Abortion and eugenics before the European Court of Human Rights
The Court is called upon to adjudicate on the existence of a “right to eugenic abortion” Strasbourg, 4 April 2011 – The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) currently has before it an unprecedented number of cases relating to abortion. Because the principles established by the Court in its case law are binding on the [...]
The European Parliament’s Week For Life 2012: The Program
Will the UN condemn this US ruling?
I am not one to argue the UN has any business meddling in the domestic affairs of states. But let us see if it will rise to this occasion. The UN is about to celebrate Down Syndrome Day. And just in time to condemn a Portland, Oregon jury who awarded parents $2.9 million for the “wrongful birth” [...]
First comes the theory, then the practice: why academic writing is not innocent
Francesca Minerva and Alberto Giubilini, who wrote is an “academic” paper that killing newborn babies should be as permissible as abortion, say that they have received death threats. Given that this blog has criticized their paper, I think it is appropriate for ourselves to distance ourselves from such threats. Death threats are not the right [...]
Infanticide: Logical Outcome of the Commitment to a “Right to Abortion”
A few days ago, J.C. von Krempach brought to attention an article in the Journal of Medical Ethics entitled: “After-birth abortion: why should the baby live?” arguing that the newborn baby has the same right to life as a fetus- i.e. none. Contrary to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the authors assert, among others, [...]
Netherlands: we have euthanasia, but no place for coma patients…
The Dutch public is offended over remarks made by Rick Santorum in a TV talkshow: “In the Netherlands, people wear different bracelets if they are elderly. And the bracelet is: ‘Do not euthanize me.’ Because they have voluntary euthanasia in the Netherlands but half of the people who are euthanized — ten percent of all [...]
Netherlands: a prominent euthanasia case ahead?
Dutch Prince Johan Friso, injured in an avalanche last week, is in a coma and may never regain consciousness, doctors treating him in Austria say. The Netherlands were the first country in the world to legalize euthanasia. Originally, the intention was to limit the practice to cases were terminally ill patients themselves explicitly expressed a [...]
Major victory for life in Europe: Euthanasia must always be prohibited
The ECLJ welcomes the adoption, by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) of a Resolution setting the principle that “Euthanasia, in the sense of the intentional killing by act or omission of a dependent human being for his or her alleged benefit, must always be prohibited.” This is the first time, in [...]
The Salvation Army Loses Its Sight
From the time of its founding by William Booth, the Salvation Army sought to help the poor, homeless, destitute and outcast. Booth endured beatings and humiliation for fearlessly proclaiming Christ, Who was born into the world through a poor, homeless teenager. The Salvation Army loves the unlovely. Which makes the latest news about the Salvation [...]
Assisted Suicide OK in Switzerland if Not Done Under “Selfish Motives”
The Patients Right Council points out an important distinction in euthanasia/assisted suicide policy in Switzerland. In Oregon, Belgium and the Netherlands, a medical reason is necessary. In Switzerland there are no parameters. In fact there is no law legalizing assisted suicide, only a law that lays out parameters for punishing someone who assists in euthanizing [...]
Belgium Government Official Wants Euthanasia Law Expanded to Include Minors
Belgium’s chairman of the Federal Committee on Euthanasia, Wim Distelmans, sent an open letter to Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo last month “asking him to re-open a national debate on euthanasia” and update the parameters that qualify a person to be euthanized. Belgium’s most aggressive pro-euthanasia advocacy group, Humanistisch-Vrijzinnige Vereniging (Humanist-Liberal Association), wants the 2002 [...]
An International Right to Die?
This week the UN’s working group on aging is meeting in New York. On the agenda is consideration of a new treaty for older persons. UN statistics show that the number of people over 60 will double by 2050 and be even higher in the developing world–63% to 78%. One out of four will be [...]
Conscientious objection at the European Court of Human Rights – Comments on the Bayatyan v. Armenia judgment and some other pending cases.
Grégor Puppinck, Ph.D., Director of the ECLJ. On July 7, 2011, in the case Bayatyan v. Armenia (application no. 23459/03), the Grand Chamber of the ECHR issued a landmark ruling concerning the conviction of a Jehovah’s Witness in 2003 for his refusal to participate in military service. The Court determined the applicability of article 9 [...]
Death of “Dr. Death”
The Huffington Post reports that Jack Kevorkian, aka Dr. Death, has died at the age of 83 in a Detroit hospital: Kevorkian, who was trained as medical pathologist but stripped of his medical license, admitted to being present in at least 130 suicides of terminally ill patients between 1990 and 1999. He also developed a [...]
The Italian crucifix case: a watershed?
The Italian crucifix case (Lautsi case) is the first case in the history of the Court which attracts so much attention and mobilizes so much people to act. With this case, the Court appeared publicly as an ideological battlefield where significant political decisions are passed in certain confidentiality. This case arose in the rather exceptional [...]
Why Peter Singer’s Advocacy for Infanticide Must be Combated, Carefully
So says Wesley Smith, in the Human Life Review. Smith writes about what Peter Singer said about advancing his infanticide agenda at the conference on finding common ground on abortion at Princeton University last fall. But it is folly to think that Singer doesn’t eventually want his ideas implemented: He is too serious an intellectual [...]