brought against the government—more than 40 in total—will continue to go forward. So far, the government has lost cases 10 to 4, but it is clear that the Supreme Court will make the final decision.
"Why is this important to you and me? Our religious freedom that our forefathers fought and died for is under broad attack and this is just one of the battlefronts. We dare not lose this battle or our freedom of religion will become merely a freedom to worship behind church doors. Woe to anyone who then tries to carry their conscience into the pubic square where government is god.
"And woe to us if we fail to stand up in these perilous times. With God’s help, CMDA will fight to maintain our religious freedom in the courtroom, in Congress, before the administration and in the halls of public opinion. You have my commitment on that—because we dare not do less."
As part of the new initiative, groups that are insured -- such as student health plans at religious colleges -- would be required to let their insurer know that certain participants would like contraception coverage. "The insurer would then notify enrollees that it is providing them with no-cost contraceptive coverage through separate individual health insurance policies," the HHS statement said. Although the agency has not estimated final costs of the plan, it said that offering free coverage would actually lower expenses over the long term, partly due to improvement in women's health and fewer childbirths. Because the insurer would be covering the costs, the changes would allow religious organizations morally opposed to contraception to avoid paying for it.
An original mandate on providing contraception was part of the new federal healthcare law spearheaded by Obama, the Affordable Care Act. It required that insurers provide, at no cost to those insured, all forms of contraception approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Houses of worship were exempt immediately and the administration widened those exemptions last year to include other religiously affiliated organizations, like universities and hospitals. That still left groups across a wide spectrum of faiths, many of which teach that contraception is morally wrong, covered by the mandate. They denounced it as an infringement of religious liberty. A group of 43 Catholic organizations challenged the rules in federal court in May.
Not all groups characterized it as a compromise, however. Frank Pavone, National Director of Priests for Life, a group that launched a federal lawsuit against the mandate last year, said he was far from happy with the update and welcomes the opportunity to provide feedback. "We at Priests for Life remind the administration that religious liberty does not just belong to religious groups and individuals; it belongs to all Americans," Pavone said. "We see only one acceptable change regarding the mandate: rescind it completely." The Family Research Council, a conservative pro-life group, released a similar statement. "The proposal does not expand religious freedom to all organizations and does nothing to change the current policy that forces religious entities to pay for insurance plans that include abortion-inducing drugs, sterilizations and contraception," said Anna Higgins, director of the group's Center for Human Dignity. Full story can be found here.
| Commentary |
CMDA CEO David Stevens, MD, MA (Ethics): “In CMDA’s news release on the new 'accommodation,' I said, 'This latest version of the contraceptives and sterilization mandate remains unacceptable. Since when does the government get to pick and choose which groups will get to enjoy First Amendment protections?'"For non-profit religious organizations, this is only smoke and mirrors as the administration employs verbal engineering to make sure every woman in the country has free so-called 'contraceptives.' HHS will require every insurance company to issue a separate policy that provides 'free' contraceptives and sterilization. Using its own government staff as 'experts,' it claims that there is no net cost to insurance companies in that mandate. That is a very debatable point, but this new process is just a smoke screen to obscure the moral complicity it imposes.
"Imagine this. You are required to put bottles containing lethal prescriptions on a shelf in your break room for your employees who may take the drugs if they decide their lives are not worth living. Co-pays or deductibles are not a hindrance as the medicines are a 'free benefit' provided by your health insurance provider by order of the government. They say it will save healthcare costs.
"Are you morally complicit? Of course you are. If you hadn’t bought the insurance, they would not have had this 'lethal benefit.'
"Religious freedom advocates are not fooled by this phony accommodation. The lawsuits brought against the government—more than 40 in total—will continue to go forward. So far, the government has lost cases 10 to 4, but it is clear that the Supreme Court will make the final decision.
"Why is this important to you and me? Our religious freedom that our forefathers fought and died for is under broad attack and this is just one of the battlefronts. We dare not lose this battle or our freedom of religion will become merely a freedom to worship behind church doors. Woe to anyone who then tries to carry their conscience into the pubic square where government is god.
"And woe to us if we fail to stand up in these perilous times. With God’s help, CMDA will fight to maintain our religious freedom in the courtroom, in Congress, before the administration and in the halls of public opinion. You have my commitment on that—because we dare not do less."
Blind Twins Euthanized
Excerpted from "Deaf twins who discovered they were going blind and would never see each other again are euthanized in Belgian hospital," Daily Mail, by James Rush and Damien Gayle. January 14, 2013--A pair of identical twins, who were born deaf, have been killed by Belgian doctors after seeking euthanasia when they found out they would also soon go blind. In a unique case under the country's euthanasia laws, the 45-year-old brothers, from Antwerp, chose death as they were unable to bear the thought of never seeing one another again. They were euthanized by doctors at Brussels University Hospital, in Jette, on December 14 by lethal injection after spending their entire lives together.
Euthanasia is legal under Belgian law if those making the decision can make their wishes clear and are suffering unbearable pain, according to a doctor's judgment. In Belgium, some 1,133 cases of euthanasia - mostly for terminal cancer - were recorded in 2011, about one percent of all deaths in the country, according to official figures. But this case was unusual as neither twin was suffering extreme physical pain or was terminally ill. David Dufour, the doctor who presided over the euthanasia, told RTL television news the twins had taken the decision in 'full conscience'.
Belgium was the second country in the world after the Netherlands to legalize euthanasia in 2002 but it currently applies only to people over the age of 18. Other jurisdictions where it is permitted include Luxembourg and the U.S. state of Oregon. Just days after the twins were killed Belgium's ruling Socialists tabled a legal amendment which would allow the euthanasia of children and Alzheimer's sufferers. The draft legislation calls for 'the law to be extended to minors if they are capable of discernment or affected by an incurable illness or suffering that we cannot alleviate.' The proposed changes are likely to be approved by other parties, although no date has yet been put forward for a parliamentary debate. Full story can be found here.
CMDA Member, Moral Revolution Board member and “Ask the Doc” blogger Andre' Van Mol, MD: “Physicians at Brussels University Hospital euthanized these adult brothers due to impending blindness, not terminal cancer or unbearable pain. They were described as 'very happy' and with '‘relief’ to see the end of their suffering' when they were not suffering, but living as they had for decades. This is where disabled rights groups correctly see trouble ahead, when common disabilities are relabeled as needless and easily terminated suffering – lives not worth living.
"In his 1949 paper 'Medical Science Under Dictatorship,'1 Boston psychiatrist Leo Alexander wrote, '. . . Medical science in Nazi Germany collaborated . . . It started with the acceptance of the attitude basic in the euthanasia movement, that there is such a thing as life not worthy to be lived. . .' He called this 'the infinitely small wedge-in lever' which got this mindset rolling, 'the attitude towards the nonrehabilitable sick.' Even without dictators, soon the right to die to becomes the expected duty to do so in the name of the common good and fiscal bottom line.
"The swath of people targeted for euthanasia (or 'aid in dying,' its recent and benign-sounding label)2 is ever expanding. The article claims 1 percent of all deaths in Belgium are now by euthanasia. Dutch palliative care physician Dr. Ben Zylicz warned the British House of Lords, 'If you accept euthanasia as a solution to difficult and unresolved problems in palliative care, you will never learn anything.'3
"A grand benefit of the end of life is the opportunity to make relationships right – with God and people. It is precisely the realization of mortal life’s impending end that can lead people to softened hearts, opened minds and receptive spirits. Euthanasia kills the last chance for the new birth in Christ.
"There is a conflict of interests between palliative care and euthanasia, aka aid in dying: doctors cannot be both patient advocates and executioners. Compassion means coming alongside and suffering with, not offing people for defects. Terminal patients need pain control, companionship and often anti-depressants, but not doctors deeming them better off dead."
____________________________
1. NEJM, 241:39-47, July 14, 1949.
2. Van Mol, A. “Premature Termination of Life Is Not Palliative Care.” CHEST. 2013;143(1):279a-279. doi:10.1378/chest.12-2187 http://tinyurl.com/ajh3xfj
2. “Better palliative care could cut euthanasia” Hugh Matthews, BMJ 1998;317:1613 (12 December) News.
Euthanasia is legal under Belgian law if those making the decision can make their wishes clear and are suffering unbearable pain, according to a doctor's judgment. In Belgium, some 1,133 cases of euthanasia - mostly for terminal cancer - were recorded in 2011, about one percent of all deaths in the country, according to official figures. But this case was unusual as neither twin was suffering extreme physical pain or was terminally ill. David Dufour, the doctor who presided over the euthanasia, told RTL television news the twins had taken the decision in 'full conscience'.
Belgium was the second country in the world after the Netherlands to legalize euthanasia in 2002 but it currently applies only to people over the age of 18. Other jurisdictions where it is permitted include Luxembourg and the U.S. state of Oregon. Just days after the twins were killed Belgium's ruling Socialists tabled a legal amendment which would allow the euthanasia of children and Alzheimer's sufferers. The draft legislation calls for 'the law to be extended to minors if they are capable of discernment or affected by an incurable illness or suffering that we cannot alleviate.' The proposed changes are likely to be approved by other parties, although no date has yet been put forward for a parliamentary debate. Full story can be found here.
| Commentary |
CMDA Member, Moral Revolution Board member and “Ask the Doc” blogger Andre' Van Mol, MD: “Physicians at Brussels University Hospital euthanized these adult brothers due to impending blindness, not terminal cancer or unbearable pain. They were described as 'very happy' and with '‘relief’ to see the end of their suffering' when they were not suffering, but living as they had for decades. This is where disabled rights groups correctly see trouble ahead, when common disabilities are relabeled as needless and easily terminated suffering – lives not worth living."The swath of people targeted for euthanasia (or 'aid in dying,' its recent and benign-sounding label)2 is ever expanding. The article claims 1 percent of all deaths in Belgium are now by euthanasia. Dutch palliative care physician Dr. Ben Zylicz warned the British House of Lords, 'If you accept euthanasia as a solution to difficult and unresolved problems in palliative care, you will never learn anything.'3
"A grand benefit of the end of life is the opportunity to make relationships right – with God and people. It is precisely the realization of mortal life’s impending end that can lead people to softened hearts, opened minds and receptive spirits. Euthanasia kills the last chance for the new birth in Christ.
"There is a conflict of interests between palliative care and euthanasia, aka aid in dying: doctors cannot be both patient advocates and executioners. Compassion means coming alongside and suffering with, not offing people for defects. Terminal patients need pain control, companionship and often anti-depressants, but not doctors deeming them better off dead."
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1. NEJM, 241:39-47, July 14, 1949.
2. Van Mol, A. “Premature Termination of Life Is Not Palliative Care.” CHEST. 2013;143(1):279a-279. doi:10.1378/chest.12-2187 http://tinyurl.com/ajh3xfj
2. “Better palliative care could cut euthanasia” Hugh Matthews, BMJ 1998;317:1613 (12 December) News.
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