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I was asked to give a short message to over a thousand people gathered in front of Alberta's legislature (Canada) for the annual March for Life. Below is the substance of that message.
Mark Davis Pickup
May 18th 2012
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VALUE ALL HUMAN LIFE
To value every human life
from conception to natural death – and every state and stage between those two
points – is what it means to be truly pro-Life. It is the ideal behind the
concept of universal human rights. That’s what the word “universal” means. The
right to life is the highest human right. If the right to life is not guaranteed
and protected then all other rights become arbitrary and uncertain. They can be
taken away with the stroke of a legislative pen.
That’s why it’s so important
that you are here today. If you won’t take time out of your busy schedules to
make a statement for life’s value for vulnerable humanity like the unborn or
flawed people like me then pray tell, who will?
I hear talk of death with
dignity for the terminally and chronically ill and the disabled. Dying with
dignity is not achieved by injecting poison into a person’s blood stream when
they are at their lowest point or withholding food and water from them. That is
not dignity, that is abandonment of a most profound nature. Dying with dignity
is not an event, it is a process. It is the end result of having lived with
dignity.
People who espouse euthanasia
or assisted suicide throw around the phrase "quality of life". They see a
disability and say they wouldn’t want to live like that. So what! I
don’t want to live like this either [in an electric wheelchair] but that does not mean I’m better off dead.
After more than 28 years with degenerative multiple sclerosis I have come to
understand that quality of life changes with time. When
I was 30 years old what gave my life quality was to be active and athletic and
to have an upwardly mobile career. If you would have told me that my future
would be in an electric wheelchair with only one limb unaffected by disease I
would have said there is no quality of life in that kind of existence. Well,
now I am 59 years of age and in an electric wheelchair. My life has quality.
Why? My definition of quality of life changed. What gives my life quality today is love: To love and to be loved.
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LaRee |
You see, during
my darkest times when I was sinking beneath the wave of my circumstances, my
wife LaRee held me up as valuable – even when I lost sight of my own value. She
loved me even when I was not very lovable. She walked with me through my
deepest grief and anguish (just as she has done with so many other people). The
old Mark was gone as surely as if he had died, but she encouraged a new Mark to
emerge from the shadows of grief and be as vital as the old Mark.
I have five grandchildren who
love me and I love them. They bring LaRee and me so much joy. If I had opted
for assisted suicide when I was at my lowest point during my mid-thirties, l
would have missed it. You see, we do not know
what blessings tomorrow may bring.
I want to thank you again for
coming out today. You have not forgotten the weakest and most vulnerable
whether they are the unborn, the sick or the disabled. You are our friends and a
world that has abandoned the sanctity of human life ethic: We need as many
friends as we can get. Please do not tire or grow weary of participating events like this. You never know whose heart you have changed (even the hearts of
politicians who are squirreled away in the safety of the building behind me).
Always keep close to your
heart the value of every human being regardless of their ability or sentience.
Every life has immeasurable worth for no other reason than they all bear the
indelible image of God.
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