A Scottish Tale of Assisted Suicide

Many Scots believe that Liam McArthur, member of the Scottish Parliament for the Orkney Islands, just introduced a bill to legalise assisted dying/suicide. This is because the media promoted that misleading notion even before McArthur presented the recent 39-page consultation document with 4 pages of “outline” clauses.

Apparently a consultation document [CD] is required by the Scottish Parliament / Pàrlamaid na h-Alba as the first step towards a ‘Member’s Bill.’ I do not know if a draft bill would normally be appended at this stage, but McArthur’s CD is proposing the concept of an assisted suicide bill.

That acknowledged, the approval process will move quickly, so anyone wanting to oppose assisted suicide [AS] has to get stuck-in now to prevent this movement from succeeding — especially since the British Medical Association just voted for “neutrality” on the issue of assisted suicide. The first step is to complete the online survey before mid-December. Please also communicate with your MSP [member of the Scottish parliament] and if possible, show opposition publicly too. (Letter to the Editor, etc.)

Scots may search for their Member of the Scottish Parliament at: https://www.parliament.scot/msps/current-and-previous-msps

The survey link is:

https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/AssistedDyingProposal/

Scots opposed to assisted suicide should be heartened by the success the Irish had against the Dying with Dignity Bill 2020.

Why reject Assisted Suicide?

If there is one practical argument against assisted suicide, it is the dramatic increase in regular non-assisted suicide which has occurred in the Netherlands and those US states which legalised AS.

There has been over 30% increase in ‘regular’ suicide in the Netherlands since they legalized Voluntary Euthanasia in 2001. The US states which legalised AS also have a significant increase in non-assisted suicide, in comparison to the States which did not.

By 2023 it will legal for Canadian doctors and Nurse Practitioners to euthanise people suffering from mental illnesses alone. (This IS the slippery slope.) Please, listen to ‘Lia’ Garifalia Milousis as she tells her poignant story.

“I’m the future version of myself who survived to tell you this.”

Misled Media

The media clearly believes that McArthur was presenting a draft A.S. bill. McArthur can claim that they should have read the CD properly, but that might be disingenuous seeing the June newspaper reports.

The CD states that there is no draft bill at least twice. (One line on page 6: “At this stage, therefore, there is no Bill, only a draft proposal for the legislation” and on page 19: “It is important to emphasise that the information below is only an outline of what is being proposed and consulted on, it is not a Bill.”) A cynic might wonder whether the disclaimers were meant to stay un-found, considering they were so deep in the 39 pages of text.

Politico article (June 21, 2021) By Andrew McDonald:

“Lawmakers in Scotland have embarked on a third attempt to legalize a form of assisted dying, with hopes high for a political breakthrough.”

“The bill — submitted Monday — is backed by a cross-party group of Scottish Parliament members (MSPs).”

BBC (5 July 2021):

“His bill aims to introduce the right to an assisted death for terminally ill, mentally competent adults.”

BBC headline (20 June 2021)

“Assisted dying bill to be lodged at Scottish Parliament.”

The Herald Scotland on 5 July 2021

“…after the new Bill was lodged by Liberal Democrat MSP Liam McArthur last month.”

Misleading Consultation

Allowing for the disclaimers in the CD, McArthur has done little to corrected the widely-held misinterpretation that there is a draft AS bill. That silence leads me to suspect that he is running to particular game-plan — he may be trying to present the bill as a ‘done-deal,’ which later would allow him free rein to write pretty much whatever bill he wants.

Even the subtitles in McArthur’s video link project a certain message: “…who now have access to safe and legal assisted dying.”

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During the video, McArthur promotes the myth which has been voiced by most every suicide advocate around the world: that A.S. is needed to avoid the dying from having a “prolonged and painful death.” Palliative Care does not ‘prolong life’ and it has been shown repeatedly (e.g. Oregon) that physical pain — or fear of pain — is an infrequent reason for people to request AS (and the vast majority not receiving proper palliation.)

Misleading safeguards

McArthur claims the Bill will have “vitally important safeguards…” but the CD indicates that he will mirror legislation in jurisdictions where safeguards have failed…spectacularly.

Canada:

Canada legalized AS & Voluntary Euthanasia [VE] in 2016 for people with “a grievous and irremediable medical condition (including an illness, disease or disability)” when their “natural death has become reasonably foreseeable.” In just 5 years, the condition: “reasonably foreseeable death” has been removed.

The Supreme Court of Canada stipulated in the 2015 Carter decision: “…assistance in dying in other situations, such as for “minors or persons with psychiatric disorders or minor medical conditions” would not fall within the parameters suggested in its reasons...” yet by 2023 it will be legal to euthanize people suffering from mental illnesses alone.

Oregon:

“N. Gregory Hamilton, M.D., Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, demonstrated how Oregon’s flimsy safeguards do not protect people with psychiatric and other mental health disabilities.”

“Linda Fleming, the first to use the WA state law, was divorced, had had financial problems, had been unable to work due to a disability, and was forced to declare bankruptcy. Yet the Director of Compassion & Choices of Washington said that her situation presented "none of the red flags" that might have given his group pause in supporting her request for death.” Clearly, financial duress.

The Netherlands:

“A doctor is under criminal investigation over a potential breach of Dutch euthanasia laws after slipping a sleeping drug into a woman’s coffee before asking family members to hold her down to allow the insertion of a drip through which a fatal dose could be administered…Should a prosecution be launched, it would be the first since Dutch laws on euthanasia were relaxed in 2002 to allow a doctor to euthanise a patient if it could be shown they were in unbearable suffering and making an informed choice to die.”

The outcome: “A doctor accused of failing to verify consent before performing euthanasia on a dementia patient has been cleared of any wrongdoing by a Dutch court.

Belgium:

“In Belgium, the rate of involuntary and non-voluntary euthanasia deaths …is 3 times higher than it is in the Netherlands. …A recent study found that in the Flemish part of Belgium, 66 of 208 cases of “euthanasia” (32%) occurred in the absence of request or consent.”

Misleading Conscientious Objection

McArthur’s statements in the ‘Conscience’ section [3.3] initially sound reasonable, till read carefully.

“It is recognised, however, that if the Bill becomes law it would be the patient’s legal right to request assistance, and a referral to another consenting doctor should be made if the initial doctor declined to assist the patient because of their personal beliefs.”

If this is put into legislation, every doctor will have to make a specific referral for A.S. on demand.

The real twist comes from the General Medical Council:

“Guidance from the General Medical Council on personal beliefs and medical practice states that doctors may practise medicine in accordance with their beliefs, provided that they act in accordance with relevant legislation and:

• do not treat patients unfairly.

• do not deny patients access to appropriate medical treatment or services.

• do not cause patient’s distress.

A doctor refusing to aid with the provision of A.S. — or failing to make a referral — might “cause patient distress” and be accused of “treating patients unfairly” by “denying access” to a legal service.

Doctors will be coerced into compliance.

Misleading poll

“…recent polling showed that over half the population in Scotland would consider travelling abroad for an assisted death if they had a terminal illness, or one which caused them incurable suffering.”

The question begs the answer: any rational person with “incurable suffering” would naturally “consider travelling abroad for an assisted death.” That is absolutely human. What HSS does not mention is that this scenario is moot for most receiving adequate palliation. Universal palliative-care would help many more people than assisted suicide.

Such a question and response is no surprise when one considers that the poll was commissioned by the Humanist Society Scotland (2017) and performed by the polling firm, Survation, on their registered panel of 1,016 Scottish adults.

Survation proudly states: “Our record with traditionally difficult to win campaigns sets Survation apart from the crowd and we count numerous policy successes as part of our research work…We understand how the industry works and use this to develop research that guarantees press coverage.”

Misleading links

McArthur mentions the HSS / Survation poll above in his consultation document. Curiously the appended web-link in the CD https://www.humanism.scot/wpcontent/uploads/2017/09/Assisted-Dying-Poll-Data.pdf brings you to an error message from the Humanist Society Scotland website: “Epic 404 - Article Not Found.”

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In contacting HSS and receiving a rapid response from Mr. Fraser Sutherland who advised that the correct link is:

https://www.humanism.scot/what-we-do/news/half-scots-travel-abroad-assisted-death-money/

That page links to the more relevant 3-page summary of the poll at:

https://www.humanism.scot/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Assisted-Dying-Poll-Data.pdf

One wonders how many other links in the CD have similar problems.

Data collection

The on-line survey data will be collected by the Non-Government Bills Unit [NGBU] of the Scottish parliament. That is likely to be a neutral process but the NGBU do not receive e-mail or hard-copy / Royal Mail responses. Those are directed to McArthur, which provides a conflict of interest.

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McArthur has the discretion to eliminate certain responses:

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Even if the data is fully collated, McArthur has the discretion as to whether he releases the report or not (note “may” below.)

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Misleading comments

There is inadequate space to counter each misleading comment made by McArthur.

Below are two showing how this is indeed an issue “of transparency, accountability, safety and justice.”

• Trust in doctors

“First, assisted dying is associated with greater trust amongst patients and medical professionals. In countries where assisted dying is legal, trust in doctors is high. For example, research has shown that the country where doctors are most trusted is the Netherlands.”

Trust? Some elderly people go to hospital in the Netherlands with a card saying they are NOT to be euthanised without consent: unlikely “the most trusted.”

Then, a quick Google-search shows the following table at Statista.com indicating levels of trust of doctors in European countries. The Netherlands is high, but definitely not first.

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• Lack of Complaints

Disability Rights Oregon has said that they have never “received a complaint that a person with disabilities was coerced or being coerced to make use of the Act”

Dead people can’t complain…

Please read the case of Roger Foley in Ontario, Canada who wants to live but administrative staff attempted to coerce him into taking Medical Assistance in Dying (AS/VE.)

Alba gu bràth

Again, please call your Member of Parliament / Pàrlamaid na h-Alba. Search at:

https://www.parliament.scot/msps/current-and-previous-msps

Also, the survey on assisted suicide must be completed by mid-December:

https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/AssistedDyingProposal/

Good Luck, Scotland!



Dr. Kevin Hay MRCPI MRCGP (inactive) FCFP

Kevin was born in the UK, graduated from University College, Dublin and now works as a family physician in rural Alberta, Canada. You can follow him on Twitter @kevinhay77





Lepanto by G.K. Chesterton

WHITE FOUNTS falling in the Courts of the sun,
And the Soldan of Byzantium is smiling as they run;
There is laughter like the fountains in that face of all men feared,
It stirs the forest darkness, the darkness of his beard;
It curls the blood-red crescent, the crescent of his lips;
For the inmost sea of all the earth is shaken with his ships.
They have dared the white republics up the capes of Italy,
They have dashed the Adriatic round the Lion of the Sea,
And the Pope has cast his arms abroad for agony and loss,
And called the kings of Christendom for swords about the Cross.
The cold queen of England is looking in the glass;
The shadow of the Valois is yawning at the Mass;
From evening isles fantastical rings faint the Spanish gun,
And the Lord upon the Golden Horn is laughing in the sun.

Dim drums throbbing, in the hills half heard,
Where only on a nameless throne a crownless prince has stirred,
Where, risen from a doubtful seat and half attainted stall,
The last knight of Europe takes weapons from the wall,
The last and lingering troubadour to whom the bird has sung,
That once went singing southward when all the world was young.
In that enormous silence, tiny and unafraid,
Comes up along a winding road the noise of the Crusade.
Strong gongs groaning as the guns boom far,
Don John of Austria is going to the war,
Stiff flags straining in the night-blasts cold
In the gloom black-purple, in the glint old-gold,
Torchlight crimson on the copper kettle-drums,
Then the tuckets, then the trumpets, then the cannon, and he comes.
Don John laughing in the brave beard curled,
Spurning of his stirrups like the thrones of all the world,
Holding his head up for a flag of all the free.
Love-light of Spain—hurrah!
Death-light of Africa!
Don John of Austria
Is riding to the sea.

Mahound is in his paradise above the evening star,
(Don John of Austria is going to the war.)
He moves a mighty turban on the timeless houri's knees,
His turban that is woven of the sunsets and the seas.
He shakes the peacock gardens as he rises from his ease,
And he strides among the tree-tops and is taller than the trees;
And his voice through all the garden is a thunder sent to bring
Black Azrael and Ariel and Ammon on the wing.
Giants and the Genii,
Multiplex of wing and eye,
Whose strong obedience broke the sky
When Solomon was king.

They rush in red and purple from the red clouds of the morn,
From the temples where the yellow gods shut up their eyes in scorn;
They rise in green robes roaring from the green hells of the sea
Where fallen skies and evil hues and eyeless creatures be,
On them the sea-valves cluster and the grey sea-forests curl,
Splashed with a splendid sickness, the sickness of the pearl;
They swell in sapphire smoke out of the blue cracks of the ground,—
They gather and they wonder and give worship to Mahound.
And he saith, "Break up the mountains where the hermit-folk can hide,
And sift the red and silver sands lest bone of saint abide,
And chase the Giaours flying night and day, not giving rest,
For that which was our trouble comes again out of the west.
We have set the seal of Solomon on all things under sun,
Of knowledge and of sorrow and endurance of things done.
But a noise is in the mountains, in the mountains, and I know
The voice that shook our palaces—four hundred years ago:
It is he that saith not 'Kismet'; it is he that knows not Fate;
It is Richard, it is Raymond, it is Godfrey at the gate!
It is he whose loss is laughter when he counts the wager worth,
Put down your feet upon him, that our peace be on the earth."
For he heard drums groaning and he heard guns jar,
(Don John of Austria is going to the war.)
Sudden and still—hurrah!
Bolt from Iberia!
Don John of Austria
Is gone by Alcalar.

St. Michaels on his Mountain in the sea-roads of the north
(Don John of Austria is girt and going forth.)
Where the grey seas glitter and the sharp tides shift
And the sea-folk labour and the red sails lift.
He shakes his lance of iron and he claps his wings of stone;
The noise is gone through Normandy; the noise is gone alone;
The North is full of tangled things and texts and aching eyes,
And dead is all the innocence of anger and surprise,
And Christian killeth Christian in a narrow dusty room,
And Christian dreadeth Christ that hath a newer face of doom,
And Christian hateth Mary that God kissed in Galilee,—
But Don John of Austria is riding to the sea.
Don John calling through the blast and the eclipse
Crying with the trumpet, with the trumpet of his lips,
Trumpet that sayeth ha!
Domino gloria!
Don John of Austria
Is shouting to the ships.

King Philip's in his closet with the Fleece about his neck
(Don John of Austria is armed upon the deck.)
The walls are hung with velvet that is black and soft as sin,
And little dwarfs creep out of it and little dwarfs creep in.
He holds a crystal phial that has colours like the moon,
He touches, and it tingles, and he trembles very soon,
And his face is as a fungus of a leprous white and grey
Like plants in the high houses that are shuttered from the day,
And death is in the phial and the end of noble work,
But Don John of Austria has fired upon the Turk.
Don John's hunting, and his hounds have bayed—
Booms away past Italy the rumour of his raid.
Gun upon gun, ha! ha!
Gun upon gun, hurrah!
Don John of Austria
Has loosed the cannonade.

The Pope was in his chapel before day or battle broke,
(Don John of Austria is hidden in the smoke.)
The hidden room in man's house where God sits all the year,
The secret window whence the world looks small and very dear.
He sees as in a mirror on the monstrous twilight sea
The crescent of his cruel ships whose name is mystery;
They fling great shadows foe-wards, making Cross and Castle dark,
They veil the plumèd lions on the galleys of St. Mark;
And above the ships are palaces of brown, black-bearded chiefs,
And below the ships are prisons, where with multitudinous griefs,
Christian captives sick and sunless, all a labouring race repines
Like a race in sunken cities, like a nation in the mines.
They are lost like slaves that sweat, and in the skies of morning hung
The stair-ways of the tallest gods when tyranny was young.
They are countless, voiceless, hopeless as those fallen or fleeing on
Before the high Kings' horses in the granite of Babylon.
And many a one grows witless in his quiet room in hell
Where a yellow face looks inward through the lattice of his cell,
And he finds his God forgotten, and he seeks no more a sign—
(But Don John of Austria has burst the battle-line!)
Don John pounding from the slaughter-painted poop,
Purpling all the ocean like a bloody pirate's sloop,
Scarlet running over on the silvers and the golds,
Breaking of the hatches up and bursting of the holds,
Thronging of the thousands up that labour under sea
White for bliss and blind for sun and stunned for liberty.

Vivat Hispania!
Domino Gloria!
Don John of Austria
Has set his people free!

Cervantes on his galley sets the sword back in the sheath
(Don John of Austria rides homeward with a wreath.)
And he sees across a weary land a straggling road in Spain,
Up which a lean and foolish knight for ever rides in vain,
And he smiles, but not as Sultans smile, and settles back the blade....
(But Don John of Austria rides home from the Crusade.)

~G.K. Chesterton

Irish Men’s Rosary Rally Takes Place in Derry City

In recent months, Poland has been home to some of the most stunning Catholic images of public displays of faith.

The monthly men’s Rosary Rallies in cities such as Warsaw have attracted vast numbers of men and have given the Catholic world an image worthy of emulation, with men taking to the streets and kneeling in prayer.

Now, an impressive number of Irish men have taken part in the first such venture on these shores, with dozens of men praying publicly in Derry this past Saturday.

The men can be seen with Rosary beads in hand from the images of the event, with a statue of Our Lady of Fatima front and center. An interesting thing to note from the video is how striking it seems compared to their surrounding locality of shops and commercial outlets. Passers by are intrigued and taken in by the men’s devotion, something which has become an oft too forgotten part of Irish society in the 21st Century.

It is hoped that these events will become a regular occurrence and on the face of these images, it is hard not to see why. With so much of the Catholic faith now regulated to the private sphere and men in a small minority in most churches from one weekend to the next, to see an event like this is exactly the kind of impetus that is need to inspire as has been done so successfully in Poland and in other places.

Please pray for the continued success of the organisers and those who attended.

Polish Embassy Reacts Angrily to Irish Government's Slur

Under anti family parties Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and the Green Party, Ireland has pursued an aggressive foreign policy which has sought to damage the efforts of Poland and Hungary to implement ways of helping couples to take care of their children.

Lower taxes, limits on Sunday trading and financial supports for families have all contributed to increases in birth rates and higher standards of living in Eastern Europe. In Ireland, the inverse has been tried with the government dramatically reducing birth rates through austerity, the legalisation of abortion and encouraging young people to emigrate.

As part of the West’s new Cold War, Ireland has been at the forefront of attacks against these countries. Politicians such as Fiona O’Loughlin, who was emphatically rejected by voters before being made a Senator against the wishes of the public, have repeatedly attacked Poland with baseless accusations of discrimination. MEP Maria Walsh recently stormed Budapest to help to undermine the government in an astro turfed parade sponsored by banks that was mostly attended by activists from around Europe rather than by locals.

The tactic of trying to undermine Poland and Hungary has now switched to a new front, accusing the Poles of running the same concentration camps that millions of them died in during World War II.

First, there was the move from Israel to demand billions from Poland in restitution for Germany’s seizure of Jewish owned property from the late 1930s through World War II. This was exploited by Western media outlets who sought to portray the Catholic Polish government as being ‘far right’ and extremist when they are nothing of the sort. A remarkable charge was levelled at the Polish people which asserted that the concentration camps in which millions of Poles died were actually Polish and not German.

Now, the Irish government have joined in on the anti Polish bigotry.

Their propaganda arm, RTE, has now also used the term ‘Polish Concentration Camps’. RTE are funded by a mandatory tax which Irish people must pay or face imprisonment. Many of the higher ups at the station are heavily connected to the government and the ruling parties, through family and other connections.

In a report broadcast on the 30th September, concerning a Nazi prison secretary facing charges, RTE News repeatedly used the term ‘Polish Concentration Camps’. In a strong response to the slur, Polish Ambassador to Ireland Anna Sochanska claimed said that:

This repeated mistake is causing huge distress in the Polish community in Ireland.

It is highly unlikely that such a ‘mistake’ is accidental from RTE. Their close connections to the government and their recent successes at assisting support for austerity programs, abortion and other state initiatives has made them into maestros of propaganda linked to domestic and foreign policy. They have been adept at isolating Catholics and encouraging disparaging treatment towards them, earlier this year they even broadcast a ‘sketch’ which claimed that Catholics worship a rapist god. The deliberately offensive and painfully unfunny segment caused uproar leading to an eventual apology, but it revealed the incredible disdain with which the broadcaster holds people of faith.

These types of attacks test the waters for more overt aggression towards Poland and dehumanisation of its people to precipitate further efforts to impose isolation. Poland and Hungary should hold firm, there is no reason for them to listen to a country like Ireland which is facing electricity blackouts in order to facilitate American data centers and freefalling birth rates.

To St. Michael in Time of Peace by GK Chesterton

Michael, Michael: Michael of the Morning,
Michael of the Army of the Lord,
Stiffen thou the hand upon the still sword, Michael,
Folded and shut upon the sheathed sword, Michael,
Under the fullness of the white robes falling,
Gird us with the secret of the sword.


When the world cracked because of a sneer in heaven,
Leaving out for all time a scar upon the sky,
Thou didst rise up against the Horror in the highest,
Dragging down the highest that looked down on the Most High:
Rending from the seventh heaven the hell of exaltation
Down the seven heavens till the dark seas burn:
Thou that in thunder threwest down the Dragon
Knowest in what silence the Serpent can return.


Down through the universe the vast night falling
(Michael, Michael: Michael of the Morning!)
Far down the universe the deep calms calling
(Michael, Michael: Michael of the Sword!)
Bid us not forget in the baths of all forgetfulness,
In the sigh long drawn from the frenzy and the fretfulness
In the huge holy sempiternal silence
In the beginning was the Word.


When from the deeps of dying God astounded
Angels and devils who do all but die
Seeing Him fallen where thou couldst not follow,
Seeing Him mounted where thou couldst not fly,
Hand on the hilt, thou hast halted all thy legions
Waiting the Tetelestai and the acclaim,
Swords that salute Him dead and everlasting
God beyond God and greater than His Name.


Round us and over us the cold thoughts creeping
(Michael, Michael: Michael of the battle-cry!)
Round us and under us the thronged world sleeping
(Michael, Michael: Michael of the Charge!)
Guard us the Word; the trysting and the trusting
Edge upon the honour and the blade unrusting
Fine as the hair and tauter than the harpstring
Ready as when it rang upon the targe.


He that giveth peace unto us; not as the world giveth:
He that giveth law unto us; not as the scribes:
Shall he be softened for the softening of the cities
Patient in usury; delicate in bribes?
They that come to quiet us, saying the sword is broken,
Break man with famine, fetter them with gold,
Sell them as sheep; and He shall know the selling
For He was more than murdered. He was sold.


Michael, Michael: Michael of the Mustering,
Michael of the marching on the mountains of the Lord,
Marshal the world and purge of rot and riot
Rule through the world till all the world be quiet:
Only establish when the world is broken
What is unbroken is the word.

GK Chesterton (1929)

Baby Organ Incinerator Story Shocks Ireland

It has emerged today that the organs of 18 stillborn babies were sent from Ireland to Belgium for incineration along with medical waste during the past year.

Parents were informed of the grisly details after the organs and tissue had already been destroyed. One mother harrowingly described the horror:

My son's brain went into a bin, as if it was a piece of rubbish, you put rubbish in a bin, why would you put my beautiful son's brain into a bin.

These parents lost their children in very tragic circumstances and that tragedy has now been compounded by this scandalous travesty.

The perplexing question on most people’s minds is ‘How did organs of babies end up being transported to Belgium to be incinerated in the first place?’

The routine incineration of babies was something that was brought up regularly as a topic of interest during the Referendum to Remove the Eight Amendment in 2018. Even last year, as abortion ‘services’ became a more regular part of the ‘health’ service, prolifers actually specifically raised the possibility of the bodies of babies being sent to Belgium from Ireland for incineration.

Supporters of the abortion law mocked the suggestion that this could happen. one replied They're transported to the Hollow Earth to fertilise the Lizard People eggs, obviously. Gawd. Another replied OK Boomer. As with every other prediction from prolifers surrounding the Repeal of the 8th amendment, this one came true and Repealers didn’t even take the time to listen, let alone understand it.

This dismissive attitude was not an isolated incident. The contempt and disdain for prolife campaigners was such that a perplexed Simon Harris even once asked Ronan Mullen (albeit under his breath) ‘What abortion industry?’ during debates after the vote.

Had Irish society done its homework in 2018, it would have known that incineration of aborted babies is a stalwart of abortion culture.

In 2014, for example, it was revealed that over 15,000 babies had been incinerated in UK hospitals in order to provide heating to the hospital buildings. The primary target of these incinerations were aborted babies, as the hospitals could in some cases save close to £20 per baby by disposing of them in such a fashion, but miscarried babies became collateral as they were disposed of in the same manner too.

The UK incident was only one occurrence however, Oregon had a similar scandal some years ago that also saw similar numbers incinerated.

Yet many in the abortion industry protested that in many cases such means of disposal were not merely legal but recommended. Those who claim that Texas has introduced a disproportionate response to abortion laws would do well to remember its previous advice on disposing of babies (not limited to aborted ones) which read:

disinfection followed by deposition in a sanitary landfill grinding and discharging to a sanitary sewer.

To be clear, RTE’s report as has been made public so far makes no mention of aborted babies being included in the ‘clinical waste’ that made its way from Ireland to Belgium.

A statement on behalf of the hospital involved said:

that this distressing incident has occurred … under very extenuating and unprecedented circumstances brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic

One rabid pro abortion party risibly responded that this was a

a hugely disrespectful way of treating human remains.

You don’t say.

Please remember the families affected in your prayers and also their little ones.

Catholic President Suggests Ban on Eating Dogs

South Korea’s Catholic leader, President Moon Jae-in, has suggested that the time has come to ban the sale of dog meat in the country.

Around 1 million dogs are slaughtered for food in South Korea each year, but numbers are declining as increasingly Westernised youngsters are shunning the practice.

Moon asked for Koreans to ‘prudently’ consider whether such a ban must now come to an end, with more humane attitudes towards dogs prevailing as more Koreans adopt them as pets.

Recent surveys show that the majority of Koreans do not eat dog meat and most also support a ban on the sale of it.

With a presidential election on the way next year, Moon’s position is one that has been echoed by other potential candidates.

During the last election, he adopted a rescue dog and has unveiled plans to revamp the country’s approach to abandoned animals.

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Moon is a Catholic, having been raised in the faith by his mother. His faith has informed his diplomacy efforts with North Korea.

Cardinal Sarah Called ‘African Dictator’ ‘Mugabe’ ‘Black Wojtyla’

The panic over a potential Cardinal Robert Sarah papacy has led many liberal Catholics to turn to crass and crude remarks.

In a tweet this week, one of his opponents referred to Sarah as ‘Black Wojtyla’, insinuating that he was similar to Robert Mugabe and ‘other African dictators’ as well as stating that he was a ‘liar’.

The escalation comes as other critics of Sarah, many of them American, have used his African background as a stick to beat him with. One prominent commentator, in a now deleted tweet, even insinuated that the cardinal was part of a network of African sleeper cells planted by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre during the Twentieth Century when he was responsible for the missionary work of the Holy Ghost Fathers.

The individual who compared Sarah to Mugabe was met with disgust online, with one person telling him ‘this is racist my man, check it’. His reply was, ‘yes, well…be it…’.

Despite often claiming to be more inclusive and tolerant of the church’s non European aspects, Modernists have long held suspicions towards the African church, since they see it as a bastion of orthodoxy and traditional Catholic thought.

This came to the fore in 2014, when Cardinal Walter Kasper called for a silencing of the fruitful African church, in order to listen instead to the rapidly collapsing German one. In an interview at the time that went around the world, he said:

But are African participants listened to in this regard?

No, the majority of them [who hold these views won’t speak about them].

They’re not listened to?

In Africa of course [their views are listened to], where it’s a taboo.

What has changed for you, regarding the methodology of this synod?

I think in the end there must be a general line in the Church, general criteria, but then the questions of Africa we cannot solve. There must be space also for the local bishops’ conferences to solve their problems but I’d say with Africa it’s impossible [for us to solve]. But they should not tell us too much what we have to do.

With a Universal Synod coming up in the next few years, these kinds of slurs do the church no favours.

Biden’s Party Passes Animalistic Abortion Law

Left leaning Catholics who advocated for, or at least were ambivalent to, the election of Joe Biden as President of the United States of America have blood on their hands once again.

Only two weeks ago, the president for which they ran cover sent a drone to incinerate seven innocent children in Afghanistan in a blatant war crime that church leaders have shamefully failed to condemn.

Now, Biden’s party, the Democrats, have lashed out at Texas by voting for a vicious abortion law that rivals the depravity of China when it was implementing it’s one child policy.

The violent 'Women’s Health Protection Act' allows for abortion up to birth. Democrats voted for it, giving it a victory of 218-211.

Although the bill looks set to be rejected at the Senate, it nonetheless shows the extent of the folly on behalf of those Catholics who have taken an indifferent and quietist perspective on Biden’s ascent to power.

The fact that Democrats were willing to vote for babies to be delivered alive after nine months of pregnancy and aborted for any reason, illustrates the depths to which the once admired USA have sunk.

When they lived under Communism, Eastern Europeans may have paid lip service to their authority figures and to the regime, but ultimately they saw the forces in power as being distinct from their respective historic nations. Americans must start to do the same and recognise that theirs is an evil empire, which has as its main foreign policy goal the spread of abortion and the destruction of family values, as much as was the case with the USSR.

In an interesting development, most of the tweets from Democrat politicians celebrating the vote use the term ‘abortion’ rather than the usual euphemism ‘choice’. One used ‘abortion justice’ instead of ‘reproductive justice’. Another said ‘stand up for abortion'. This is an interesting change from the usual efforts to hide the barbaric truth of the matter, the recent successes of the prolife movement in Texas have resulted in pro aborts having to push the conversation to further extremes in order to fight fire with fire.

Although this new law will not necessarily be passed by the Senate, it does emphasise the urgency for scrapping Roe vs. Wade, which has had as much of an impact on the world as had the 1917 legalisation of abortion in Russia.

The United States has also spread her errors throughout the world, this recent desperate escalation suggests that those on the side of evil are on borrowed time.

New Documentary Discusses Ireland Abortion Vote

13,000 abortions later, Ireland’s Repeal of the 8th Amendment has been shown to be exactly the disaster that No campaigners predicted.

Birth rates have plummeted by 25%, healthy babies have been aborted because doctors told their parents that they were sick and the situation looks set to deteriorate to even worse depths, mimicking the debauched British abortion regime which it aspires to emulate.

In a new documentary from Tim Jackson, the underhanded tactics of the ‘Irish’ pro abortion lobby during the vote to remove the rights of the unborn are revealed.

Without giving too much away, two aspects of it are particularly interesting.

One is the very active and intentional part that was played by American corporations who suppressed the prolife message on social media and search results. American corporations of course are no longer just for the United States, they have now planted themselves on large swathes of Irish real estate and show no intentions of moving anytime soon. The oppressive influence of Google during the Referendum is not easily forgotten and should inform many of our future perceptions on how stacked the odds are against us.

Another point of note is that when the television debates came up, it was made clear that things would be made deliberately difficult for the No side. The lack of an alternative media greatly hampered any hopes of winning the vote. For example, the only non government owned national TV station in Ireland is actually a British one. It is very difficult to conduct ourselves under enemy terms constantly and come out winners.

A fully functioning alternative media is the way forward.

This documentary is a good start on that path.

Huge Crowds Attend Polish Prolife Rally

With sustained efforts from George Soros, the United States of America and Ireland to deplete their commitment to pro family policies, Poland’s prolife lobby showed defiance this week by marching for life in Warsaw.

Recent prolife successes in the face of unrelenting pressure from outside forces have bought the prolife movement there some time, with the rise of other pro family regimes in Eastern Europe terrifying anti family governments such as Ireland’s, who are worried such policies will encourage their own citizens to look for fairer tax regimes.

The event was attended by figures from the worlds of religion, politics and activism.

Popular Polish priest Fr. Dominik Chmielewski presided over Mass for the event and spoke to those in attendance on the importance of building a culture of life.

Speaking at the event also was Archbishop Marek Jędraszewski, who spoke of his disappointment that the once optimistic European project had now been hijacked by extremists who wished to deChristianise Europe and to destroy the family in the process.

President Andrej Duda also attended, in a move that will enrage the international abortion industry. They called in every favour possible from their friends in the media to try to discredit Duda after he played a role in the banning of eugenicist abortion.

Blessed Cardinal Wyszynski was mentioned by many who spoke at the event, with his opposition to the Communism of the East now mirrored by the totalitarianism of pro eugenics forces from the West, specifically in the EU and USA.

With this year’s events scaled back due to the lockdown crisis, it is hoped that the nationwide march can resume next year.

Notre Dame Rebuilding Begins ahead of 2024 Reopening

In 2019, Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris spontaneously combusted during the most virulent wave of arson attacks on Catholic churches in French history.

Since then, architects have worked at trying to make sure that the building was stable before attempting to begin their restoration work. They have announced this week that that time has finally come, with such work set to begin immediately ahead of a 2024 reopening.

Despite the best efforts of many Modernists to ensure an iconoclastic wreckovation which would have mutated the historic cathedral into some grotesque novelty, decency has prevailed and the church will be restored with its original design.

The restoration will also use the same types of oak trees which were used in the original.

Although this was a disaster, the powerful image of French Catholics praying and singing the Rosary outside their fallen church was one which travelled around the world. With God’s grace, a reopening in 2024 can be such a moment of unity also.

Poland Tightens Laws on Sunday Trade

In 2018, the Polish parliament banned most traders from opening on Sundays.

However, the pro family law was undermined by a loophole which allowed some large outlets to remained open.

The loophole permitted retail outlets to stay open if they fulfilled certain conditions, which were often easily met by bending rules.

A new law passed yesterday in the Polish Parliament however, will now exclude them from opening unless postal services make up the majority of their business. In many cases this means that they will not be able to open up.

Sunday trading is damaging to families, in terms of time spent with their children since they will have to work in many cases, but also in terms of faith.

The expectation that Sundays are for sport and shopping is one that has severely impacted the quality of life for many families. While many European nations pride themselves as progressive for entertaining the possibility of four day working weeks and other concepts like state funded childcare.

Why not just go straight to the common sense option and have a five day working week, with Sunday trading regulated so as to allow families to spend more time with one another?

Prolifers are often accused (even by one another) of failing to offer foolproof solutions for improving daily family life. This idea is one which will be universally popular and universally productive.

Apart from with the large corporations who may feel that they miss out financially, but thankfully for them they have the likes of Anthony Blinken and Samantha Power to fight their corner against Polish families.

Assisted Suicide: At What Cost to the UK?

The Assisted Dying Bill 2021 is before the House of Lords and the British Medical Association has just voted for a “position of neutrality on assisted dying, including physician-assisted dying.” (The BMA is the largest union of British doctors.)

This Bill tasks doctors with the assessments, provision of poison, supervision of ingestion and supervision of the death of the terminally ill person. The BMA’s position is akin to the Taliban claiming they are “neutral” on women’s rights!       

The BMA vote was painfully close — 49% voted FOR neutrality; 48% AGAINST, and 3% abstained.

Credit must be given to those who voted, because both sides have a profound empathy for the dying. That said, there can be little respect for the eight delegates who abstained.

The first cost is to the honour of British Medical Association which may have abrogated almost 200 years of Hippocratic principle on the basis of a handful of abstentions. This perfectly-timed coup means that there is radically less opposition from the medical profession as Bill-13 [HL] comes for the Second Reading in the House of Lords. Ireland has shown that opposition to Assisted Suicide legislation can be effective.

Regular, non-assisted Suicide

If there is a single concrete argument against Assisted Suicide [AS] it is the increase in regular, non-assisted suicide. There has been over 30% increase in regular suicides in the Netherlands since Euthanasia was legalized there in 2001. Similarly, there are more suicides in those US States which legalised Assisted Suicide.    

By 2023 it will be legal for Canadian doctors and Nurse Practitioners to euthanise patients suffering from mental illnesses alone. All together this means that decades of suicide prevention are being flushed away.

Please listen to Lia (Garifalia) Milousis tell her poignant story in the video below. Imagine what might happen to a 2023 version of Lia.


“I’m the future version of myself who survived to tell you this.”

 The media tout AS & Voluntary Euthanasia [VE] as the “strong” and “compassionate” thing to do. This is likely to lead to “suicide contagion”: the Werther Syndrome. I believe we have a responsibility to prevent someone from taking their life out of despair — not to help them do it.

Family, Friends & Community

There must be a profound sense of abandonment and loss felt by the children who are left to pick up the pieces. “Mum didn’t love me…” or, “I should had loved her more…” It will be years before we can truly assess such trauma. This trauma is likely to affect future relationships and increase regular & assisted suicide.

We have no longitudinal evidence about how AS affects family members, friends and their community. The rationalisation that “death is a private matter” can only apply to a hermit living in some desolate place, devoid of all human contact.

The disabled, the handicapped & the mentally challenged

Baroness Hale noted that “Democracy is founded on the principle that each individual has equal value. Treating some as automatically having less value than others not only causes pain and distress to that person, but also violates his or her dignity as a human being.”

Many disabled individuals have voiced their concern that they may be coerced or put under duress to accept AS, simply because it is more “cost-effective.” This happened to Canadian Roger Foley who suffers from a progressive neurological illness. He wanted to live at home but was offered AS/VE as an alternative to forced discharge or $1,800 per day charge. (He found basic home-care services inadequate for his needs.)

Palliative Care

Palliative Care will suffer when accountants see the costs of treatment versus the cheaper AS. In time the funding for ‘expensive’ palliative programs will be reduced, which in turn will drive more people to seek Assisted Suicide.

It is telling that Medical Assistance in Dying [AS/VE] in Canada is perceived to be “a Right” and is now provided universally…while palliative-care is not.

Society

The devaluation of human life means that people will be perceived as objects. That always ends badly. This leads to the acceptance of eugenics; torture; involuntary euthanasia; capital punishment, etc.

(Editor: It might be worthwhile for readers to reflect on Britain’s role in the torture in Abu Ghraib, the torture there and the denials by Blair are evocative of the moral culpability for coercive assisted suicide The greatest moral failure of Tony Blair's premiership | Andrew Rawnsley | The Guardian )

 

Abu Ghraib (2004) under the Bush administration.

 

We can see this dehumanisation creeping into attitudes towards even political opponents; Climate-Deniers; etc.  As Daniel Goody said, ‘Human beings, have by their very existence, inherent value, worth, and distinction.’

 Demographic Death-Knell

Most western countries have birth rates which are already way below replacement levels. A terminally ill person receiving AS will only change demographics very slightly. That calculation will change completely in Canada when younger people are euthanised for non-terminal conditions.  

Health Care Workers

Caring people will leave the medical & nursing professions when they are forced to participate in a morally and ethically offensive act.

The Bill does not recommend or mandate any psychological testing for providers. In Canada, many doctors only performed one or two cases before giving up completely. Many noted an existential crisis from the killing of another human being.

The Bill does not require psychological testing of the curious few who continue to provide AS regularly. Convicted murderers, UK’s Harold Frederick Shipman and American Jack Kevorkian (“Dr. Death”) would really be in their element with legal Assisted Suicide!

Involuntary Euthanasia

In time, Health Care will attract the sociopaths who relish an ability to kill patients: some might graduate to Involuntary Euthanasia. (The killing of a patient without consent: a.k.a. murder.)

Medical Ethics

Others can better describe the damage AS/VE is causing to medical ethics and conscientious objection (noting: Ontario’s “effective referral” requirement.)

The British Medical Journal is published by the BMA and the Journal of Medical Ethics is a subsidiary of the BMJ. The JME published: “After-birth abortion: why should the baby live?” by Alberto Giubilini and Francesca Minerva in 2011. Giubilini and Minerva suggested that infanticide (“after-birth abortion”) is ethical. This sort of tripe has been fed to BMA members over many, many years so is it any surprise they have lost their way?

Medical Education

Medical students are being taught how to kill patients before knowing how to heal properly in the first place. This means that in Canada MAiD [AS/VE] has become a regular therapeutic option.

Humanist Dr. Donald Boudreau of McGill University, said “My personal belief is that healing and euthanizing are simply not miscible.” It is only a matter of time before job requirements specify the need for applicants to provide AS/VE in all Geriatric, Palliative-Care & Family Medicine (etc.) positions. 

Please listen to Dr. Leonie Herx’s succinct comments as she reviews the issues in Canada in the video below. She is a palliative-care physician, Division Chair of Queen’s Palliative Medicine & Past-President of the Canadian Society of Palliative Care Physicians.

 

Human Rights

There is an open season on the Right to Life throughout the developed world.

The Supreme Court of Canada redefined the ‘Right to Life’ to mean some Canadians have the “Right to Die.” Unbelievably the SCC also gave this select group of Canadians the legal right to demand their death at the hand of another citizen (VE.) As human beings we have free will — the Freedom — to kill ourselves. There is no Right to kill ourselves (and definitely we do not have a Right to require some other person to kill us.)

International Relations

The Assisted Dying Bill allows the UK to kill citizens of other countries! That might cost dearly if a country like the People’s Republic of China objects to their citizens being killed.

 

The Slippery Slope

Look at what has happened in the Netherlands and Canada already.

In Canada euthanasia for mental illness will be legal by 2023.

In the Netherlands euthanasia for infants was illegal but occurred for many years under the tacitly accepted Groningen Protocol. There are many other egregious examples of non-compliance with the Dutch legislation.

 

Conclusion

If introduced, Assisted Suicide will cost the UK dearly.

That said, take heart from the Irish experience. Strong opposition can succeed!

 

 

Dr. Kevin Hay MRCPI MRCGP (inactive) FCFP

 

Kevin was born in the UK, graduated from UCD and now works as a Specialist Family Physician in rural Alberta, Canada. You can follow him on Twitter @kevinhay77.

'So many children!' Pope Praises Orban's Policies

Despite a witch hunt from American media outlets and their imitators in the Irish media, Pope Francis’s recent meeting with prolife Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban was a success.

Western outlets who advocate for abortion and low birth rates, lack of housing and for lower wages were disgusted that Pope Francis was entertaining someone who wanted to help families to earn a living and to grow.

As journalists tried to draw him into condemning Hungary’s new education laws and the country’s lack of cooperation with efforts by Samantha Power of the United States of America to determine European migration policies, Francis instead drew attention to the large families in Hungary’s growing population.

He defended Hungary from attacks by the European Union and made veiled references to the types of extremism that are currently emanating from the likes of Ursula Von Der Leyen and Irish politicians like Fiona O’Loughlin and Maria Walsh, the latter of whom recently landed in Budapest to march in a parade that was designed to put pressure on the government.

Francis promised to return to Hungary as soon as possible, supporting Hungary against ‘non European’ countries who are trying to use the EU to further their own ideals.

Well, thank you, thank you very much. At the beginning it was not well understood: "But you are coming only for the ceremony, and you aren't going to visit us Hungarians? And some people thought badly. No: I explained that a visit had already been planned -- it was in mind -- to Slovakia and the other began after. But I promised your President whom I met -- this is the third time I have met him -- I promised to see whether it will be possible to come back next year or the following one because the Hungarians have so many values. I was struck by the sense of ecumenism, for example that you have, but with a deep, deep, deep profundity. This is what hit me. In general, Europe - I always say this - must reassume the dreams of the founding fathers of the European Union. The European Union is not a gathering to get things done, there is a spirit behind the EU that Schuman, Adenauer, De Gasperi, these great men: go back there. Because there's the danger to be just a managment office, the European Union, and that is not good. It must move precisely toward mysticism, in search of Europe’s roots and bring it forward. And I think all the countries must move forward. It is true that there are some interests, perhaps not European ones, that attempt to use the European Union for ideological colonization, and this is not good. No: the European Union must be indepedent in and of itself, and all the countries on the same level, inspired by the dream of its Great Founders. This is my idea. And you Hungarians: I was with you last year [2 years ago] in Transylvania, that Mass in Hungarian was beautiful.

I received him, the President came to see me, he carried out this courtesy. It is the third time I have met him, and he came with the Prime Minister and the Deputy Minister. The President spoke. The first topic was ecology, really chapeau for you Hungarians, the ecological conscience that you have. He explained how they purify the rivers, things that I did not know. Then I asked about the average age, because I am worried about the demographic winter. In Italy the average age is 47, Spain I think is even worse, many villages are empty or with many elderly people. How can this be resolved? The president explained to me the law they have to help young couples to get married and have children. Interesting, it is a law that is quite similar to the French law, but more developed. They explained this to me, there they added something, the Prime Minister and the Vice-Minister about what this law is about. On immigration, nothing. Then we went back to ecology. The family, in the sense of demographics: you can see that there are so many young people, so many children. In Slovakia, too, there are many young couples. Now the challenge is to find jobs, so that they don't go abroad looking for them. But these were the things... The president always spoke, both ministers added some data. The meeting lasted quite a long time, about 40 minutes.

Pope Francis: 'Abortion is MURDER!'

In his latest plane interview, Pope Francis has doubled down on previous rhetoric which compared abortion ‘doctors’ to ‘hitmen’, by reiterating that abortion is murder and those who avail of it or commit it are ‘killing’.

When asked about whether pro abortion politicians should be allowed to receive Communion, Francis linked abortion to Europe’s demographic decline:

Abortion: it's more than a problem, it's murder, whoever has an abortion kills, no half words. Take any book on embryology for medical students. The third week after conception, all the organs are already there, even the DNA... it is a human life, this human life must be respected, this principle is so clear! To those who cannot understand, I would ask this question: is it right to kill a human life to solve a problem? Is it right to hire a hitman to kill a human life? Scientifically it is a human life. Is it right to take it out to solve a problem? That is why the Church is so hard on this issue, because if it accepts this it would be like accepting daily murder. A Head of State told me that the demographic decline began because in those years there was such a strong law on abortion that six million abortions were performed and this left a drop in births in the society of that country.

British Medical Association Drops Opposition to Assisted Suicide

Today, the BMA — the largest representative body/union for doctors in the UK — voted in favour of taking “a position of neutrality on assisted dying, including physician-assisted dying.”

The vote was painfully close: 49% voted FOR “neutrality” — 48% voted AGAINST, and 3% ABSTAINED. Every simpleton knows that doctors cannot possibly be “neutral” about a patient committing suicide. Doctors cannot be “neutral” when the profession is tasked to provide and supervise the poisons used by patients to kill themselves.

This decision provides enormous support for the introduction of Assisted Suicide to England and Wales (Baroness Meacher’s Bill is before the House of Lords: Scotland has their own legislation.) This vote will be used to brainwash the British people that AS is “just fine.” It will be used to bully politicians into voting in favour of the Bill.

The psychological persuasion will come in many forms. Humans are social creatures and one of the easiest forms of persuasion is the ‘Asch Conformity Syndrome’ which has been shown to work repeatedly in group dynamics. (Also, once Assisted Suicide has been introduced, it will be a small step to add Voluntary Euthanasia.)

The Nazi propaganda chief, Joseph Goebbels described “The Big Lie”:

If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.

All is not lost

This is a devastating blow: but Britain has been in a pickle before! Two countries can provide good example for the UK.

The Canada Medical Association also voted to be “neutral.” That allowed the legalization of Assisted Suicide and Voluntary Euthanasia in Canada without any coordinated opposition. Since 2016 many of the initial tight restrictions have been removed and by 2023 doctors in Canada will be able to euthanise those suffering from mental illnesses alone, legally. The lesson from Canada is that remaining opposition must unite and fight the introduction of Bill 13 HL — now!

The UK should take great encouragement from Ireland where the Dying with Dignity Bill 2020 failed. The Justice Committee of the Oireachtas (Ireland’s Parliament) received over 1,400 submissions which came from private citizens and professional organizations such as the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland; Irish Palliative Medicine Consultants Association; Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland; Irish Society of Physicians in Geriatric Medicine; College of Psychiatrists of Ireland; Irish Healthcare Professionals for Dignity in Living and Dying, amongst others.

There are about 300,000 doctors in the UK with just over half being members of the BMA. My hope is that many will immediately resign from the BMA and join a union which opposes AS. (The next largest union is the Hospital Consultants and Specialist Association, which appears to have no stance on AS.)

For more details on the Assisted Dying Bill 2021 (Bill 13 HL) please follow the link.

Doctors and nurses must remain our patient’s advocate, counsellor, and caregiver.

We must shield our patients from coercion. We must treat suicidal patients appropriately: not kill them.

Assisted Suicide is not “end-of-life care.” It is the Ending of Life.

Dr. Kevin Hay

MRCPI MRCGP (inactive) FCFP

Kevin was born in the UK, graduated from University College Dublin and now works as a Specialist Family Physician in rural Alberta, Canada. He has been writing on Assisted Suicide & Voluntary Euthanasia for the past 5 years. You can follow him on Twitter @kevinhay77.

Will Fianna Fail Ban Prolife Prayer?

Despite still hoovering up an obscene amount of prolife and Catholic votes in each election, Ireland’s ruling Fianna Fail party have in recent months turned their ire against both groups of their base.

First there was the instruction to law enforcement to surround entire villages in order to prevent Mass from taking place earlier in the year (on the same weekend that international sport events were taking place in Dublin), then there was the legislation which rendered outdoor Confession and Communion on the tongue as illegal and finally there was the the suggestion that the party needed to become even more pro abortion in order to bring about a reversal in plummeting voter approval ratings.

The party are now seeking to turn the screw further on its Stockholm Syndrome suffering Catholic and prolife base, by banning prolife prayer near abortuaries, an almost unheard of infringement against human rights in Europe. Despite Garda Commissioner Drew Harris insisting that current legislation on public order is sufficient to deal with such vigils, a caucus led by failed Fianna Fail politician Fiona O’Loughlin is seeking to ban Catholics from praying at such venues.

The Oireachtas Women’s Caucus sent a letter to Fiona O’Loughlin, who was rejected by voters but taken care of by Fianna Fail with a Senator position, which outlined their desire to see prolife prayer vigils banned from taking place. The letter was then passed on to self avowed ‘feminist’ and Social Democrats founder Stephen Donnelly, who has stated that he is ‘fully committed’ to having prolifers and Catholics banned from praying for an end to abortion near places where babies are destroyed in the womb.

The move to get the letter published was led by members of the Green Party, who share a special bond with their ruling Fianna Fail colleagues, having weathered the storm to force the bank bailout on the Irish people in the past decade. This pro usury act of totalitarianism was a significant part of Ireland’s decade of death, which saw birth rates successfully reduced by a quarter and abortions increase to 6,000 plus a year. Both parties were recently involved in a widely criticised rule which permitted government camera crews into Maternity Hospitals during lockdown, while keeping fathers out of the building, regardless of the condition of the mother.

Anyone who has ever come across any of these prolife vigils will know that they are prayerful, quiet and unassuming. Most actually take place on the weekends when the GPs in question are not even open. The insinuation that anything untoward is taking place there is really just the guilty conscience of the Green Party and Fianna Fail nagging at them, perhaps in the knowledge that they have caused around 15,000 abortions since 2019, not to mention many more in the decade preceding thanks to their anti family cutbacks in the service of the banking system.

Catholics and the wider community of those who oppose abortion must take their vigils directly to the Dail if this ban takes place. They should also respond in kind and make sure that Fianna Fail are denied the opportunity to stage their notorious ‘church gate collections’, where anti Catholic politicians seek financial contributions from Massgoers who mindlessly fund their own persecution out of some misplaced sense of loyalty to a party that no longer exists except in name only.

The voters roundly rejected pro abortion Fianna Fail TDs in the past year and a half and it seems likely that they will continue to do so. The party appear to have chosen abortion as the issue that eventually brings about their demise and they have chosen to pummel people of faith in the process.

Like all who have tried similar in the past 2,000 years, it will be in vain.

The Largest Mass Execution in American History

1847 is known as one of the worst years of Ireland’s history, with the great number of victims of the so called ‘Great Famine’ perishing during the harsh conditions of that winter, with many emigrating and drowning at sea in the effort to do so.

‘Black 47’ as it came to be known at home, also saw Irishmen abroad suffering for their ethno religious identity, leading to Irish Catholics being the victims of the greatest mass execution in the history of the United States of America.

The USA was not at this time the entity that John F. Kennedy eventually managed to become President of, with prominent Catholics in every city and state, instead it was a primarily Anglo Protestant nativist culture which could often be hostile to the waves of peasant Irish Catholics arriving at its shores in large numbers.

This happened to coincide with antagonism towards another Catholic peoples, the Mexicans. In an effort to annex Texas, the United States under President James Polk went to war with Mexico, enlisting tens of thousands of immigrants to bolster the army, including Irish Catholics. Ulysses S. Grant would later say of the war:

For myself, I was bitterly opposed to the measure, and to this day regard the war, which resulted, as one of the most unjust ever waged by a stronger nation against a weaker nation.

Despite the good pay from the American army, some Irish Catholics quickly recognised the similarities of this struggle with their own one back home. One particular individual who saw this was John Riley, an Irish emigrant who had served and excelled in both the British and American armies. Almost as soon as war was declared, Riley defected to fight alongside his Mexican Catholic brothers. He took with him many other Irish and his own military expertise, together their battalion became known as the ‘San Patricios’, or ‘Saint Patrick’s’ Battalion.

One Mexican commander evoked Irish Catholicism as a means of appealing to potential soldiers, General Lopez De Santa Anna wrote:

The Mexican nation only looks upon you as some deceived foreigners, and hereby stretch out to you a friendly hand, offer you the felicity and fertility of their territory

Can you fight by the side of those who put fire to your temples in Boston and Philadelphia?... If you are Catholics, the same as we, if you follow the doctrines of our Saviour, why are you seen, sword in hand, murdering your brethren, why are you the antagonists of those who defend their country and your own God? You will be received under the laws of that truly Christian hospitality and good faith which Irish guests are entitled to expect and obtain from a Catholic nation

The Boston and Philadelphia ‘temples’ referred to were incidents where Anglo Protestant nativists set a number of churches and convents on fire in the previous year.


The numbers of San Patricios grew even more steady after the Battle of Monterrey, in which the American army had prepared to shell the city Cathedral.

Though small in number, their expertise was significant in the Mexican efforts, which were ultimately in vain. General Santa Anna stated that having an army composed of similar soldiers could’ve won the war. After being captured in August 1847, dozens of San Patricios faced execution. Riley escaped execution because his desertion had occurred prior to the official declaration of war. Instead, he was brutally beaten as punishment.

Irish President Michael D. Higgins with his Mexican counterpart at the memorial to the San Patricios.

Irish President Michael D. Higgins with his Mexican counterpart at the memorial to the San Patricios.

Others were not so fortunate.

Between 10th and 13th September 1847, 50 men were executed. 30 were hanged on 13th September, making it the largest mass execution in United States history.

This fight was a type of precursor to the 20th Century Cristero War, where the Anglo Protestant forces of Freemasonry and the Ku Klux Klan duelled with the Knights of Columbanus (many of them Irish) and the Catholic Cristeros of Mexico.

Their battle cry could have easily been that of the San Patricios:

The Virgin Mary is our protector and defender when there is to fear

She will vanquish all demons at the cry of "Long live Christ the King!"

Soldiers of Christ: Let's follow the flag, for the cross points to the army of God!

Let's follow the flag at the cry of "Long live Christ the King!"

Sanpatricioshang.jpg

Eucharistic Congress Finishes With Pope/Orban Meeting

The Eucharistic Congress 2021 has finished in the Hungarian capital of Budapest, with a large outdoor Mass with Pope Francis to cap off events.

Some of the other significant public highlights included a candlelit Eucharistic procession, attended by thousands as they passed through the Budapest streets.

As part of his trip there, Pope Francis met with Viktor Orban and discussed the future of Christianity on the continent. Orban gifted the pope with a letter from King Bela IV.

This letter had caused outrage from the American Catholic Left, who have been swift to conflate Orban with Planned Parenthood. The implication that defending your country from invasion is the same as abortion is of the type of ignorance that caused some Americans to rename ‘French Fries’ as ‘Freedom Fries’ in the early 2000s, it is the outrage at those who assert the Manifest Destiny of a nation that is always right in fighting ‘tyranny’ even when it is wrong.

Those outraged American Catholics would be better devoting their own energies to discussing the acts of their sitting Catholic president, who scorched 7 innocent children to death this past week with a drone, for no strategic or military reason. No apology, no public penance was given afterwards. The humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan should not be used as a tool by the Catholic left to attack those that they do not like, particularly when those that they have implicitly endorsed or defended are committing war crimes while attending daily Mass. To our knowledge, not a single member of the anti Orban American Catholic Left has condemned Biden’s war crime last week, which left a grieving father mourning the massacre of his 7 children.

Another important part of Eucharistic Congress events was the beatification of Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski, who lived under Communism in Poland, a pivotal figure alongside Pope John Paul II in the survival of the faith there.

Cardinal Dominik Duka, who was acquainted with the Cardinal personally, shared a photo of him praying at the blessed's tomb, a tribute to their shared survival under Communism.

The pope will travel to Slovakia today where he will also offer a public Mass.