Toronto Star promotes euthanasia (Canada).Toronto--In our October edition we reported the alarmist a·larm·ist n. A person who needlessly alarms or attempts to alarm others, as by inventing or spreading false or exaggerated rumors of impending danger or catastrophe. stand of the Toronto Star The Toronto Star is Canada's highest-circulation newspaper, though its print edition is distributed almost entirely within Ontario. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Ltd., a division of Star Media Group, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation. on world population. True to form, the same newspaper, politically left-liberal, also promotes euthanasia and assisted suicide assisted suicide: see euthanasia. . Its Saturday, Sept. 11, 1999, edition (circulation 800,000) devoted half its front page, including an 8" x 11" colour photo, to the suicide of the long time "Death with Dignity" president, former Catholic nurse Marilynne Seguin, 61. Written by the Star's in-house Anglican-agnostic Tom Harpur Thomas "Tom" Harpur (born 1929) is a Canadian author, broadcaster, journalist and theologian. Born in Scarborough, Ontario, Harpur was educated at the University of Toronto, where he won the Jarvis Scholarship in Greek and Latin, the Maurice Hutton Scholarship in Classics, , the article gave a glowing account of the event. Especially noteworthy, he said, was Seguin's final observation that she treasured the idea of total autonomy and freedom. The next day, in his column, Harpur called for a change to Section 241 of the Criminal Code (which prohibits counselling, aiding, or abetting a·bet tr.v. a·bet·ted, a·bet·ting, a·bets 1. To approve, encourage, and support (an action or a plan of action); urge and help on. 2. anyone to commit suicide) so that "compassionate" physicians may assist people to kill themselves. And he urged all to read Seguin's "important" book, A Gentle Death. One day earlier, the same paper carried an American feature which claimed that although "the Vatican is resolutely opposed to euthanasia under any circumstances...the liberal Catholic Church The Liberal Catholic Church is a form of Christianity open to theosophical ideas. It is not related to the Roman Catholic Church and has its own administration. The title also is applied to various separate and independent denominations throughout the world holding many in the Netherlands often finds itself at odds with papal teaching." Thus it left the impression that the Dutch hierarchy differs from the Vatican. But this is not so at all. The Dutch bishops have objected strenuously from the beginning of the process in 1991 to make euthanasia a reality. At every step they rejected the proposal as a moral, social, and medical disaster. Catholic Insight encourages Canadians to continue to oppose any change in the existing law. |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion