The Culture Of Death Suffers Two Setbacks In Australia
By Alberto Carosa
The voluntary euthanasia law, which came into effect in July in
Australia's Northern Territory, was partly overturned by a bill
that Canberra's House of Representatives later adopted. If the
Upper House, expected to vote on the bill this year, follows suit
and backs the anti-euthanasia bill, the territorial law will be
scrapped. The national parliament can in fact quash laws in
Australia's territories, but not in its six states.
This is an undoubted setback for the culture of death, a setback
which one of Australia's most prominent Catholic pro-life leaders,
Babette Francis, anticipated. She was a member of the
international pro-life contingent which lobbied the recent UN-
sponsored FAO World Food Summit in Rome. Francis, a Catholic from
India, is married to an Australian and has lived in Australia for
many years. She is the national and overseas coordinator of
Endeavour Forum, which is a political pro-life and pro-family
lobby. It's not specifically Catholic. About 75 % of its members
are Catholic, while the other 25% belong to other denominations.
Francis is also on the editorial team of the Catholic Women's
League monthly magazine, <The Horizon>; the magazine gave her
credentials to attend the Food and Agriculture Organization
summit.
"Euthanasia has been legalized in the Northern Territory," she
noted. "This is an area in the north of Australia which is not yet
a state and has a small population. It is a territory which is
ultimately governed by the federal government. There is a bill in
the federal parliament to override the Northern Territory
legislation. I think that it will go through the House of
Representatives quite easily. We may have a bit more difficulty in
getting it through the Senate. But I am optimistic that in the end
we'll be able to override the Northern Territory legislation."
Darwin's Unnatural Selection
But it has been a terrible tragedy for Australia, she pointed out,
and "I feel ashamed as an Australian that one man has been put to
death, executed under this assisted suicide, legalized
euthanasia." She was referring to an Australian cancer patient,
Bob Dent, who in September became the first and thus far only
person to use the voluntary law. He did so in the capital of the
Northern Territory, Darwin, through a computer-delivered lethal
injection. Ironically, this first legalized mercy killing took
place in a city named after the theorist of evolution! Dent is the
only one "thus far" because another cancer patient, Janet Mills
has announced in a press conference her intention to end her days
in an "open, dignified, and human manner" by benefiting, so to
speak, from the law before it is repealed (see <Il Giornale>, Dec.
13th, 1996).
In an article in <L'Osservatore Romano> significantly headlined "A
Day of Mourning and Horror," the paper's official theologian, Fr.
Gino Concetti, condemned the Australian law in the strongest
possible terms. After noting that Australia has ushered in the
"tragic season of legalized assisted suicide," Fr. Concetti said
that "nobody has the power to decide the end of one's own life. "
This practice is justified with the same arguments as those used
for divorce and abortion, he contended, namely, the absolutizing
of the freedom of conscience as a "personal religion, an idol,
which replaces God and His Revelation." Thus the doctors become
"notaries of death. Not 'sweet,' as is claimed by their upholders,
but cruel, absurd, and appalling." He quoted Edward Cardinal
Clancy of Sydney as saying that "it is a day of shame for
Australia." And "not only of shame," Fr. Concetti concluded "but
also of mourning and horror. Assisted suicide is murder legalized
by the state. One of the most abhorrent forms in history."
The Fears Of Aborigines
The Northern Territory has the largest percentage of aborigines of
any area in Australia. But the aboriginal population doesn't like
euthanasia at all, Francis explained. The aborigines are
frightened to death now going to hospitals because in the past
they were badly treated-not in hospitals, but generally, as ethnic
minorities are. And they are very afraid that they will be the
target of euthanasia. Most of the aborigines now won't go to a
hospital for treatment they need to go there to receive. According
to Francis, the liberals, who generally support multiculturalism
and aboriginal rights, have simply ignored the fears of
aborigines.
Francis attended the 11th World Congress of the Right to Die
Society, which was held in Melbourne, and, significantly, the
people there promoting euthanasia were blurring the distinction
between stopping useless medical treatment and the deliberate
giving of lethal injections. There is a very important difference
of principle involved here, because if a patient has an advanced
cancer, the pro-life leader argued, he doesn't have to accept
painful operations that are not really going to even prolong life.
The patient can say, "I have had enough, the medical treatment or
operations must cease." And medical personnel give only food and
water and pain relief treatment. There is an evident difference
between the common law right of every human being to refuse
unnecessary or extraordinary medical treatment, and the deliberate
giving of a lethal injection, which is designed to immediately
kill.
At this conference, reported Francis, a doctor was sliding from
one to the other. He seemed to be saying, "Isn't it terrible that
we resuscitate someone who's dying of pneumonia or has got
advanced cancer and so on," and then he noted these requests for
lethal injection. "So they're really trying to confuse the public
on this," was her indignant comment.
Conflict Of Interest
Moreover, there was a doctor there, a chief public prosecutor from
the Netherlands who is the president of the Dutch Voluntary
Euthanasia Society, and Francis challenged him about the Remmelink
report of the Dutch government's 1993 general statement. It showed
that a very high percentage of the people who suffered euthanasia
in the Netherlands had not requested it. They were simply
murdered. They were given what is called involuntary euthanasia.
"So I challenged him: How do you explain this? And he said, 'Oh,
it'll take too long to explain.' He refused to answer me. This
prosecutor gave a very interesting talk. He said that although
euthanasia is illegal in the Netherlands, just theoretically
illegal, they don't prosecute if certain safeguards and codes are
followed. But he said that actually only one or two cases have
ever been prosecuted, and they never really came to the higher
court. It turns out that he is the chief prosecutor and he decides
which cases are going to be investigated. So he is the president
of the Dutch Voluntary Euthanasia Society, and also the chief
prosecutor of a big county, and then he is deciding which cases
are to be prosecuted! This is the most obvious conflict of
interest that I could think of. No wonder, then, that so few cases
in the Netherlands are prosecuted. "
Another Victory
But the culture of life in Australia scored perhaps an even more
significant victory last Oct. 25th. The Federal Administrative
Appeals Tribunal forced a Prahran homosexual and lesbian bar
dubbed Virgin Mary's to change its name by ruling that Virgin
Mary's Pty. Ltd was unacceptable for corporate registration. The
Catholic archbishop of Melbourne, the World Apostolate of Fatima,
Human Life International, and Endeavour Forum, among others, had
appealed to the tribunal to reject this registration on the
grounds that it was offensive to the religious sentiments of a
vast section of the Australian population. An Anglican minister
and an Islamic representative also gave evidence. "This decision
represents a victory for all in our community who demand proper
reverence for holy names," Francis exulted, "and it is all the
more important because it sets a significant precedent."
For example, she is convinced that citizens of the United States
should start asking their hotels and bars to remove the name of
the drink "Virgin Mary" from their drink menus. "This is
sacrilegious and blasphemous and offensive to Christians. And it
made it very difficult for those of us in Australia who were
fighting the name registration of the above company's homosexual
and lesbian bar. It made it very difficult for us to fight this
case because lawyers for the bar said, 'Oh, this is named after
the American drink.' We were able to prove that in fact the owner
was mocking the Blessed Virgin Mary, but at the same time it would
be good if our American colleagues would try to persuade their
hotels and bars not to use the name Virgin Mary for their drinks."
This article was taken from the March 6, 1997 issue of "The
Wanderer," 201 Ohio Street, St. Paul, MN 55107, 612-224-5733.
Subscription Price: $35.00 per year; six months $20.00.
Copyright (c) 1997 EWTN Online Services.
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