Peter Saunders wrote recently at the MercatorNet euthanasia blog about how television dramas make rare events appear common and so distort public opinion on key issues. He talked specifically about the UK soap opera Emmerdale which is involved in an assisted suicide plot line involving a young man who is paralyzed in a car accident and asks his mom to … Read More
MLK and Human Rights, the Battle Continues
Today we remember Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who died fighting (peacefully) for the rights of those who were treated as less than human because of the color of their skin. Today, the battle for the freedom and the rights of all human beings is far from over and the threats to the dignity of the human person are only … Read More
27 Yr. Old Quadriplegic Wants to Die
27 year old Dan Crews was paralyzed in a car accident when he was 3 years old. He is paralyzed from the neck down and though he can speak and eat, his diaphragm muscles cannot move air through his lungs so he must be hooked to a ventilator in order to breathe. He’s lived this way for 24 years. He … Read More
Assisted Suicide: the Musical
You may recall that a few years ago Clint Eastwood dramatized the life of a female boxer who becomes paralyzed and seeks suicide help from her trainer. The latest attempt to disparage the lives of disabled people and promote assisted suicide through popular culture comes from India where a similar film opened this weekend. In this film the main character … Read More
JP II, the Church on Withdrawing Nutrition and Hydration
Last week I talked about withdrawing nutrition and hydration from sick and disabled people using a passage from Pope Benedict’s encyclical Caritas in Veritate (Charity in Truth) on every human beings basic right to receive food and water. I forgot that in 2004 John Paul II discussed this issue specifically in an address to participants in the International Congress on … Read More
Lessons From a Little Flower Redux
Four years ago, I started this blog as an extension of my pro-life apostolate. As you’ve probably noticed, I also write a lot about suffering and the Cross. That’s because it has been my observation after several years of pro-life advocacy that one of the underlying causes of the culture of death (abortion, euthanasia, assisted suicide, cloning/ESCR) is a desire … Read More
Pacino Wins Emmy for Dr. Death Portrayal
Life just keeps getting better for convicted murderer Jack Kevorkian. Not only was he recently portrayed by none other than screen legend Al Pacino in an HBO biopec, but Sunday night he got to attend and received special recognition at this year’s Primetime Emmy awards. “You Don’t Know Jack” was nominated for a total of 15 Emmys and won two: … Read More
“The Ultimate and Absolute Evil”
G. K. Chesterton’s thoughts on suicide, from his book Orthodoxy, chapter 5: Under the lengthening shadow of Isben, an argument arose whether it was not a very nice thing to murder one’s self. Grave moderns told us that we must not even say “poor fellow,” of a man who had blown his brains out, since he was an enviable person, … Read More
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
How appropriate that, after writing this post last week, my latest Netflix movie turned out to be The Diving Bell and the Butterfly about French journalist and former editor-in-chief of Elle magazine, Jean-Dominique Bauby. Talk about a man who “had it all”, only to seemingly “lose everything” when a massive stroke left him paralyzed from head-to-to with locked-in syndrome at … Read More
Pixar Wisdom: The World Needs More “Jackalopes”!
This is one of my absolute favorite Pixar short films: Maybe I’m stretching it a bit, but it kind of reminds me of this passage from Romans (5:3-5): we even boast of our afflictions, knowing that affliction produces endurance, and endurance, proven character, and proven character, hope, and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured … Read More