Problem solved, rights protected

Problem solved, rights protected

I knew that things were bad and spiraling, but I didn’t think they’d already be sending out the death kits.

When news leaked Sept. 1 that the Quebec government is preparing “euthanasia kits” for doctors, it came as no surprise to the head of a physicians’ group that opposes euthanasia.

Dr. Catherine Ferrier, president of the Quebec-based Physicians’ Alliance Against Euthanasia, said she knew the Collège des médecins du Québec was “working on guidelines on how to euthanize a patient.”

“It was foreseen since the law was passed last year,” she said, noting Quebec’s euthanasia Bill 52 comes into effect Dec. 10.

Catholic Organization for Life and Family (COLF) director Michele Boulva also said these guidelines, while shocking, were expected.

“Citizens who have not yet realized what the legalization of euthanasia will mean for them and their loved ones will have a very difficult awakening,” Boulva said. “Families will obviously need to be very proactive and attentive to what’s going on with their loved ones in the hospital and make sure their family doctor is opposed to this practice.”

Do we have ‘family doctors’ now?  I thought you just had to go where they sent you and do what they say?  How are you supposed to make sure you get one that doesn’t kill people, especially when it’s their job?  I’ve been to the hospital quite a bit over the years.  Now more than ever, they don’t answer too many questions.  There’s all kinds of ‘I don’t knows’ and ‘wait and see’s.’

The euthanasia guidelines, reportedly developed in conjunction with Quebec’s governing bodies for nurses and pharmacists, involve a combination of drugs delivered intravenously to first, quell anxiety, second, to induce a coma, and third, drugs to stop breathing and to stop the heart.

That’s nice.  Three easy steps, and the anxiety relief is really humane.  I know I’d be nervous.

The drug formulas will be available on a restricted part of the College’s web site to doctors, nurses and pharmacists.

“None of this should have happened, obviously,” said Ferrier, a family doctor with a geriatric practice. “If they are going to make it legal, doctors have to learn how to do it.”

But Ferrier said the Quebec government is “scrambling” because “when the law comes into effect a lot of people won’t be prepared” to perform euthanasia. “The system won’t be set up for it,” she said. A patient might demand euthanasia once the law comes into effect, but the hospital may not have policies set up.

This government health care, they even botch killing people. We need procedures!

Ferrier questioned whether enough doctors will be willing to kill their patients and whether nurses will refuse to participate. She also questioned whether the guideline that doctors administer the drugs and supervise the death is realistic.

“Doctors are not always known to always sit by the bedside of patients when they don’t have to,” Ferrier said.

The more likely scenario is a doctor giving the injection, then leaving for the operating room or the next patient, leaving the process to the nurse, she said.

That’s right.  Leave the dirty job to the nurse again.  You didn’t study for twelve years so you could do everything yourself, right?

 

Feeling the FrancisMercy

Feeling the New Mercy

At the UK Guardian Anthea Butler provides a great example of the whole point behind the new abortion FrancisMercy.

Pope Francis’s pastoral letter for the Year of Mercy, indicating that priests may absolve those who procure abortions, does nothing to change Catholic church policy with regards to how abortion is viewed. Current canonical law states that abortion is a grave sin, resulting in “automatic” excommunication.

It also doesn’t change very much when it comes to the mechanics of sin and forgiveness in the Catholic Church. Current teachings state that bishops could give priests the right to forgive a woman for having an an abortion if she was truly penitent; for this year, priests do not specifically have to ask a bishop for the right to absolve anyone seeking forgiveness for assisting an abortion or having one. (And Pope John Paul II gave priests the same term-limited right in the year 2000.)

What the Pope did was make a deft statement on the eve of his first visit to Cuba and the United States – a very Jesuitical move from the Jesuit pontiff. It presents to the public and press a more forgiving, more open church, which needs all the good PR feelings it can muster.

So far, so good.

In a letter outlining the preparations for the Year of Mercy beginning on 8 December 2015, the pope stated he is “conceding to all priests for the Jubilee year the discretion to absolve the sin of abortion to those who have procured it”.

While the edict is not a change in canon law, it does give a pathway to forgiveness for what the church terms “a grave sin”. Once a person is absolved, then they are back in “good standing’ with the Catholic church, and are able to partake of the sacrament of the Eucharist and be accepted into heaven.

Not so sure about this ‘new pathway’ she’s talking about, but it’s great to hear a big secular paper actually explain Confession, Holy Communion, and forgiveness in our Faith.

But wait:

The move to offer absolution to women who had abortions is likely to rankle conservatives who have found themselves embattled with this pope, who hews closely to Catholic church teachings but still makes comments like “who am I to judge” with regards to homosexuality and calls upon Church leaders to get active on climate change.

The letter particularly puts the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops once again in the interesting position of having to support the pope, even though many of them are staunch anti-abortion advocates who may not have wished to extend – or even forbidden the extension of – forgiveness to those women who have sought it regarding abortions. Many of those bishops have been eager to fight the culture wars surrounding abortion rights in the United States; this announcement reduces their bluster substantively.

They were doing so well, weren’t they?  They were talking about the Church and not making things up.  Pro-life faithful bishops don’t want forgiveness for abortions!  Now we have to silence the culture war?

Just when we thought maybe the secular left would start to understand Christ’s mercy, we find out they only get FrancisMercy.  FrancisMercy is only for liberals.

 

 

 

 

 

poor guy

Jesus’s Favorite Kind of Guy?

Does Pope Francis make a fetish out of some academic, ideological notion of ‘the people?’

The capacity to recognize ourselves as sinners opens us to the astonishment at the encounter with Jesus: that was the message of Pope Francis Thursday morning during Mass for the feast of Saint Gregory the Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church.

Pope Francis’ homily focused on the day’s Gospel reading which tells the story of the miraculous catch of fish. After working throughout the night without catching anything, Peter, trusting in Jesus, cast his nets into the sea. The Holy Father used this story to speak about faith as an encounter with the Lord. First of all, he said, it pleases me to consider the fact that Jesus spent the greater part of His time in the street, with the people; then, later in evening, He went away by Himself to pray – but He encountered the people, He sought the people.”

I have never gotten this message from the Gospel myself.  From what I’ve read, Jesus was just as likely to be at a beautiful wedding, with the doctors in the Temple, or at the home of an important person as among the sick and lame in the street.  How did he ‘recline at table’ if he was huddling in the road all the time?

Sinners are everywhere and Jesus is a King.  He wasn’t a stranger to power and responsibility.  He could relate to it.  He was of course a leader Himself.  I don’t believe Pope Francis or his contemporaries in the hierarchy when they try to paste this ‘preferential option for the poor’ onto Christ.

Wealth is a great temptation, but Jesus didn’t avoid the wealthy, and if they were hardened and proud, he didn’t reject them either.  He scolded the Pharisees because it was for their own good, not because he loved them less.

Christ prefers the repentant faithful.  That’s who he prefers.  He’s not a Communist.