Abbey Roads on Euthanasia in Belgium

The following post is from one of our favorite blogs, Abbey Roads, written by Terry Nelson.  Mr. Nelson writes with humor, pathos, wisdom and a heart and mind very close to our Lord and His Church.  This is his post on a recent, tragic story from Belgium:

Deaf and dumb... a very sad story.

The story is unbelievable.

If it is true, then it is very sad, and very scary.  These poor men must not have understood that they have a soul, and that God exists, and that he loves them:  That what is invisible is important... eye has not seen, ear has not heard... 

Identical twins have been killed by Belgian doctors in a unique case under the country's euthanasia laws.

The 45-year-old brothers from the Antwerp region were born deaf and sought euthanasia after finding that they would also soon go blind. They told doctors they were unable to bear the thought of not being able to see each other again.

 

The twins, who have not been named but have been pictured on Belgian TV, had spent their entire lives together, sharing a flat and working as cobblers.

Belgium's 'Het Laatste Nieuws' newspaper reported at the weekend that doctors at Brussels University Hospital in Jette "euthanised" the two men by lethal injection last month.

 

Under Belgian law, euthanasia is allowed if those wishing to end their lives are able to make their wishes clear and a doctor judges that they are suffering unbearable pain.
David Dufour, the doctor who presided over the euthanasia, said the twins had died together and had taken the decision in "full conscience".

"They were very happy. It was a relief to see the end of their suffering... - Source
 

Blood and water flowing from the side of Christ as a font of mercy for us, forgive them for they know not what they are doing.

 

Patients in 'Vegetative' State Can Think and Communicate

Patients left in a “vegetative” state after suffering devastating brain damage are able to understand and communicate, groundbreaking research suggests.

From The Telegraph
By Richard Alleyne and Martin Beckford

'Vegetative state' brain scan images: the fMRI images which were used as part of the study by Dr. Adrian Owen.

Experts using brain scans have discovered for the first time that the victims, who show no outward signs of awareness, can not only comprehend what people are saying to them but also answer simple questions.

Read the rest of this entry >>

Doctor Admits Euthanizing Patient During Hurricane Katrina

From LifeSiteNews
By Thaddeus M. Baklinski

A doctor has admitted that he gave orders for a lethal dose of medication to be administered to a patient under his care during the hurricane Katrina disaster in 2005 - a decision that he says he does not regret having made.

Dr. Ewing Cook said that as staff at Memorial Medical Center in New Orleans were struggling to evacuate patients from the flooded building, he gave the order to give Jannie Burgess, 79, who was dying of uterine cancer and kidney failure, a dose of morphine that he knew would kill her.

"Do you mind just increasing the morphine and giving her enough until she goes?" Cook said he asked the patient's nurse, and then wrote "Pronounced dead at" on the patient's chart and left it blank to be filled in later.

Cook described the "double effect" of morphine, which is frequently used to control severe pain or discomfort but can also slow breathing and, if suddenly introduced in much higher doses, lead to death.

"If you don't think that by giving a person a lot of morphine you're not prematurely sending them to their grave, then you're a very naïve doctor," Cook said.

"To me, it was a no-brainer, and to this day I don't feel bad about what I did," Cook told ProPublica, an independent nonprofit investigative organization.

"There's no question I hastened her demise," he said. "I gave her medicine so I could get rid of her faster, get the nurses off the floor."

Cook also described another area of the hospital that was crowded with patients on cots and stretchers where he considered euthanizing the ones that had "do not resuscitate (DNR)" on their charts. "We didn't do it because we had too many witnesses," he told ProPublica. "That's the honest-to-God truth."

Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell told AP he would not reopen an investigation launched by his predecessor, Charles Foti, because of the disclosures by Dr. Cook.

In that investigation another doctor and two nurses were arrested on charges of second-degree homicide, but a Grand Jury declined to indict them.

Dr. Anna Pou, a surgeon who specializes in working with cancer patients, and nurses Cheri Landry and Lori Budo, who had admitted to administering lethal doses of medication to patients during the aftermath of hurricane Katrina, were offered immunity from prosecution by Attorney General Foti, before testifying to a Grand Jury that four patients died after being administered what Foti called a "lethal cocktail" of drugs.

Dr. Pou denied the charges, insisting that she did not support euthanasia and claimed to have given only comfort care for the patients.

However, court documents asserted that witnesses had testified that Dr. Pou and the two nurses took syringes full of drugs to a ward for the chronically-ill and injected four patients. Thirty-four patients died in Memorial Medical Center following the Katrina disaster, more than in any comparable-sized hospital in the drowned city.

A coroner's report stated that more than half of the bodies taken from Memorial tested positive for morphine or midazolam, or both. Robert Middleberg, the director of the toxicology laboratory where the autopsy samples were tested, said the high drug concentrations found in many of the patients stuck out "like a sore thumb."

The ProPublica report cites University of Pennsylvania bioethicist Arthur Caplan, who, after reviewing the records of the patients who died and the coroner's report, concluded that nine patients were euthanized, and that the way the drugs were given was "not consistent with the ethical standards of palliative care that prevail in the United States." Those standards are clear, Caplan wrote, in that the death of a patient cannot be the goal of a doctor's treatment.

The complete investigative article from ProPublica is available here.

Obama: The First 50 Days

Father Alphonse de Valk of Catholic Insight Magazine has documented the policies and appointments that constitute the most demonic and ambitious assault on human life and the family ever waged in the United States. That assault, by Obama and his appointees, is gaining momentum. With permission, we are pleased to reprint Father de Valk's documentation of the first fifty days of Obama's campaign for a culture of death.

From Catholic Insight
By Father Alphonse de Valk

Obama has appointed one vice-president, 13 secretaries, four directors, five legal counsels and 13 White House staff for a total of 36 people. Of these, 23 are known to be pro-abortion. Of the remaining 13, only one is known to be pro-life (the secretary of transportation); the views of the others are unknown to us. Of the White House staff, none are known to be pro-life.

In addition, the vice-president, five secretaries and one director (that of the CIA) are Catholics. All of them, however, disown the Church’s teaching on the dignity and protection of all human life, from conception to natural death.

We would appreciate receiving notices of any documentable errors and omissions in this tabulation, so that it may be corrected as need be.

The anti-life assault begins

The election of Barack Obama as president, Catholic Insight stated in a November 3, 2008 press release, would turn out to be a disaster for the advance of a pro-life culture.

On the most important cultural issue of all, the equality and dignity of all human beings before God, he represents the greatest threat today, even more so than the notorious Marxist revolution of 1917 with its attack on the family. That revolution was rejected by the Western world. On the other hand, Obama's leadership is being hailed as a sign of hope across the world and welcomed with open arms. Obama has a 100 per cent approval rating from NARAL Pro-Choice America, the U.S.’s leading pro-abortion organization. That rating is based on a record of consistently voting against the unborn.

Obama has told Planned Parenthood he regards so-called choice as “a fundamental issue” on which he will not yield. He voted against an Induced Infant Liability Act in the Illinois legislature in 2002; this would have given legal protection and medical assistance to babies born from botched abortions. He also voted against banning partial-birth abortion in the Senate in October 2007.

On another key issue, the integrity of the traditional family, in 2004 Obama called the Defence of Marriage Act an “abhorrent law” and added: “The repeal of DOMA is essential ... For the record, I opposed DOMA in 1996. It should be repealed and I will vote for its repeal on the Senate floor. I will also oppose any proposal to amend the U.S. Constitution to ban gays and lesbians from ‘marrying.’”

“We must be careful to keep our eyes on the prize – equal rights for every American,” he has told homosexual activists. “We must continue to fight for the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). We must vigorously expand hate-crime legislation and be vigilant about how these laws are enforced. We must continue to expand adoption rights to make them consistent and seamless throughout all 50 states and we must repeal the ‘don't ask, don't tell’ military policy.”

Apart from issues of human life and the family, there are numerous other question marks surrounding Obama, many of which are covered by Dr. Jerome Corsi in his New York Times bestselling book, The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality (see the review on page 32 of the April 2009 edition of Catholic Insight).

Inauguration

January 20, 2009: Barack Obama is sworn in as president of the United States of America. His original birth certificate is not available. He calls himself a “person of faith,” without specifying what faith he means. It is not Christianity as founded by Jesus and entrusted to his Apostles.

In his inaugural address, Obama neglects to mention the American founders’ emphasis on life and liberty as the first of the inalienable rights in the Declaration of Independence. Five minutes after Obama becomes president, the White House website changes from pro-life to pro-abortion.

Policies

January 21: The president is at work selecting members of his staff and cabinet while Congress, where Democrats have a majority in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, sets to work developing policies and legislation to advance the agnostic-atheist attack on the Judeo-Christian foundations of law and order.

In Congress, Obama receives assistance from numerous Catholic politicians who have scuttled Catholic moral teaching in favour of “political correctness,” i.e., various aspects of modern hedonism and the culture of death. While the overriding focus of attention during the first 50 days is the economy, the bailout of banks, various “stimulus” packages and the housing credit and unemployment crises, the anti-life agenda was set in motion from the beginning.

January 21-22: Obama signs executive orders calling for the closure of Guantanamo Bay (January 22), a ban on torture (January 22) and new rules regarding transparency and lobbyists (January 21). This is what draws the attention of the world.

January 21: Meanwhile, the White House website is updated — under the title “Civil Rights,” for the LGBT activists, it reads:

• SSM (same-sex “marriage”)
• Repeal the Defence of Marriage Act (DOMA)
• Repeal the army’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy
• Pass “hate crime” legislation granting “transgendered” homosexual activists and crossdressers equal rights
• Pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA)
• Promote “gay adoption” (i.e., motherless or fatherless homes for children)

January 22: Buried in the House Stimulus Bill, in Section 5004, is the “State Eligibility Option for Family Planning.” This would make national Medicaid a money machine to the tune of $87 billion for family planning clinics in the United States. (Family planning in the U.S., as well as in Canada and elsewhere, means: “Planning not to have families,” i.e., promote contraception, sterilization and abortion.) The U.S. already spends more than $400 million on overseas “family planning” assistance each year.

• The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves a guide for the use of embryonic stem cells for human trial. (To this point in time, embryonic stem cell research has never cured or helped any patient; on the other hand, the use of adult stem cells already has some 80 medical achievements on its roster.)

• Two hundred thousand people walk in the March for Life in Washington, marking the 36th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision establishing abortion throughout the U.S.

• Obama issues a written statement that he backs a woman’s “right to choose.”

January 23: Obama overturns, by executive order, the Mexico City Policy of previous presidents that forbade the funding of abortions and abortion groups outside U.S. boundaries. (No TV cameras or press were present for the signing on a late Friday afternoon when news services were shut down. Hundreds of millions of dollars will go to support abortions in poor countries, especially in Asia, Africa and South America.)

• Appended to the statement announcing the end of the Mexico City Policy, Obama declared: “In addition, I look forward to working with Congress to restore U.S. financial support for the UN Population Fund.” (That funding was halted in 2002 when a State Department investigation showed the Fund supported China’s coercive one-child-per- family policy through forced abortions and sterilizations.)

January 25: House of Representatives majority leader Nancy Pelosi (a pro-abortion, pro-same-sex “marriage” Catholic) declares that contraception is now part of the U.S. economy.

January 26: Obama calls upon Democratic leaders to remove the “family planning” provisions supported by Pelosi from the $825-billion stimulus bill, after Americans and media outlets, such as the Drudge Report, ridicule the items as non-starters in stimulating the economy and creating more jobs. Senate Republicans threaten a filibuster.

January 27: A Congressional committee debates the Prevention First Act (PFA), which, if passed, would hand over millions for “family planning” methods, attack freedom of conscience rights for health providers and financially pave the way for the proposed Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA), which would strip all states of the ability to restrict abortions and homosexual activism. The Prevention First Act was introduced by Senate majority leader Harry Reid (a pro-abortion Mormon) on January 6, 2009. The act claims to reduce unintended pregnancies and abortion and is based on the premise that contraception prevents abortion. (In reality, contraception is the gateway to abortion.)

• Susan Rice, Obama’s new ambassador to the UN, pledges support for the convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). Already, the CEDAW committee has tried to bully 93 countries into making abortion legal.

• The administrator of the USAID foreign assistance program, pro-lifer Kent Hill, is replaced with Alonzo Fulgham, the CEO of the agency, who announces that the reversal of the Mexico City Policy is being implemented immediately. Fulgham issues a formal notice informing field offices worldwide.

• The director of the UN Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA), pro-abortion Thoraya Obaid (Saudi Arabia), welcomes Obama’s restoration of $50 million to the UNFPA’s coffers and its coercive population control plans. “Access to reproductive health (a code word for contraception, sterilization and abortion) is the core of equality for women and girls,” she says. The funding had been suspended since 2002.

January 28: Obama tells Democrats to remove a bailout for the Planned Parenthood abortion business ($200 million for 295 abortuaries and 850 consultation centres) from the economic stimulus bill after vigorous pro-life protests, for fear that it might jeopardize the bill’s passage. It is dropped on January 30.

• The Senate defeats an amendment to restore the Mexico City Policy, 60-37. (Eighteen of 24 Catholic Senators voted to defeat it.)

• Pro-life groups continue their massive protests and opposition to the FOCA bill, which has been filed with Congress. The act would outlaw every abortion restriction passed by Congress, state legislatures or local communities. Obama has repeatedly expressed his support for FOCA, the last time on January 22, 2008, the 35th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. FOCA’s sponsor is Senator Barbara Boxer (a pro-abortion Jew).

January 29: The UN children’s agency UNICEF launches its annual report, stating: “Having a child remains one of the biggest health risks for women worldwide.” It recommends global financing for “family planning” and “reproductive health services” as the primary way to reduce maternal deaths. It then admits that the statistics on worldwide annual deaths are subject “to a high degree of uncertainty.”

• The Senate, by a 59-39 vote, rejects national medical coverage in the SCHIP program for unborn children and their pregnant mothers. This, pro-life sources say, will lead to more abortions, supposedly against the president’s intention of reducing abortions.

February 5: Obama’s new group of 24 faith-based advisors includes Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Washington-based Religious Action Centre of Reform Judaism, which was a sponsor of a 2004 pro-abortion march by Planned Parenthood and NARAL. Other pro-abortion members are added later.

February 6: The Senate refuses to remove a discrimination clause against the religious use of university facilities benefiting from the stimulus bill.

February 19: The federal government is drafting guidelines that will be put in place once Obama approves federal funds for embryonic stem cell research.

February 25: As feared by pro-life groups, the Omnibus Appropriations Bill cuts funding for abstinence education by $54 million, while giving more money to Planned Parenthood programs. This leaves only $95 million for national programs. This money disappears later on.

• Time magazine, in attacking opponents of the FOCA bill, is accused of many inaccuracies, non-sequiturs and misrepresentations. Time has described the bill as “mythical.” Yet, Obama announced his intentions to sign such a bill in 2006, again in a July 2007 speech to Planned Parenthood and once more on January 22, 2008 on the Roe v. Wade anniversary.

February 27: • The Obama administration prepares to rescind conscience rules for health care workers. Obama officials tell the Chicago Tribune that, for the Provider Conscience Law and other regulations protecting medical personnel against involvement in abortions, they are opening a 30-day public comment period, after which they will rescind the law. Pro-abortion groups have long desired to coerce all medical personnel and hospitals into providing contraception and sterilizations and committing abortions. As one writer put it, “This is a declaration of war on all who oppose the killing of the unborn.”

March 5: The Senate, by a 55-39 vote, rejects an amendment to stop funds from going to the United Nations Population Fund.

March 6: Obama shuts out pro-life groups from attending today’s White House health care summit, called to discuss how health care reform should be implemented. Pro-abortion groups like Planned Parenthood, however, are invited to attend.

March 9: Obama eliminates eight-year-old limits on federal money for the use of embryonic stem cells for research — which kills newly conceived embryos — by presidential decree, in a room packed with scientists.

• The health secretary announces the intention to abolish the “final rule” (protection of conscience for health workers opposed to abortion, contraception, IVF, etc).

March 10: The end of the first 50 days. Except for publicity about the new financing of stem cell research and a mention of the overturning of the Mexico City Policy, adoring liberal daily newspapers have not mentioned Obama’s new Death Culture.

March 12: The Senate stimulus bill contains a bailout package for Planned Parenthood.

• The Senate rejects by a 55-39 vote an amendment to stop U.S. taxpayer funding of the UNFPA. The UNFPA backs policies of forced abortion and sterilizations, as in China.

Appointments

During the first 50 days, Obama selected the most anti-life, anti-family radicals he could find for his administration.

• Vice-President Joseph Biden (senator, Catholic, pro-abortion, pro-same-sex “marriage”)
• Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (Methodist, feminist, extremely pro-abortion). Clinton controls the American UN delegation
• Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano (former governor of Arizona, Catholic, strongly pro-abortion and pro-SSM)
• Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar (senator from Colorado, Catholic, pro-abortion)
• Secretary of Defence Robert Gates, a holdover from the Bush administration
• Secretary of Veterans Affairs Ken Shinseki (retired four-star general, Medical Corps; disagreed with former secretary of defence Donald Rumsfeld)
• National Security advisor Retired Marine General James Jones
• Labour Secretary Thida (Hilda) Solis (California congresswoman, Catholic, pro-abortion)
• Transportation Secretary Ray Lahood (Rep Congressman, pro-life)
• Secretary of Education Arne Duncan (favours separate schools for homosexuals)
• Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner (president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, a Bill Clinton holdover)
• Secretary of Energy Steven Chu (1997 Nobel prize in physics)
• Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Shaun Donovan (New York Housing
Commissioner)
• Central Intelligence Agency director Leon Panetta (former congressman; Bill Clinton’s chief of staff, a pro-abortion Catholic)
• Food and Drug Administration director Margaret Hamburger (New York City health commissioner under Mayor Rudy Giuliani, pro-abortion). An earlier appointment was listed as Jane Henney (headed the FDA under Clinton; professor at the University of Cincinnati, approved abortion drug RU 486 (mifepristone))
• Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack (governor of Iowa, 1999-2007; Catholic, pro-abortion)

Legal Counsel

• Attorney-General Eric Holder. The first African-American to hold this office (was deputy attorney-general under Janet Reno during the Clinton years)
• Deputy Attorney-General David Ogden (denies negative effects of abortion; considers pregnancy a form of slavery; was a lawyer for Playboy and other pornographic interests)
• Office of Legal Counsel, White House (assists attorney-general in her role as legal adviser to the president). Dawn Johnsen (pro-abortion, lawyer and legal director for NARAL Pro-Choice America, 1988-1933, professor at Indiana University School of Law)
• Assistant Deputy Attorney-General Thomas Perrelli (lawyer, pro-euthanasia, represented Terry Schiavo’s husband in his successful quest to have his wife starved and dehydrated to death)
• Solicitor-General Elena Kagan (strong abortion supporter. The solicitor-general represents the government before the Supreme Court)

Health

• Health Secretary and Health Services (HHS) Kathleen Sebelius (former governor of Kansas, Catholic, pro-abortion, including support for late term abortions (Ontario and Quebec send late-term abortions to Kansas, paying an average of $5,000 (US) for each.) HHS would play a role in getting abortion coverage in the new health program and make it mandatory that hospitals or insurance companies cover abortion.)
• Health Care Office, White House. Nancy-Ann De Parle, political advisor (pro-abortion)
• Deputy health care director Jeanne Lambow (pro-abortion)

Other Clinton Holdovers and Washington Lobbyists for White House Appointments (Do Not Require Congressional Approval)

• Chief of Staff, White House. Rahm Emanuel (congressman from Illinois, Jewish, pro-abortion — has a 100 per cent NARAL “pro-choice” rating; pro-SSM)
• White House political advisor David Axelrod (Jewish, pro-abortion). Axelrod was Obama’s main election strategist during the two-year-long campaign for office
• Director of communications Ellen Moran (former CEO of Emily’s List, a major and wealthy pro-abortion political action committee)
• Director of domestic policy Melody Barnes (former board member of Emily’s List and Planned Parenthood staff member)
• Director for foreign women’s issues (a new office to re-affirm the population and development goals of the Beijing 1995 UN conference; i.e., to promote abortions and overturn pro-life laws in foreign countries) Melanne Verveer (former chief of staff to Hillary Clinton; a pro-abortion Catholic). Holds rank of ambassador-at-large
• White House Council on Women and Girls (new office) director Tina Tchen (Chicago Lawyer, vice-president of NOW, feminist, pro-abortion. She has a mandate to examine all federal laws and agencies pertaining to women)

• Council on Environment Quality Nancy Sutley (lesbian).
• Director of the Environmental Protection Agency Lisa Jackson
• Climate “czarina,” White House Carol Browner
• Director for the Office of Management and Budget Peter Orszag (former economic advisor to Clinton)
• Head of the National Economic Council, White House. Lawrence Summers (former Clinton advisor)
• Chairman of the Democratic party Tim Kayne (governor of Virginia, Catholic, pro-abortion)

Summary

The facts of the first 50 days of the Obama presidency seem overwhelming. According to the 55-page pro-abortion document, “Advancing Reproductive Rights and Health in a New Administration,” $4.5 billion in federal funding will be disbursed at home and abroad to “advance reproductive rights.” This document is posted on www.change.org, Obama’s official website for his transition team.

Obama’s Steps for the First 100 Days projects the end of the Mexico City Policy, the Hyde Amendment, the Kemp-Kasten amendment, the Weldon Amendment, restrictions on emergency contraception (Plan B), the termination of all abstinence-only programs and a reversal of the recent HHS regulation protecting pro-life physicians and institutions. By Day 50, many of these had been accomplished already. Any present obstacles to so-called abortion rights not covered by removing these restrictions, such as the ban on partial birth abortion and state laws requiring parental notification, will be covered by the passage of the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA).

We draw the attention of our readers especially to the coercion which is built into many of these measures. A combined United States-United Nations assault on the freedom of poor countries to determine their own domestic policies on population will soon be underway.

At home, the Obama regime will take on more abusive, tyrannical features as it seeks to destroy the rights of people to disagree and dissent. All along, this has been the implication of the new legislated rights to kill and to overthrow the natural moral law in family and sexual matters introduced 40 years ago.

The president and his advisors will be making some 7,000 appointments that will influence policy; they will be pro-abortion ones, said one commentator, with the exception being the ambassador to the Vatican. What resistance the Christian community will be able to offer remains to be discussed in a future article.

That time now is not to surrender, but to fight back with all our might. The grace of Christ is stronger than the power of evil.


Sources: Americans for Truth; the American Life League; the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute; the Culture of Life Foundation; LifeNews.com; LifeSiteNews.com; the National Post; the Population Research Institute; Time; United Families.org; The Wanderer;WorldNetDaily.com, Zenit.org.

Last Catholic Monarchy Euthanized

Hat Tip to Real Clear Religion for the following column from The Remnant

By Brian McCall

The last act of the French Revolution came to a close on March 12, 2009, but hardly anyone was watching. The demonic forces unleashed over two hundred years ago took on the aim of destroying all monarchial authority in Europe. The rulers of the once Christian nations of Europe, or at least their governing authority, had all been executed, except for the tiny nation of Luxembourg. On March 12, without much fanfare, the parliament of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg voted to end government of their small nation by the Grand Duke.

Luxembourg was the last European nation to be governed by a real monarch. Although the tiny nation has had a parliamentary chamber, that body functioned as parliaments were originally designed to function. It was an advisory body to the Grand Duke. After new legislation was voted on by the Chamber of Deputies, Article 34 of the Constitution stated: “The Grand Duke sanctions and promulgates the laws. He makes his resolve known within three months of the vote in the Chamber.” This provision permitted the Grand Duke to perform the proper function of a monarch in a mixed form of government. He served as a check on the potential excesses of political parties legislating when they encroached on the principles of the natural law. As a hereditary ruler for life, the Grand Duke is immune from elector politics. He can thus serve as an outside supervisor of the results of the legislative process. This is exactly what he did last year in an act which precipitated the March 12 vote.

In 2008, the Chamber of Deputies voted to approve a law which authorized the intentional killing of human beings, commonly referred to by its morbid proponents as euthanasia. Such a law is contrary to the natural law. For, as St. Thomas observed in his Summa the civil law can not always punish everything that the natural law forbids but it may never sanction such evil. Now we know both by reason and divine authority that euthanasia is prescribed. It violates the first principle of the natural law - self preservation. The Church has confirmed this deduction of reason on several occasions by pronouncing euthanasia to be immoral. Even the sensus Catholicus of this overwhelming Catholic nation was clear; the populace of Luxembourg opposed the bill pushed through by the Socialist and Green parties.

Henri, the current Grand Duke, fulfilled his moral obligation as a good Catholic monarch and refused to sanction this evil legislative act. As a reward for doing the right thing, the so called “conservative” Prime Minister, Jean-Claude Juncker, called for an amendment to the Constitution stripping the Grand Duke of his authority to sanction laws passed by the Chamber of Deputies. The March 12 vote approved the removal of the word “sanctions” from Article 34. Prime Minister Juncker made clear the intention was to remove the right of the Grand Duke to approve of or reject laws. According to Juncker he must be required to promulgate all acts passed by the Chamber. The Luxembourg monarchy has thus entered the realm of Walt Disney monarchs inhabited by the remaining figure heads of Europe such as England, Spain and Belgium. They can parade around for tourists in quaint costumes and live in nice palaces, but they have no authority to protect and defend their nation by governing it.

The old sly tactics of the spirit of Liberalism were visible in the way this final act unfolded. The press and politicians called the Grand Duke’s prevention of this immoral euthanasia legislation a “constitutional crisis.” Now a constitutional crisis occurs when an official violates the norms and rules constituting the mode of government of a civil society. In this case the Grand Duke did not violate a single provision of the existing written constitution. He merely exercised his legitimate and rightful authority to withhold his sanction from a proposed civil law which is contrary to the natural law. And the reaction of Liberalism to his exercise of his legitimate right – strip him of that right!

Liberalism has always been willing to grant freedom and rights so long as the recipients only exercise that freedom in accordance with the wishes of Liberalism. Post French Revolutionary Liberalism claims to stand for the “rule of law,” a phrase that purports to mean that rules are not to be changed merely to reach a desired outcome. The established rules of the game, Liberalism claims, are sacrosanct.

In reality, the rules are changed whenever Liberalism does not get its way. Like a spoiled child, it picks up its toys, which it previously claimed to have given away, and goes home. A few years ago after several nations clearly voted to reject the proposed European Constitution, the forces of Liberalism decided that the right to vote on the proposed Constitution was no longer necessary. The Constitution was repackaged as a treaty needing only the approval of the governments of the member states, not a vote of the population at large.

Ireland stood as the only exception and allowed the Irish people to vote and they said no. Even this vote did not stop the forces of Liberalism who vowed to find another way. Likewise, when Grand Duke Henri uses his legal right to withhold his sanction from a law, the right he thought Liberalism had conceded to his ancestors, the modern Constitution is seen for the illusion it is. He has the right for only so long as he does not actually use it.

This pattern of give and take rights is as old as the French Revolution which began by proclaiming Liberty for all and then proceeded to guillotine those who did not use that Liberty in the way the Committee for Public Safety thought they should (i.e. by apostatizing from the Faith). Liberalism means the right to be Liberal (as defined and redefined by the reigning generation of Liberals).

Fortunately for Grand Duke Henri, his confrontation with the old enemy cost him only his legitimate governing authority and not his head. Some Liberals have at least learned that the messy business of liberally severing heads always seems to turn on them, literally.

Still, the Grand Duke is to be commended for his fortitude. One can only imagine the subtle voices of temptation that were poured into his ears by the Machiavellian politicos. “Just sanction the euthanasia law and avoid a ‘constitutional crisis.’ and conserve your rights.” “You can compromise by expressing your personal disapproval but still promulgate the bill as the ‘will of the legislature.’” “This is not an issue worth loosing your privileges and rights over.”

But no, Grand Duke Henri’s Catholic conscience was too well formed for these deceits. He refused and was duly reprimanded. Again, in an absurdity of contradiction, the new “liberal” article 34 will prevent the Grand Duke from acting in accordance with his conscience. Its terms require him to promulgate all laws, even those that violate his well formed conscience – so much for “freedom of conscience!”

In lieu of tossing flowers to the Grand Duke as he makes his final bow on the decaying ruins of the theater of Christendom, I suggest all Remnant readers instead offer a rosary for His Highness that God, whose divine law leaves no good deed unrewarded and no evil deed unpunished, will bless him for his courage. While you are doing that, perhaps you can utter a prayer for the tiny population of Luxembourg who are now defenseless against the enactment of euthanasia laws and all the other gruesome ordinances of 21st Century Liberalism. These will all be possible now despite the will of their Grand Duke and, as in this case, even their own overwhelming sentiments. Libera nos ab potestate tyrannico liberalismi, Christus Rex.

Pro-Life World Coming to the Defence of Luxembourg Monarch’s Stand Against Euthanasia

From LifeSiteNews
By Hilary White

The US-based Alliance Defence Fund (ADF) has announced they will be launching a legal challenge to a new law in Luxembourg legalizing euthanasia. Last week, the world was shocked when the parliament of the tiny but venerable European state of Luxembourg proposed to strip its head of state, the Grand Duke Henri, of his veto powers when the latter announced he would refuse to give royal assent to the law.

The ADF, a network of Christian attorneys, announced today that attorneys were standing ready to offer pro bono legal assistance to physicians willing to bring suit regarding the constitutionality of the law.

ADF Legal Counsel Roger Kiska, who is based in Europe, said, “Everyone deserves a chance to recover. The proposed legislation does not allow for that, and we believe it is unconstitutional.”

Kiska warned Americans that the “culture of death does not stay contained within foreign borders.”

“American courts are increasingly pointing to the laws of foreign countries in their own decisions.”

A proposal brought forward by Luxembourg’s Minister of State, Jean-Claude Juncker, to change the constitution to remove the veto powers of the Grand Duke has been approved by the country’s Constitutional Commission. The proposal would change the constitution so that the signature of the Monarch would no longer be necessary for a law to take effect. The Grand Duke has said that for him this issue is a “question of conscience.”

Should the euthanasia law come into effect, Luxembourg will become the third country in the European Union to legalize the practice. The proposed law will allow doctors to kill patients diagnosed as “terminally ill” if the patient requests it and two doctors and a panel of “experts” agree.

Luxembourg has a population of under half a million people in an area of approximately 2,586 square kilometres, but is significant for its historical importance. Although it is officially a secular state, Luxembourg’s population is predominantly Roman Catholic, with 87 percent professing membership in the Church. Its head of state, the very popular Grand Duke Henri de Luxembourg, is one of the last European monarchs with concrete ruling powers.

A letter to the Luxembourg monarch from Human Life International lauded the Duke’s determination not to be party to the legalisation of euthanasia in his country. Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer, STL, president of Human Life International (HLI), said that the action of His Royal Highness is a courageous one in the face of international opposition.

Fr. Euteneuer wrote, “Please accept on behalf of all the associated member organizations of Human Life International in eighty countries our greatest admiration for your courage in refusing to sign the legislation legalizing euthanasia in Luxembourg.”

“Your well-formed Catholic conscience is a precious gift that honours the Royal Family of Luxembourg, as one of the greatest responsibilities of the monarchy is the duty to resist demagoguery and all attacks on public morality.

“You have our deepest admiration and support in this battle to respect life. Thank you for the magnificent example that you have given to all the heads of state in this difficult period of history.”

This week, Monsignore Ignacio Barreiro, the head of the Rome office of Human Life International, attended a demonstration in support of the Duke’s decision at the offices of the Luxembourg embassy in Rome. He told LifeSiteNews.com that the issue is important because it is an example of a man acting according to a “rightly formed conscience.”

“His Royal Highness should be praised,” he said, “for having taken a stand in defence of life, and acting according to his rightly formed conscience.”

“It’s very, very important to insist that the only conscience that has rights, that has to be followed, is one that is rightly formed,” in accordance with objective moral norms.

News media is calling the Luxembourg situation an “unprecedented” constitutional crisis; in fact, however, it is not the first time a Catholic monarch has had his legal powers removed for his refusal to accede to the desires of anti-life campaigners. In 1990, King Baudouin I of Belgium, described as a deeply religious Catholic, refused royal assent to a law that legalised abortion.

The Belgian constitutional problem was “solved” when King Baudouin asked the government to declare him temporarily “unable to reign” to allow him to avoid signing. Baudouin’s monarchy was suspended for a day, during which all members of the government signed the bill. The next day the government declared that Baudouin was capable of reigning again and he was reinstated. After Baudouin’s death, Belgium went on to become a world leader in the Culture of Death, expanding abortions and legalising euthanasia.

Luxembourg to Strip Monarch's Power for Not Signing Bill Allowing Euthanasia

H.R.H. Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg

From LifeNews
By Steven Ertelt

The parliament in the tiny European nation of Luxembourg plans to remove Grand Duke Henri's power to approve laws because he refuses to sign a bill that would legalize euthanasia. In February, the parliament approved a bill to make the country the third to allow the practice.

Lawmakers approved allowing doctors to help patients kill themselves without facing any legal consequences.

The measure is due to have a final reading and vote later this month, but the Grand Duke, who holds executive power similar to a president and must sign off on bills for them to become law, opposes the measure.

Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker told Reuters on Tuesday that the parliament would put forward a vote on a resolution to change the nation's constitution to strip the Grand Duke of that power.

"That means he will only technically enact laws," Juncker said of the potential bill.

Juncker is a member of the Christian Social Party, which generally opposed the bill, but he said he expected a debate on the Grand Duke's power along with the final vote on the euthanasia bill in the coming weeks.

Just 30 of the 59 members of the nation's parliament approved the euthanasia bill back in February. Nearly all of the members of Juncker's Social Christian Party voted against it.

Catholic leaders are continuing a lobbying campaign with the hopes of defeating it on the final reading and they are joined by medical and physicians groups.

Under the bill, patients can request help in dying in a living will or advanced directive and doctors must get a second opinion that patients are in a "grave and incurable condition" before killing them.

The measure also creates a national commission that will evaluate every case to ensure the law and its guidelines are followed when patients are killed.