Displaying items by tag: Victoria
Reminiscence from a Veteran Pro-lifer
Les Jones is a veteran pro-lifer with decades of experience. Here he shares some memories of activism at a former abortuary in Carlton, Melbourne.
Following the example and inspiration of people like Joan Andrews, Right to Life tried a few Operation Rescues in the late 80s.One was at the facility of Christine Healy in Swanston St, Carlton.About 12 people blocked the entrance, while others witnessed outside and did not break the law. I was one of the latter group that day.Those arrested were fined varying amounts, and accepted imprisonment for periods ranging from 12 hours to 6 days for a re offender.The magistrate also banned Right to Life from witnessing within 50 metres.The late Mary O'Connor, grandmother of Veronica Corboy's husband, was in a waiting room several months later and admired a baby.The baby's mother told Mary that she had gone to the facility that day, but changed her mind and kept the baby, a decision that she was grateful for.There is a young person walking around today as a result.We had similar witnesses outside abortuaries in Wellington Pde and St Kilda Rd. Because of the ruling of the magistrate mentioned above, the idea of rescues was abandoned: Right to Life did not want to cause problems to Richard and his team of HelpersChristine Healy moved to a new location near the University. We know of one baby saved through the witness of a young mother.
Live and Let Die?
The Victorian Story So Far
Last June, the Legislative Council Legal and Social issues Committee released their report into End of Life Choices. The report recommended legalising assisted dying within a supposedly strict framework. A similar bill, the Death With Dignity bill 2016, was recently defeated in the South Australian parliament, where TWO such bills have been introduced this year alone. (Click here to read more.) The State government, infamous for its Marxist-style agenda to dismantle the fabric of society, has until December 9th to make its response to the report. In light of its track record, there is every reason to think that the Andrews government will introduce a bill to legalise either assisted suicide, or direct euthanasia. Politicians need to hear from the public about the dangers assisted suicide and euthanasia represent to vulnerable people, health professionals and to society at large. I've compiled some resources that will provide you with facts to use in letters to MPs, or personal or online conversations.
The picture above was taken at an anti-euthanasia rally, held outside the office of Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews last week. Right to Life spokesman, Eugene Ahern gave this statement:
Mr Andrews and his government could accept the recommendation for patient killing and introduce a bill to kill patients. Alternatively Mr Andrews and his government could reject patient killing, and focus on patient care, especially palliative care. Killing is never the answer to a human problem. It is the failure to look for an answer. We ask our premier to carefully read the comprehensive Minority Report prepared by Daniel Mulino MP which examines the whole issue an practice of euthanasia in detail and comprehensively rejects the Majority Report’s recommendations. We strongly urge the Premier to not abrogate society’s law against killing and to focus on patient care.
Is it Compassionate to Kill Sick People?
The AMA issued their statement last November, which was the result of a 5-year study into end-of-life care. Although this statement was widely misinterpreted by the mainstream media, when read carefully, it's clear that the majority of Australia's doctors prefer to treat their patients rather than put them to death. From the conclusion:
3.1 The AMA believes that doctors should not be involved in interventions that have as their primary intention the ending of a person’s life. This does not include the discontinuation of treatments that are of no medical benefit to a dying patient.
Instead of focusing on killing patients, there are several areas related to end-of-life issues which need to be promoted and developed further. These include palliative care, pain-control, and the concern sick people often have about feeling like a burden.
- Pro-euthanasia lobbyists exploit the issue of pain to further their cause, when in fact, pain-control is possible with the advent of good medical practices. (Read more here.)
- The approach which takes in a widest range of patient needs is called palliative care, and is a fast-developing facet of medicine/nursing. (Read more here)
- Human beings have an intrinsic need to help and be helped by others. This article explains why it's ok to 'feel like a burden.'
- An oncologist explains his journey from pro-euthanasia to being completely opposed to it in this article.
Think There's No Slippery Slope?
Proponents of euthanasia consistently claim that legislation will be watertight, to protect vulnerable groups from being swept into assisted-suicide or euthanasia scenarios. But equally consistently, these vulnerable groups have ended up becoming targets of the death-dealing medical professionals. For example, it is now possible to find cases of:
- euthanasia for alcoholics
- euthanasia for children
- euthanasia for depression
- euthanasia for those who are 'tired of life' or have 'completed life'
- euthanasia without consent
What About Conscientious Objection?
A worrying aspect of many assisted-dying lobbyists is their unwillingness to cater for medical professionals who have a conscienctious objection to killing their patients. In many parts of the world, there is evidence that medical professionals aren't free to exercise their consciences in regard to ending a patient's life:
Want to Learn More? If you'd like to be better informed about euthanasia and related topics,
- Paul Russell's HOPE website is Australia's foremost resource for end-of-life issues.
- You can click on this link to watch a European-made documentary on the HOPE website.
- The Living with Dignity website has a fantastic, concise list of objections to euthanasia.
- This article was written by a mother who learned the value of suffering when she experienced a terminal illness.
Restoration of Legal Protection for the Unborn Must Remain Our Primary Focus
Melbourne Young Liberal member, Stephanie Ross, recently wrote an article for The Age, in which she was highly critical of the work of the Australian pro-life movement. (Click here to read the article.) Richard Grant responds:
The Australian Abortionist Who Wants America's Dead Babies
CMP, or the Centre for Medical Progress is the organisation started by David Daleiden which exposed Planned Parenthood's illegal baby-parts trafficking business. Among their many undercover videos is a series taken at the 2014 National Abortion Federation conference held in San Francisco. Topics at the conference included self-care for late-term abortionists, as well as how to dispose of those pesky surplus fetuses - presumably the ones that aren't sold - very profitably - for research purposes. (You can read about how aborted fetuses are legally used for research in Australia here.) Planned Parenthood temporarily stopped the CMP from circulating this conference series.
More Anti-Christian Bigotry in Victoria
Things are growing darker by the day in the People’s Republik of Victoria. I have documented a number of very ominous developments here under the radical leftist reign of Labor Premier Dan Andrews. He seems obsessed with wiping out Christianity and religious freedom while he implements every hard-core minority group agenda around. His latest attack of faith and freedom comes in the form of the Equal Opportunity Amendment (Religious Exceptions) Bill 2016. It is a frightening proposal which everyone concerned about freedom and religious freedom should know about.
The Bubble Zone
At the beginning of 2015, the Victorian ALP Government rightly removed the Coalition's "move on" laws from the statute book. Rightly so, as the laws were intended really to prevent unions protesting. The laws were seen as an unfair restriction on free speech, with Attorney General, Martin Pakula, proclaiming that: "Victoria doesn't need Bjelke-Petersen-style laws designed to silence dissent and outlaw peaceful protests." At year's end, a total back flip by Victorian Labor with its MPs denied a free vote and totally under the thumb of Emily's List. Why not a conscience vote? After all the issue, like 2008, was about abortion on demand and not about a mother’s health.
(Pro) Life Before Buffer Zones
Guest post by Anne O'Dwyer. Anne is a Melbourne mother and grandmother who has been involved in many areas of pro-life work. In this article, she writes of her experiences at the Croydon abortion facility, where she witnessed faithfully for many years until "safe-access zones" were established in 2016: In 1998 David Grundmann brought his grisly late term abortion business to Croydon Victoria. At the time I was a volunteer with Right to life. Living close to the proposed facility, I was asked to form a small group to pray and offer help to the girls and women entering the facility. I had undertaken training in support of pregnant women and had worked on phone and face to face counselling on a volunteer basis since 1991. However, to actually see these girls and women at the coal face, sometimes accompanied by partners or family, on the point of actually taking this step to end the life they were carrying, had a deep affect.
