“What’s happened under the MAID programme in Canada is everything the anti-euthanasia brigade used to warn me about in debates,”
Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition
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| Ian O'Doherty |
Ian O'Doherty, who is a columnist for Mediahuis Ireland covering the Irish Independent and Sunday Independent has went from strongly supporting euthanasia to completely opposing euthanasia.
James Wilson published an interview on newstalk with Ian O'Doherty from Lunchtime live on October 24 concerning the legalization of euthanasia. As stated earlier, O'Doherty has changed his position on the issue.
O'Doherty told Wilson that he supported euthanasia when Diane Pretty, who had Motor Neuron Disease, sued the British government to overturn the law preventing assisted suicide. But since he has changed his mind.
James Wilson published an interview on newstalk with Ian O'Doherty from Lunchtime live on October 24 concerning the legalization of euthanasia. As stated earlier, O'Doherty has changed his position on the issue.
O'Doherty told Wilson that he supported euthanasia when Diane Pretty, who had Motor Neuron Disease, sued the British government to overturn the law preventing assisted suicide. But since he has changed his mind.
O'Doherty tells Wilson:
“There was a case in Belgium involving twins - the Verbessem twins,” he said.
“They weren’t terminally ill but they were deaf and they were going blind - they were suffering from macular degeneration.
“They decided that they wanted to get euthanised together.”
Although the twins’ family were against it, the pair went ahead and died together.
“I just thought that was wrong,”
“They weren’t dying.”
O'Doherty then speaks about Canada:
In 2016, Canada legalised euthanasia and five-years later it broadened the eligibility to include people with incurable conditions.O'Doherty has been reporting on the issue of euthanasia for a long time. We hope that his knowledge and experience will help others understand why euthanasia, if legalized, cannot be controlled.
The Medical Assistance in Dying or ‘MAID’ programme is something that has given Mr O'Doherty pause for thought.
In particular, he heard of a man with a severe disability who requested euthanasia because he was about to become homeless.
“What’s happened under the MAID programme in Canada is everything the anti-euthanasia brigade used to warn me about in debates,” he said.
“I would dismiss their warnings as being ‘scaremongering’ when they talk about the slippery slope.”
This is encouraging. Often when our work seems to go unnoticed, and the other side gets all the publicity, it can be discouraging. But doing what we do because it is the right thing to do, even though it may not be most popular means we have no regrets over our moral decisions. Thomas Merton wrote in 1968 that violence is not always overt. Acquiescence to violent acts by others is of itself covert violence as it supports degrading human dignity and furthers the aggression. Euthanasia is a overt act of violence, but supporting it is still an act of violence Merton would describe as covert. Finally someone of consequence has come to realize this.
ReplyDeleteGod does bring everything around in His time.