TOWARD INCLUSION THIS CHRISTMAS—AND BEYOND

I came across this photo of Santa interacting with an autistic child. It nearly brought me to tears. For most of my adult life, I have worked for inclusion—particularly as it relates to chronically ill people, those with disabilities, and women in crisis pregnancies.

Inclusion! It just happens. It happens in small ways and small gestures that may seem insignificant yet make significant differences in the daily lives of people. Disability inclusion doesn't happen because of government programs (as helpful as they may be), legislation, or fashionable "progressive" thinking at any point in time. Real inclusion begins in the hearts of ordinary people. It is expressed in their places of work, their schools, their churches and neighbourhoods in cities, towns and villages all across the nation. Inclusion opens doors that were previously closed to relationships. Inclusion is interactive and changes a noun into a verb. 

Inclusion embraces every member of the human family—born and unborn, the very old and the very young, every ethnicity, the abled and the disabled, the poorest and the rich, the addict, the homeless, the deranged, and those who are not even loved by anybody. Inclusive communities are life-affirming, never life-denying. They do not kill each other. There is no place for abortion, assisted suicide or euthanasia in truly inclusive communities. Inclusion involves a nurturing of minds and spirits of people. It cares. Authentic inclusion encourages people to rise to their full potential that God intended for them. Inclusion begins in the womb and ends at the tomb. It involves every stage and state of life between those two points. Inclusion is what it means to be PRO-LIFE. 

MDP

TRANSGENDER INSANITY

This morning, an important email letter came across my desk from Brian S. Brown, President of the
National Organization For Marriage, based in Washington, DC. You can read Mr. Brown's letter below. I urge readers of this blog to support the National Organization for Marriage in their critically important work. You can contact them here: 

National Organization for Marriage
2029 K Street, 
Washington, DC,
U.S.A., 20006 
Telephone: (888) 894-3604
email: contact@nationformarriage.org 

(NB: This post may result in Google suspending the HumanLifeMatters blog account.)

_______________________________________________

Dear Friend—A couple of years ago the liberal government of Canada under Justin Trudeau passed a law enacting the LGBT extremist gender ideology agenda that is having disastrous consequences. Bill C-16 adds “gender identity” and “gender expression” to Canada’s Human Right Code. This, in part, is effectively what the grossly misnamed Equality Act pending in Congress would do here in the United States.

Of course, the entire idea of “gender identity” is a made-up concept that does not exist in the real world in which we live. It’s a creature of the elites who have been seeking to impose it through indoctrination, intimidation and political correctness. In the real world, we live by a set of immutable rules that help define our physical reality – there’s a thing called gravity, the body requires food and water to survive, we must breathe to oxygenate ourselves, etc. One of those immutable rules in the real world is that each of us are born either male or female. Our sex is a biological reality that cannot be changed by identity, expression, desire or feelings.

Despite the utter incongruity of the concept of gender “identity,” the movement to impose it is powerful, well-connected and influential. Many people who disagree with it are not interested in publicly talking about the issue for fear of being labeled a hater. So, they quietly roll their eyes, go about their business and hope that it won’t affect them.

One group of people in Canada has quickly figured out how they can game the system and use the insanity of “gender identity” to serve their own interests. Male prisoners. Men in prison have caught on that the law allows them to declare a female gender “identity” and then assert their right to be housed in an all-women prison facility. That’s what many of them have done. And some of them are the worst criminals around – child rapists, murderers and sexual predators.

The reason the men are doing this is obvious: they want to force themselves upon the women inmates. And that’s exactly what they’ve been doing. A Canadian prison advocate recently told a media reporter, “They currently have three ‘trans’ inmates [at Grand Valley Institute (GVI) in Ontario], and I use the term 'trans' loosely here because they are openly telling the other female inmates they are not really trans. They are only at GVI to have sex with the females.”

Sadly, the response to this situation by prison authorities reflects the enormous influence that the LGBT community exerts over liberal institutions of government. The GVI Warden reportedly told the female inmates that those who have a problem with the situation “could go to psychology.” Prison advocates report that medical staff distribute the morning-after abortion pill to female inmates.

It’s understandable that some people may want to just keep their head down when it comes to challenging the advent of gender ideology, but that will only make things worse. Before long, the ability of men to force themselves on girls and women will be happening in every facet of society – schools, hospitals and medical clinics, intimate facilities such as showers and spas, development programs for girls, etc. We are already experiencing the beginning of this trend.

Even worse, if we don’t fight now while we can, this situation won’t be a trend, it will be federal law. The Equality Act (which we call the InEquality Act because of the one-sided way by which it imposes the LGBT agenda) has already passed the US House of Representatives. Every Democrat in the US Senate supports it (as does at least one Republican), and every candidate for president has endorsed it.

You can be sure of this: if the Democrats win the presidency and take over Congress, they will find a way to impose gender ideology on the American people. Having men worm their way into female prisons will be the least of our concerns then.

NOM is fighting hard to alert the American people to the dangers of gender ideology and the many problems that would be created if the InEquality Act becomes law. We’ve produced many communications about this issue and generated tens of thousands of grassroots contacts with members of Congress to oppose this agenda. But still, the legislation is pending in the Senate and could come up at any time... .

... It’s a crazy world that we live in these days where insane concepts like “gender identity” are taken seriously and advance at a rapid pace. But we can exert great influence and reverse this course if we all work together and have the courage to stand up and be counted.

Thanks for standing with us on this critical issue.

Faithfully,

Brian S. Brown
President

CANADIAN VALUES?

As we approach the end of 2019, I have looked at the traffic of this blog. Two-thirds of its 820,000+ hits are American and rising. Canadian interest has fallen to just over 28%. Am I being too hard on liberal progressive snowflakes who dominate Canada's governments and media? Perhaps my posts reflect how disenfranchised I feel toward the country of my birth. 

I keep hearing about Canadian values after dispensing what we used to refer as community standards which were loosely based upon a previous Judaeo-Christian moral consensus. What are Canadian values? Nobody has clearly defined these celebrated new Canadian values other than syrupy references to embracing differences (everybody is embracing now), a spirit for celebrating and funding everything multi-cultural (except our British heritage). 

I know Canadian values include unfettered abortion for any reason

at all or no reason whatsoever, all paid by government. I know Canadian values want to bar pro-Life citizens from seeking elected public office in Canada's parliament. I know that new Canadian values jailed Linda Gibbons for more time than many armed robbers. Her high crime? Daring to pray outside abortion clinics, within a pro-choice court ordered injunction, and offering women in crisis pregnancies life-affirming help for themselves and their babies. I know Canadian values include lethal injections for the terminally and incurably ill who become suicidal. (We refer to it by the innocuously deceptive euphemism "medically assistance in dying." Lethal injections are more accurately called medical killing or euthanasia). I know that new Canadian values are generally anti-Christian, ambivalent to anti-traditional marriage, and apparently we have about sixty different genders from which people can choose to become. 

I know that people who embrace our new Canadian values re-

elected a Prime Minister whose government has tons of money for everyone else (see chart to the right), will pay $10.5 million to a convicted terrorist, but apparently does not have enough money to properly care for our veterans and seniors. 

I don't fit very well in 21st Century Canada (and I don't want to). I prefer to live on the fringes of the brutal and Brave New World that's part of Canadian values. It's a bit too sinister for me. I suppose that may be one reason why the HumanLifeMatters blog is losing Canadian readers.  — Mark

THANKSGIVING THOUGHTS REMEMBERED

As America prepares to celebrate Thanksgiving, I am reminded of a Thanksgiving post I wrote 4 years ago “Thoughts About Syrian Refugees.” So many Syrian Christians have been murdered since then. You can read the post here. To my American friends and family: May God bring peace to your home as you contemplate all your blessings of living in the greatest nation on earth. — Mark

IT'S LIKE A POST-BIRTH ABORTION

CORRESPONDENCE REGARDING BILL 207

Below is the text of an email I sent tonight to Dan Williams, Alberta MLA who sponsored Bill 207, as a legislative committee is studying the bill in Edmonton

To Dan Williams, MLA for Peace River

CC. The Hon. Jason Kenney, Premier of Alberta, Brad Rutherford, MLA for Leduc-Beaumont

Mr. Williams: Thank you for calling me the other night. As I stated, I am happy to appear before the legislative committee examining Bill 207, CONSCIENCE RIGHTS (HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS) PROTECTION ACT. As you noticed, and commented, I am blunt with my language. After more than 30 years appearing before federal, provincial and state (US) legislative committees studying assisted suicide bills, I am no longer prepared to play word games with euphemisms designed to make evil appear good. I am an old man and don’t have time or patience for dishonesty and deceit perpetuated by euphemisms used by special agendas of left leaning secularists who do not ascribe to the sanctity of human life. 

Medical Assistance In Dying is palliative care—not lethal injections. That’s what we have in Canada. We do not have physician assisted death or medically assisted death, we have medical killing. We do not have death with dignity, we have euthanasia. Death with dignity comes from having lived with dignity, it is not bestowed by lethal injection, poison or starvation and dehydration. Abortion is not just the termination of pregnancy, it is the killing of an unborn child. People who say they  support the right choose don’t finish the sentence. Why? Because to finish the sentence with any modicum of honesty would require them to say what they really support: The right of a woman to choose to kill her unborn child.  

Issues of access are red herrings and the NDP know it. If I were to appear before the committee I would tell them that. Many Christian and Muslim doctors consciences and religions prohibit them from killing.  To require them to refer patients to doctors who will euthanize them makes them accomplices to the killings. That is also untenable and a deep and serious violation of their religions and they believe may damn them in the after-life. It is wrong to force them to refer suicidal patients, who meet the criteria under federal legislation. Bill 207 seeks to address this. Physicians may not be required to refer patients for assisted suicide now but there’s nothing to stop the Alberta Medical Association from passing a policy in future that does make them do it, such as the Ontario Medical Association did. Bill 207 would simply codify into law the assurance that Christian and Muslim doctors will not be faced with that possibility in the future.  It provides them with the security that they can continue to practice medicine that heals and never kills. Peace of mind.

Christian and Muslim doctors who want no part of medical killing are the minority who need their conscience rights protected. There are plenty of physicians who are prepared to kill or refer patients to killer doctors. Physicians whose consciences or religion prohibits them from killing patients must be allowed to opt out COMPLETELY from the process and that includes being forced to refer patients for euthanasia now or some future date. This can often be accommodated and accomplished through simple approaches such as signage in doctors’ offices identifying a doctor who has opted out of the “Medically Assisted Death or referral” process, so patients can find another doctor who will, if that’s something they may want. 

The LGBTQ issue is another issue completely in a different category. Why? Gender reassignment surgery is never done by a physician to kill the patient, MAID is always intended to kill the patient. From the perspective of a Christian physician, only the second involves murder and has eternal consequences that may jeopardize their very soul. Regardless of whether politicians believe that to be true, the physician (or nurse) does, and that must be respected. Section two of the Canadian Charter states under the heading of Fundamental Freedoms: 

2. Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms:

(a) freedom of conscience and religion;

(b) freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication;

(c) freedom of peaceful assembly; and

(d) freedom of association.

Bill 207 seeks to ensure that physicians are not compelled to refer patients for abortion or euthanasia. It rightly presumes that “expression” includes actions and behaviour and not just verbal expression. Bill 207 simply gives Christian and Muslim doctors peace of mind that they will not be compelled to refer patients for MAID (euthanasia) in future by a changed policy of the Alberta Medical Association, The Alberta College of Physicians and Surgeons or any other regulatory body. 

As an Albertan with a serious, degenerative disease of multiple sclerosis, I want to be able to choose my physician who does not ascribe to, or support euthanasia. For your information, I have attached a copy of a letter I gave to my physician prior to Canada enacting its Medical Assistance In Dying legislation in 2016. The name of the physician has been removed so not to identify him/her.

Feel free to share this email and attachment with the committee examining bill 207.

Sincerely,

Mark Davis Pickup

Beaumont, Alberta

Att.

Mark Davis Pickup

4417-51 Street, Beaumont, AB, Canada, T4X 1C8

Tel: (780) 929-9230, Email: MarkPickup@shaw.ca

                                                                                    

30 December 2015

XX XXX XXXXXX

XXXXXXXXX

XXXXXX, XX

XXX XXX

Dear Dr. X:

I can hardly bring myself to write these words but a dark reality in Canada requires it. I am referring to legalizing physician assisted suicide scheduled to begin in 2016.  For over 20 years I have feared that a time such as this would come to my country and the common good of society at large.  I have spoken across Canada and America against euthanasia and assisted suicide. 

Should I ever request assisted suicide, I want you to refuse to help me. On this point I am emphatic. Presume that I am speaking out of depression or that multiple sclerosis has begun to affect my mental state. I would not make such a request in my right mind. If, in your judgment, I am suffering from depression please get me the counselling I need.  If the MS is affecting my mind, protect me from myself or others who would take my life before my natural death. Regarding my end of life care I ask you to provide treatment in accordance with my Roman Catholic faith (see Catechism of the Catholic Church, Nos 2276-2282).

I have such deep respect for you and the proper application of your profession (in its Hippocratic tradition) I would not ask you to stop being my healer and become my killer, unless my mental faculties were impaired by depression or disease.

Sincerely,

Mark Davis Pickup

ALBERTA'S BILL 207 AND CONSCIENCE RIGHTS

The Canadian province of Alberta is considering a bill to fully protect conscience rights of health care providers: Bill 207. Alberta physicians are not required to perform euthanasia (lethal injection) to patients meeting the criteria laid out in Canada's Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) legislation.  But many Christian doctors are afraid they might be compelled to refer suicidal patients, who meet the legal criteria for MAID, to physicians who are prepared to kill them. Who might compel them to refer? Perhaps the Alberta Medical Association—much like the Ontario Medical Association has done, or some other regulatory body. Bill 207 would simply protect Alberta doctors from that possibility. The bill is being met by the usual suspects from the progressive looney left of the New Democratic Party (NDP) and their allies. 

The NDP want doctors who refuse to participate in euthanatize to be compelled to refer patients to killer doctors who will—which makes them complicit in their patients' suicides.  This is abhorrent to many Christian (and Muslim) physicians. They believe euthanizing people or assisting in their suicides (which referral is) is a grave sin (pardon the dreadful pun) has eternal consequences. 

Section 2 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees of freedom of religion, thought and belief, and the expression of personal beliefs. Expression does not merely involve what one says but also involves how he/she behaves.

Over the next few days Bill 207 will be examined by a legislative committee comprised of United Conservative (UCP) and New Democrat (NDP) MLAs. I expect the UCP MLAs to rightfully deal with conscience rights (which is what the bill is about) and the NDP to focus on bogus access issues. It's bogus because there are plenty of amoral doctors willing to engage in euthanasia. If the bill passes—which is uncertain—access issues can be addressed by such things as signage in doctor offices stating which physicians at the clinic do not provide euthanasia or referrals. In hospital settings, scheduling can ensure killer doctors are available or on call for lethal injection requests. 

Leave pro-Life doctors (and nurse practitioners) to practice medicine in peace, without fear of being forced to provide euthanasia referrals. That's what Bill 207 would codify into law: Reassurance, peace of mind, and protection for health care providers now and in the future. I don't think that's asking too much. 

Below is a poster advertising a conscience rights and duties lecture being held at Saint Joseph's Basilica in Alberta's capital city of Edmonton tomorrow. I trust the speakers will not contradict or offend Catholic teaching about euthanasia, suicide, proper end of life care, or murder. I'm sorry for the short notice but it only came across my desk by email this morning.  -- Mark