Medical ‘Ethicist’ Calls for Legalization of Euthanasia
BBC NEWS, June 8 — A former member of the British Medical Association’s ethics committee said all forms of euthanasia should be legalized, BBC News reported.
Len Doyal said doctor-assisted deaths are already taking place and should be better regulated, and called for British law to be changed to enable doctors to withdraw treatment even if patients cannot consent. The British Medical Association dropped its long-held opposition to assisted dying in July last year, voting at its annual conference to adopt a neutral stance on the issue.
Alison Davis, national coordinator of No Less Human, a pro-life disability rights group, said: “Professor Doyal says he favors death as a solution to human suffering whether or not the patient is competent to volunteer for it. Indeed, he says that life for profoundly disabled people ‘can provide them with no benefit and can thus be said to have no value.’
“Professor Doyal rightly notes that doctors are already killing profoundly disabled people by withholding or withdrawing assisted food and fluids, and that this is actually a form of euthanasia. What he fails to understand, however, is that this practice is the ultimate in fatal discrimination and should be stopped.”
Dedicates Shrine to the Blessed Mother
UCAN, June 6 — A representative of the Indonesian government officially opened a Marian shrine at a mission in Bali, the Catholic news service reported.
Bishop Benyamin Yosef Bria of Denpasar consecrated the shrine May 27. It is located behind the St. Francis Xavier mission in Amlapura, about 600 miles east of . The bishop said it was his hope that the Marian grotto would be a place of grace for everyone seeking God.
Carmelite Father Agustinus Keluli, stationed at St. Francis Xavier, said the grotto was built on the initiative of local Catholics.
He added, “They have longed for such a place to express their devotion to Mother Mary, and having a shrine of their own, they need not go far on pilgrimage.”
Actress Nicole Kidman a Catholic
‘Revert’?
MIRROR.COM, June 12 — Academy Award-winning actress and erstwhile Scientologist Nicole Kidman has experienced a rekindling of her Catholic faith as she prepared to marry country singer Keith Urban, the British website reported.
Kidman, 38, who was baptized Catholic in and was taught by the Sisters of Mercy, married actor Tom Cruise in a Scientology ceremony in 1990. She has since received an annulment.
She has been attending Mass in in with her parents, Anthony and Jenelle.
Father Paul Coleman, pastor at Mary McKillop, where the couple was to have been married June 25, said that the marriage preparations have deepened the actress’ faith. He said, “For Nicole, this is a spiritual homecoming, coming back to the Church and her faith in her old parish.”