Archbishop Christian Lepine speaks out against Bill 52:
"Very soon in Québec, our members of the Assembly will vote on Bill 52 « An Act respecting end-of-life care ». Should this be adopted, the result will be the legalization of euthanasia, termed under the title « medical aid in dying ».
In hastening a person's death, however, we are not helping them in dying, we are directly ending their life. It is to give our doctors the authority to kill patients who are vulnerable in certain circumstances.
We love and care for those who are vulnerable, and one day, we, ourselves, will all become vulnerable. It is important to us that we can know and trust our family and society will not choose to hasten our death, but will rather be present and support us until the very end.
We are called to choose unconditionally to respect life until natural death. As human beings, we are created to respect and serve life in all situations of fragility. One cannot be the cause of death of another innocent person - even if that decision is regulated - without hurting our own conscience and human dignity.
Causing the death of an innocent human being is causing the death of our own self…"
I agree with the Archbishop.
Better to listen to our conscience than to politicians.
Quebec should not go down this road.
Cash-strapped governments combined with an uber-secular state euthanizing armed with an ethicist ethos is a bad recipe for humanity.
What could possibly go wrong, right?
Trust me, they 'say' it will be under strict guidance but that loosens up over time. When Betty Bureaucrat calls saying they need to cut costs guess what? We kill off the most vulnerable.
Remember when they said they would never enter the 'private sphere' when it came to smoking? Yeah, me too. So much for that.
The Church, I think, has a role to play since this touches families and communities. It has a profound and far more intricate and nuanced ability to understand the human condition than the government.
We should listen.
****
It's a popular assertion to say "Quebec is the most-bilingual" province. Or that more people here "speak two languages."
This could very well be accurate but there's a very good possible reason for this.
English is a necessity in today's world so it's only normal Quebec - lest it wants to cut itself off from the world - we will learn English more than the rest of Canada learns French which is less of a requirement on a global stage; nay even in a North American context.
In this way, Quebec will always have a natural advantage and incentive to learn English since the majority of its population speaks French.
Not complicated.
Which makes the PQ and nationalist policies all the more antiquated. It attempts to protect their language at the expense of the most dominant language on the planet.
It's fight they can't and won't win. In the meantime, their wasting a lot of energy - manifested in dollars, good will and plain investment in the economy - engaging in populism.
While French-Canadian nationalists may claim this to be prove of their 'openness' it's more to do with practical realities of people in the province not stupid enough to follow the PQ's lead. Moreover, non-Francophones in the province have an edge. Since most are of an ethnic extract, they not only speak English and French they usually can add a third.
It's best the government get out of the language business and permit its citizens to freely express themselves as they see fit. Let the chips fall where they may.
I bet Quebec will be the richer for it. Not poorer.
"Very soon in Québec, our members of the Assembly will vote on Bill 52 « An Act respecting end-of-life care ». Should this be adopted, the result will be the legalization of euthanasia, termed under the title « medical aid in dying ».
In hastening a person's death, however, we are not helping them in dying, we are directly ending their life. It is to give our doctors the authority to kill patients who are vulnerable in certain circumstances.
We love and care for those who are vulnerable, and one day, we, ourselves, will all become vulnerable. It is important to us that we can know and trust our family and society will not choose to hasten our death, but will rather be present and support us until the very end.
We are called to choose unconditionally to respect life until natural death. As human beings, we are created to respect and serve life in all situations of fragility. One cannot be the cause of death of another innocent person - even if that decision is regulated - without hurting our own conscience and human dignity.
Causing the death of an innocent human being is causing the death of our own self…"
I agree with the Archbishop.
Better to listen to our conscience than to politicians.
Quebec should not go down this road.
Cash-strapped governments combined with an uber-secular state euthanizing armed with an ethicist ethos is a bad recipe for humanity.
What could possibly go wrong, right?
Trust me, they 'say' it will be under strict guidance but that loosens up over time. When Betty Bureaucrat calls saying they need to cut costs guess what? We kill off the most vulnerable.
Remember when they said they would never enter the 'private sphere' when it came to smoking? Yeah, me too. So much for that.
The Church, I think, has a role to play since this touches families and communities. It has a profound and far more intricate and nuanced ability to understand the human condition than the government.
We should listen.
****
It's a popular assertion to say "Quebec is the most-bilingual" province. Or that more people here "speak two languages."
This could very well be accurate but there's a very good possible reason for this.
English is a necessity in today's world so it's only normal Quebec - lest it wants to cut itself off from the world - we will learn English more than the rest of Canada learns French which is less of a requirement on a global stage; nay even in a North American context.
In this way, Quebec will always have a natural advantage and incentive to learn English since the majority of its population speaks French.
Not complicated.
Which makes the PQ and nationalist policies all the more antiquated. It attempts to protect their language at the expense of the most dominant language on the planet.
It's fight they can't and won't win. In the meantime, their wasting a lot of energy - manifested in dollars, good will and plain investment in the economy - engaging in populism.
While French-Canadian nationalists may claim this to be prove of their 'openness' it's more to do with practical realities of people in the province not stupid enough to follow the PQ's lead. Moreover, non-Francophones in the province have an edge. Since most are of an ethnic extract, they not only speak English and French they usually can add a third.
It's best the government get out of the language business and permit its citizens to freely express themselves as they see fit. Let the chips fall where they may.
I bet Quebec will be the richer for it. Not poorer.
Don't you realize there are no "slippery slopes" on the Progressive side? Only on the conservative side. This is why our (the US) landmark "Roe v. Wade" started as abortion permissible in the first trimester, only as a medical necessity in the second, and never in the third has become pretty much allowed whenever and any attempt to rein it in (revert to the actual wording of Roe v. Wade) is "outlawing abortion" and relegating women to back alley abortionists.
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