file: /pub/resources/text/ProLife.News/1992: pln-0213.txt --------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Life Communications - Volume 2, No. 13 August, 1992 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This newsletter is intended to provide articles and news information to those interested in Pro-Life Issues. Questions to readers and articles for submissions are strongly encouraged. All submissions should be sent to the editor, Steve (frezza@ee.pitt.edu). ----------------------------------------------------------------------- (1) PROPOSED GUIDELINES FOR INFANT EUTHANASIA IN HOLLAND Utrecht, Netherlands -- An upcomming report proposing official guidelines for the mercy killing of severely handicapped newborns threatens to reignite the Dutch debate over euthanasia. The report by a committee of the Dutch Pediatric Association aims to expose a side of the euthanasia issue that until now has been kept in the shadows. After decades of official waffling despite public acceptance of euthanasia- on-request for adults, Parliament recently sanctioned guidelines that would grant immunity to physicians involved. But the practice would be outside the law. An estimate 2000 cases of adult euthanasia occur yearly in the Netherlands, according to a recent government report. "But how to proceed with the patients who cannot yet ... decide for themselves?" asked Dr. Zier Versluys, head of the association's Working Group on Neonatal Ethics, which is compiling the report due in November. Versluys maintains that euthanasia is part of good medical practice in neonatology, the treatment of the newborn. "It seems to be automatic that if you see a very sick infant you prolong the life of that infant," Versluys told the Associate Press. "But it's not always good to prolong someone's life, because life is not always good." About 10 times a year in the Netherlands, euthanasia is practiced on a newborn, said Versluys, a former professor of neonatology at the University of Amsterdam. He bases his figures on consultations with other neonatologists. The cases involve lethal does of medication to infants who might otherwise survive indefinitely. Many such cases are now routinely disguised as natural deaths to avoid possible prosecution. Newspaper accounts of the committee's work have provoked outrage among euthanasia foes. Elmert van Middelkoop of the religious-based Reformed Political Party has asked the Justice Ministry to reject any official sanctioning of infant euthanasia. Versluys estimates that in about 50 percent of the infant euthanasia cases the baby suffered severe brain damage through oxygen deprivation before or at birth and then was resuscitated. About 40 percent involve infants with severe congenital malformations. Versluys admits to involvement in at least two euthanasia cases. The Justice Ministry's position is that the low incidence of euthanasia among this nation's 200,000 live births a year makes government-sanctioned guidelines unnecessary. The committee wants guidelines that would assess the handicapped newborn's quality of life in several categories. They would include its mental and physical suffering, life expectancy, prospects for self-reliance, dependency on medical care and future ability to communicate. - Larry L. Larmore ----------------------------------------------------------------------- (2) PRO-LIFER'S IN POLITICS - (WHAT TO EXPECT AT A CONVENTION) Dave Andrusko, in a recent article in the National Right to Life News, described vicious attacks by pro-abortion delegates at the Democratic National Convention on pro-life delegates from Minnesota. In the hours leading up the roll call, the pro-life delegates were verbally and physically assaulted, and many attempts were made to pull their microphone away. One delegate, Anne Maloney, was hit in the face with signs, kicked, and shoved around. In the process, she got 21 black and blue marks on her legs. Another delegate was repeatedly hit with karate chops on her arms by one large aggressive man. These 10 delegates wanted to cast their votes for Governor Robert Casey, to show the world that not all Democrats are pro-abortion. Clinton delegates loudly told the pro-lifers "to get out of the Democratic Party and go to the Republicans." -- July 21, 1992. - Larry L. Larmore- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- (3) COLLEGE PRO-LIFERS TO MEET AT PENN STATE UNIVERSITY The 20th Semi-Annual College Pro-Life Convention sponsored by the Pennsylvania Intercollegiate Federation for Life (IFL) is to be held 23-25 October, 1992 Up to 200 college pro-life students from across Pennsylvania and neighboring states will be gathering to hear speakers from pro-life groups including Feminists for Life and Mom's House. The convention will close on Sunday, 25 October as the college pro-lifers join with 1,000 local residents of State College, PA for LifeChain, a peaceful, legal public demonstration. Registration fees of $15 for the convention cover housing on Friday and Saturday, all meals and convention materials. To register, send a $15 cheque payable to "IFL" to Box 10664 State College, PA 16805. Convention schedules, speaker listings, and maps will be available soon. The PA IFL also has a Pro-Life Video library that makes pro-life tapes available by mail. These are available for small donations (or for free). Their video listing is available by requesting it from the editor. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- (4) READER OPINION: A CASE FOR CASEY Why not give America a Democratic President for 1996? A Democrat Governor who has: 1) Created and implemented a health care program for women & children in Pennsylvania that, in the words of renowned pediatrician T. Berry Brazelton, is a "model for the rest of the country." 2) Created and implemented a "Deadbeat Dads" program in Pennsylvania that now ranks Number One in the nation for child support collections. 3) Made his state the first to mandate early intervention services for children to age 3. 4) Won passage of the toughest anti-takeover law in the country, which garnished all the profits of takeover artists for a minimum of up to 18 months. 5) Increased spending for education and home care for the elderly and, while appointing more women to his cabinet than any Democratic governor in the nation, was one of only three chief executives whose state did not cut welfare payments. 6) Provided family and medical leave for his state's employees. 7) Helped 150,000 Pennsylvanians move off of the welfare rolls and into the job rolls. 8) Who, in his last re-election run, won with a record 68%, carrying every one of his state's 67 counties. He has all the good points of Mario Cuomo, Jerry Brown, and Clinton, and few if none of the bad points. How would this rate on the Democratic scale of liberalism, social progress, and achievement for the people? How would this governor rate with union workers, etc.? Why is he of interest to pro-lifers? Because: 9) Planned Parenthood has his name on their Most Wanted list, and in fact, recently lost a Supreme Court case with this governor over his state's abortion laws. 10) Is the most vocal of all the pro-life Democrats. Who is this dream Democratic candidate? You guessed it: * * * * * * * * * *|============================| * * * * * * * * * * |============================| Pennsylvania * * * * * * * * * *|============================| Governor * * * * * * * * * * |============================| Robert Casey * * * * * * * * * *|============================| I think that we should urge Governor Robert Casey to run for US President in 1996. He would sweep the Democratic vote right out of the hands of virtually anyone else, and would have handily whipped Governor Clinton from pillar to post, this year. Casey is the education, fiscal, family and women's opportunity candidate for US President, and his record speaks louder than anyone else's: DEEDS, NOT WORDS. Write to Governor Casey now! Governor Robert Casey, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania 225 Capitol Building, Harrisburg, PA 17120 - Steve Chaney -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- A Request to all pro-lifers in PA: What is the situation of life in PA? I may be officially wanting to get a Casey for President '96 effort going. Please drop me a line at chaneysa@nextnet.ccs.csus.edu [Editor's Note: According to the Catholic League Newsletter, a pro-abortion group sold buttons at the Democratic Convention with Governor Casey's picture superimposed on a picture of the Pope, in an effort to raise money, smear Casey, and as ever try to draw on the anti-Catholic sentiments in the country and paint abortion as a 'Catholic' issue. -stf] - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Quote Of the Month: More disquieting, for feminists, is the painful fact that the anti-abortion movement is largely a *women's* movement [Author's emphasis]. We have sometimes fostered the idea that it is men who want to deny us the right to abortion, that the anti-abortion movement is yet another instrument of male domination. In fact it is women who make up the rank-and-file of the movement ... women are also well-represented in the hierarchy ... What motivates [women] to become involved in a cause that appears (to us) to go against their self-interest? -Feminist Author Kathleen McDonnell +---------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Credits: | | 1 - From an Associate Press run on July 30, 1992, in the Orange | | County Register, page A16. | |QOM- From "Not an Easy Choice. A Feminist Re-examines Abortion", | | by Kathleen McDonnell. South End Press, Boston (1984). | +---------------------------------------------------------------------+ Anyone desiring information on specific prolife groups, literature, tapes, or help with problems is encouraged to contact the editor.