October 31 and November 1 and a fabulous article

Steve Mosher from the Population Research Institute, who did such a great job at our MCFL Convention last spring, has let us know that he will be on FOX NEWS Monday at 12:45 p.m. on the show "Happening Now," to discuss the World's population passing seven billion. Steve says, "It should be a good opportunity to get our pro-life message out."   He also has placed a full page ad in the Washington Times welcoming the 7 billionth baby into the world. MCFL co-signed the ad.   Sheila Patterson reminds us that many youngsters collect for UNICEF when they trick or treat. As you know, UNICEF supports abortion around the world.   This came from the producer of the Dr Oz show. Hello, I wanted to let you know that the Dr. Oz discussion on "Do You Have The Right To End Your Own Life" will air on Tuesday 11/1. Boston, FOX 32 WFXT, 5:00pm and 10:00 am Providence, NBC 10 WJAR, 3:00pm. Michelle Lohr | Associate Producer | The Dr. Oz Show O: 212-259-1586 | ZoCo Productions | c/o NBCU Television | 30 Rockefeller Plaza, 43rd Floor | New York, NY 10112 I understand that Dr Oz is going to come out in favor of Physician Assisted Suicide/Doctor Prescribed Suicide. After you watch the show, you may want to contact Michelle Lohr. Fred Barnes has a fabulous article, which will hearten you tremendously. Thanks for keeping on top of all these things! Anne

Last week for free MCFL membership, NRLC on Cain

Free Family Membership to MCFL

With every new

Choose Life Registration

Just send a picture of your car with the new plate or some paperwork and receive a $40.00 family membership for free.  Deadline: Oct 31, 2011

There has been a small kurfluffle about Herman Cain's position on life.  National Right to Life issued this statement.  I notice that, as most commentators are checking the facts, they are coming to National's position:

National Right to Life: Herman Cain is Fully Pro-Life

by Steven Ertelt | LifeNews.com | 10/21/11 5:22 PM

The National Right to Life Committee is today vouching for Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain's bona fides, saying the businessman who is considered by many to be the current GOP frontrunner is pro-life.

NRLC's comments come after a 48-hour period during which Cain has confused pro-life voters where he stands — by first using seemingly pro-abortion language saying government should have no involvement before finally clarifying he is pro-life and saying he wants abortions illegal.

 "Herman Cain's pro-life," David O'Steen, executive director of the National Right to Life Committee, told National Review. "He addressed our convention last June. We are quite confident in his pro-life position. When he ran in the primary for senate some years back … he ran as a pro-life candidate then in Georgia. We've known of him for a number of years, and he's always taken a pro-life position."

At that event, Cain, the former businessman and candidate, said the "Founding fathers got it right" including the right to life from conception.

"Don't infringe on the rights of somebody else and that includes the unborn," Cain said of what the Constitution requires.

Cain spent most of his time talking about the moral crisis and lack of God in the cultural conversations in America, saying, "We've got a moral crisis in this nation. One of the reasons we have this moral crisis today is because too many people are trying to take God out of our culture, little by little."

"Those that believe taking the life of the unborn is a choice has gotten away from the Godly principles," he said. "The way we're going to protect the unborn in this nation is to work on the right problem, get God back in our culture."

 

Hope to see you on the road sporting your "Choose Life" plate!  Anne

Massachusetts Citizens for Life
The Schrafft Center, 529 Main Street
Boston Massachusetts 02129
United States

The Death Lobby coming to Boston tomorrow – please be there!

Trouble viewing this email? Read it online

The Medical Ethics Faculty Seminar ­ "Care at the End of Life: Empowering Terminally Ill Patients with Information and Choices"
Friday, October 21 12:30 – 2:00 PM Countway Library Ballard Room, 5th Floor 10 Shattuck Street, Boston Kathryn L. Tucker, JD, Director of Legal Affairs, Compassion & Choices. Sponsored by the Division of Medical Ethics. RSVP to DME@hms.harvard.edu.  

I hope you can make it – and share your reaction!  Thanks, Anne

Good sources:
http://www.intellectualconservative.com/2011/08/08/the-modern-roman-colosseum-euthanasia-as-a-spectator-sport/

Dr. Toffler:  http://www.choiceillusion.org/p/what-people-mean_25.html

Dr. Bentz:  http://choiceillusionoregon.blogspot.com/p/dont-follow-oregons-lead.html

Dr. Stevens:  http://choiceillusionoregon.blogspot.com/p/oregons-mistake-costs-lives.html

http://markpickup.org – this is an new source

Other articles on the Oregon and WA pages of www.choiceillusion.org

More Information:
Assisted suicide is currently legal in two states- Oregon and Washington-and may have some legal protection in the state of Montana, due to a 2010 court decision.   While doctor-prescribed death is legal in only these two Northwest states, assisted suicide advocates have announced they plan on getting a foothold in the Northeast: in Vermont and Massachusetts. Should they succeed, momentum could leave many other New England states vulnerable. 

The most serious and imminent threat is in the form of a ballot initiative in Massachusetts.  Compassion and Choices, operating under the campaign name "Dignity 2012," must collect almost 70,000 signatures of registered voters before the petition can be presented to the legislature. Lawmakers could either adopt it as a law or let voters decide in the November 2012 general election.

While there are numerous and deep legal flaws with a bill that sanctions suicide as a solution to any problem, one legal concern stands out - the absence of a witness.  This should be of concern not only to pro-lifers, but also to any citizen of a state where assisted suicide is being promoted. 

While pro-physician assisted death forces make some superficial effort to ensure the request for lethal medication is voluntary, there is NO effort to make sure the actual ingestion is voluntary. 

Because there is no disinterested witness is required to be present at the time of death, there is no protection against the patient involuntarily being given the lethal drugs.  Moreover, there is no assurance that the patient is still competent at the time of death.  

The Oregon Department of Health [1] issues sparse yearly reports.  They disclose that during 2002, some patients held on to the lethal prescriptions an astonishing 466 days before using them to commit suicide.  In the previous year reports, patients were known to keep them lethal drugs 377 days.  Since lethal prescriptions are legal only if the patient is expected to die within six months (180 days), this data demonstrates how questionable and inexact such predictions can be.   

Moreover, a great deal can change in a person's condition over a year.  Did the person's mental state deteriorate? Did caregivers tire of caring for a sick relative? There is so much at stake here, that at a minimum, Massachusetts voters ought to be troubled that under the proposed legalization of assisting suicide  there is no way to ensure that the actual ingestion of a lethal medication  is  voluntary.

The pro-life community has always rejected suicide as a 'solution' to any problem.  But this one legal concern among many ought to alarm any citizen of a state where assisted suicide is being promoted.   For those in Massachusetts can refuse to sign any petition to put this measure on the ballot, and urge those you know to do the same. "    Jennifer Popik, NRLC

Massachusetts Citizens for Life
The Schrafft Center, 529 Main Street
Boston Massachusetts 02129
United States

Protect Life Act wins in U S House. How did MA vote?

None of the MA Congressmen voted with us. The 251 - 172 vote was decisive. There have been times in the past when Cong. Lynch has voted with us on a close vote - like Stupak. When he knows his vote doesn't determine the outcome, he votes with the Democrat leadership. We still have more pledges coming in from the Walk, so we don't yet know which beneficiary wins the Flatley Trophy.   It will be awarded at the Assembly on January 29th. I'm excited about the Banquet tomorrow and look forward to seeing you!  Anne       For more information about the Pro-Life cause in Massachusetts or to get involved    please visit our website at massprolife.com.

Another way PAS/DPD is like legalized abortion

The push to legalize PAS/DPD  uses the same rationale that was used to legalize abortion: the person will be inconvenient, expensive, not have a good "quality of life", etc.  We have even found in Oregon that legalizing Doctor Prescribed Death has increased the number of suicides overall just as Roe v Wade increased the number of abortions.  Suddenly suicide is legal and accepted.   There is another similarity.  Even though we work as hard as we can to educate people on the evils of abortion and do whatever we can to keep women from having abortions, we do not condemn the woman who has an abortion and we do not cease to love her.  This is the same with suicide - we work as hard as we can to prevent suicide but do not cease to love the person involved.   We are receiving reports that the PAS/DPD signature drive is fully underway east of Worcester.   Expect them west of Worcester by next week.  People say the employees gathering the signatures make it sound so nice that it is hard to remember what they are talking about.  Please alert everyone.  Of course, if you have the time to engage them in conversation, many potential signers will be missed during that time.  Thanks,  Anne           DONATIONS - WE NEED AND APPRECIATE THEM!     Donate through PayPal     THANK YOU!    For more information about the Pro-Life cause in Massachusetts or to get involved    please visit our website at massprolife.com.

What did G. K. Chesterton say about suicide at MCFL Banquet

Mr Chesterton was a delight. He had heard that we have the Doctor Prescribed Death ballot question coming. He shared these insights with us. Not only is suicide a sin, it is the sin. It is the ultimate and absolute evil, the refusal to take an interest in existence; the refusal to take the oath of loyalty to life. The man who kills a man, kills a man. The man who kills himself, kills all men; as far as he is concerned he wipes out the world. His act is worse (symbolically considered) than any rape or dynamite outrage. For it destroys all buildings: it insults all women. The thief is satisfied with diamonds; but the suicide is not: that is his crime. He cannot be bribed, even by the blazing stones of the Celestial City. The thief compliments the things he steals, if not the owner of them. But the suicide insults everything on earth by not stealing it. He defiles every flower by refusing to live for its sake. There is not a tiny creature in the cosmos at whom his death is not a sneer. When a man hangs himself on a tree, the leaves might fall off in anger and the birds fly away in fury: for each has received a personal affront. Of course there may be pathetic emotional excuses for the act. There often are for rape, and there almost always are for dynamite. But if it comes to clear ideas and the intelligent meaning of things, then there is much more rational and philosophic truth in the burial at the cross-roads and the stake driven through the body, than in Mr. Archer's suicidal automatic machines. There is a meaning in burying the suicide apart. The man's crime is different from other crimes -- for it makes even crimes impossible. John Triolo is working on the video so everyone can see Mr. Chesterton's presentation. I really enjoyed seeing so many of you! Anne     DONATIONS - WE NEED AND APPRECIATE THEM!     Donate through PayPal     THANK YOU!    For more information about the Pro-Life cause in Massachusetts or to get involved    please visit our website at massprolife.com.

MCFL Banquet - still a few places left. Hurry!

G. K. Chesterton is preparing to meet you on Saturday at the Banquet. We expect he will have some cogent comments on Physician Assisted Suicide / Doctor Prescribed Death. Banquet Chair, Bea Martins says she can fit you in if you register immediately. http://www.masscitizensforlife.org/ or call 617-242-4199. Looking forward to seeing you!   Anne       For more information about the Pro-Life cause in Massachusetts or to get involved    please visit our website at massprolife.com.

PAS/DPD Primer #5, Excellent piece from NRLC

Jennifer Pope, JD who works with Burke Balch at the Robert Powell Center for Medical Ethics, has written this extremely helpful analysis for the National Right to Life News Today, Oct 7th. I have printed it because I think you will find it very worthwhile.   Anne "Assisted suicide is currently legal in two states- Oregon and Washington-and may have some legal protection in the state of Montana, due to a 2010 court decision.   While doctor-prescribed death is legal in only these two Northwest states, assisted suicide advocates have announced they plan on getting a foothold in the Northeast: in Vermont and Massachusetts. Should they succeed, momentum could leave many other New England states vulnerable.  The most serious and imminent threat is in the form of a ballot initiative in Massachusetts.  Compassion and Choices, operating under the campaign name "Dignity 2012," must collect almost 70,000 signatures of registered voters before the petition can be presented to the legislature. Lawmakers could either adopt it as a law or let voters decide in the November 2012 general election. While there are numerous and deep legal flaws with a bill that sanctions suicide as a solution to any problem, one legal concern stands out - the absence of a witness.  This should be of concern not only to pro-lifers, but also to any citizen of a state where assisted suicide is being promoted.  While pro-physician assisted death forces make some superficial effort to ensure the request for lethal medication is voluntary, there is NO effort to make sure the actual ingestion is voluntary.  Because there is no disinterested witness is required to be present at the time of death, there is no protection against the patient involuntarily being given the lethal drugs.  Moreover, there is no assurance that the patient is still competent at the time of death.   The Oregon Department of Health [1] issues sparse yearly reports.  They disclose that during 2002, some patients held on to the lethal prescriptions an astonishing 466 days before using them to commit suicide.  In the previous year reports, patients were known to keep them lethal drugs 377 days.  Since lethal prescriptions are legal only if the patient is expected to die within six months (180 days), this data demonstrates how questionable and inexact such predications can be.    Moreover, a great deal can change in a person's condition over a year.  Did the person's mental state deteriorate? Did caregivers tire of caring for a sick relative? There is so much at stake here, that at a minimum, Massachusetts voters ought to be troubled that under the proposed legalization of assisting suicide  there is no way to ensure that the actual ingestion of a lethal medication  is  voluntary. The pro-life community has always rejected suicide as a 'solution' to any problem.  But this one legal concern among many ought to alarm any citizen of a state where assisted suicide is being promoted.   For those in Massachusetts can refuse to sign any petition to put this measure on the ballot, and urge those you know to do the same. "       For more information about the Pro-Life cause in Massachusetts or to get involved    please visit our website at massprolife.com.