- Archives -

Have you booked yet? It’s not long now till our Annual retreat (31st July – 1st August). If you haven’t yet booked I strongly recommend that you don’t delay.

If you only able to make part of it, you are still welcome. It should be a wonderful opportunity for spiritual nourishment and refreshment, and making and renewal of friendships. Please pray for this important opportunity to advance the Gospel of Life and the Kingdom of God in the Diocese of Lismore.

I am looking forward to meeting YOU there.

Choicest blessings on you and yours,

Angela

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Prayer Campaign to Close the Clinics by Converting the Staff

Tilly from Tweed Heads reports: We now have a monthly vigil at Our Lady’s Altar in St Joseph’s Church, the second Friday each month. The numbers of pray-ers are slowly growing, starting off with 3 or 4 people, the Bethany group (which minds the Church, so we can safely keep it open till 12.30) sometimes join in, along with 2 or 3 people from Murwillumbah, bring our numbers up to 8 - 10. We are disappointed that we are unable to do the vigils outside the “clinics” for the time being. However the other day I ran into some Legion of Mary ladies and we were discussing this, when one of us looked down and spotted a Rosary, while we talking. It was like Our Lady was saying to us, “All will be well! I am with you! Keep doing what you are doing!

Please continue to pray the Helper’s Prayer with and for the Tweed Heads group that through our combined efforts we might close down the two clinics, by converting the hearts of the staff. If you want more prayer leaflets to share with your family and friends, just ask. I’ll be happy to post them to you.

Let us pray that the doctors and nurses, who use their skill to kill instead of to heal, will repent and return to the service of the sick.

“Trying To Have A Baby?”

I have been concerned lately to see in our local paper, a regular advertisement which reads “Trying To Have A Baby?” This ad is placed by the Lismore clinic of Sydney IVF, which has recently announced the first killing of a little human being for the purpose of producing stem cells. How cynical that they should exploit valid desires for a “wanted” child, while destroying other little “unwanted” ones. In the meantime, what are we doing to encourage morally valid ways of solving the problem of apparent infertility? Natural Family Planning is just one means by which we can share the Good News with those couples experiencing difficulty in conceiving, and one that we should be more widely promoted.

Doctor Death is on his way

Another issue to appear is the recent formation of a local Euthanasia group. In September Lismore “Dr” Phillip Nitschke is to be guest speaker at their second meeting. This person will be well known to you from his high profile in the media which give free advertising for his grotesque innovations intended to kill anyone who happens to be feeling more than a little “down”. When we hear the word euthanasia we tend to think of this scenario, but probably much more prevalent and insidious (and more threatening for the average person) are the quiet euthanasias that go unnoticed in our hospitals. With this in mind I am publishing an article about the issue of withholding food and fluid from patients which is becoming more common, and goes unnoticed.

Yes there is much to be done, to win the victory in these struggles. Sometimes it seems an impossible task. Sometimes we think that God depends on us to right the wrongs we see every day in our society. The truth is that it is we who depend on Him, and we do well to be reminded of it.

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Infertile Couples Should Look into Microsurgery.

Many couples who are considering resorting to IVF and other procedures should first look into the rapidly-growing field of alternative procedures that can actually restore fertility in many or even most cases.

According to the executive director of Resolve, the national infertility counseling organization, various micro-surgery techniques can restore fertility to about 70 percent of all infertile women. Dr Joseph Ballina, Director of the Laser Research Institute of New Orleans, has reported an 80 percent success rate in repairing blocked or cut Fallopian tubes. After surgery, 80 percent of these women later become pregnant.

The repair of damaged Fallopian tubes is an example of using medicine to repair an injury or pathological condition, after which natural conception and pregnancy can take place. By contrast, IVF and certain other assisted reproductive procedures replace natural intercourse.

From The Facts of Life, Brian Clowes, Human Life International

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We can’t live without food and water. Our bodies rely on these basic essentials of life for survival. Think for a moment about a time you were extremely hungry or thirsty.

 Remember the hunger pains, the light-headed feelings, the dry mouth and throat, the loss of energy? Now imagine going without food and water for as many as 14 days! Food and water are necessities for life on earth to continue. They don’t directly heal diseases. So why are food and water considered medicine for some people needing health care?

While it may seem simple to many of us that food and water are not “medical treatment,” there is an alarming trend in withholding or withdrawing food and water from certain vulnerable persons. As a matter of fact, courts have repeatedly allowed health care workers, at the family’s request, to stop feeding their patients.

The "quality-of-life" mentality We’ve probably heard it before: “I wouldn’t want to live like THAT.” “I know she wouldn't want to live like THAT.” Or “His condition won't improve, and her ‘quality of life’ is not worth living.”

 Such statements can refer to persons who, because of disability or disease, need assisted feeding. Sometimes this is done through a straw or with a spoon. For others, food and fluids are provided via an IV (a small needle inserted into the vein), an NG-tube (a small tube inserted through the nose), or a G-tube (a small tube inserted through the skin into the stomach). Through these tubes, people are nourished with real food and water. While some may consider such tubes “artificial,” they are really no more artificial than a spoon or a baby bottle - devices used to help a person receive the nutrition and hydration necessary for survival. In fact, it’s very natural to allow technology of all kinds to help us and those we care for.

Too often, persons needing this assisted feeding are viewed as less-than-human - “burdens” or “vegetables." Some of these persons are conscious and aware; some are not. However, all are living human beings equally deserving of treatment and care. To deny them food and water because of the so-called “low quality” of their lives is nothing less than lethal discrimination.

What is your intent: To avoid an extraordinary or ineffective means? Or to end a person's life? Sometimes patients decide that a specific medical intervention is “extraordinary means" - that is, it is gravely burdensome for the patient to bear or otherwise requires heroic virtue. For instance, a patient who is already significantly weakened by a life-threatening disease might decide that another major surgery is extraordinary means for him or her. Other times, a determination is made that some particular measure is not effective to prolong the patient’s life, to preserve or restore functioning, or to relieve symptoms the patient is experiencing. For example, in the final hours of a patient’s life, the provision of food and water might not be effective. In these cases, although death may follow when extraordinary or ineffective means are not administered, death is not intended. Rather, the patient simply accepts the reasonable limitations on his/her ability to stop death.

Today though, proposals to withhold or withdraw food and water can involve neither ineffective nor extraordinary means. Many chronically ill or disabled persons, including those said to be in a so-called “persistent vegetative state,” can live for years with assisted feeding devices that are easily tolerated, medically simple, and not expensive. When such assistance is stopped, there is only one desired result - death, and this amounts to killing - euthanasia - by starvation and dehydration.

Everyone seeking to make the right medical treatment and care decisions must, therefore, honestly assess his or her intent. A means considered ordinary for others must not be considered extraordinary or ineffective for severely impaired persons because of a judgment that the so-called “low quality” of their lives makes them not worth living.

Starving and dehydrating to death While some who advocate withdrawing or withholding food and water may speak of “ending a patient’s suffering,” few people are aware of just what can happen once food and water are withdrawn. These are possible effects:

# mouth will dry out and become caked with a thick material

# tongue will become swollen and may crack

# lips will become parched and cracked

# eyes will sink back into the orbits and cheeks will hollow

# the lining of the nose may crack and lead to nose bleeds

# skin will hang loose on the body and become dry and scaly

# urine will become highly concentrated, decrease in volume and may stop altogether

# stomach lining will dry out and cause dry heaves and vomiting

# brain cells will dry out causing convulsions

# respiratory tract will dry out, giving rise to thick secretions that could plug the airways and lungs, leading to death

# eventually all major organs will fail - including lungs, heart, and brain

Does this sound like “alleviating a patient’s suffering” or inflicting more suffering on the patient? Just because a patient may have lost the ability to express hunger and thirst doesn't mean he/she doesn't feel it. Indeed, sedation has been recommended when food and water are withdrawn from those in so-called "persistent vegetative state," and other medication or disease can mask the symptoms of starvation and dehydration. Death by starvation and dehydration may take up to 14 days.

The answer: true compassion  The dictionary definition of compassion means to “suffer with” another person. People needing assistance in living are not “useless burdens.” Instead, these vulnerable human beings deserve extra care, extra attention, and extra love. Withholding nutrition and hydration from a patient, then, may really mean starving and dehydrating a human being to death.

From American Life League - End of Life Care Series

While on the subject of end of life issues I’d like to share with you two of the stories collected by Americal Life League in their End Of Life Care Series

Miracles

A non-comprehensive compendium of cases of patients who have awakened and/or improved following a diagnosis of persistent vegetative state, irreversible coma or death

A 9-year-old boy, Ryan Atencio, was taken off life-support systems (only a feeding tube was left in place) after receiving a massive head injury in a December 10, 1988 car accident. "There was no brain function," said Dr. Eustaquio Abay at St. Francis Regional Medical Center in Witchita, Kansas. "Three or four times we'd seen the pulse go down to zero - no circulation at all to the brain for 30 minutes on end." Yet, on January 19, 1989, Ryan squeezed his mother's hand and opened his eyes.

"Boy who was 'gone' opens his eyes and squeezes mom's hand" Seattle Post-Intelligencer (United Press International Report), 1/26/89.

A 9-year-old, Mitchell Berman, comatose for 5 months due to hemalytic-uremic syndrome, was not expected to survive. On May 31,1991, Mitchell spoke his first words since he went into a coma December 31, 1990. "I want a hot dog," he told his mother. Since then, his progress has been phenomenal, said Dr. Geof McPhee, Director Of Pediatrics at New Medico Rehabilitation and Skilled Nursing Center of the Gulf Coast in Slidell, Louisiana. "If he does have residual deficits, I don't think it's gonna slow this kid down," said Dr. McPhee.

"Boy's complaints welcome after coma" The (FargoMoorhead) Forum (AP Report), 6/9/91

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Do you sometimes feel you just don’t belong to