A Victory Nonetheless

With the constant drum beat of information about the seemingly unstoppable push for mercy killing across the world, it was heartening recently to see the defeat of the Leadbeater assisted suicide bill in England. Kim Leadbeater had chosen to advance the third assisted suicide bill that England has seen in approximately 12 years. This shows the tenacity of the pro-death forces in our western world. There was nothing new in this bill to any Canadian and in fact it may seem to be not nearly as dangerous as the MAiD or mercy killing regimen now in place here in Canada.

As we know, any opening to mercy killing is only that, an opening. This bill is eerily similar to the first Canadian bills and then they proved to be just an opening to the widespread spree of killing the vulnerable, the mentally ill, the elderly, and all those who are inconvenient. Leadbeater’s bill passed the House of Commons but stalled in the House of Lords and then died on the order paper. The provisions of the bill were sent to a committee that was almost evenly split between promoting it and defeating it. They heard reams of information and countless testimony, but in the end, said that it was so complex, that the matter would have to be a conscience vote in the House of Commons.

We Canadians know how the parliamentary order works. When Leadbeater’s bill died, a second pro-death member of Parliament took up the bill, with almost exactly the same wording, but this time it was defeated on a conscience vote in the House of Commons itself. What does this actually tell us?

It tells us that there is a possibility, even in one of the most secularized countries in the world — the United Kingdom — that we can debate mercy killing in the public square using natural ethical principles. We would do well to look carefully at the debate in the House of Commons and the House of Lords in England so as to glean what lessons we can as to the possibility of restricting or rolling back the wide-open season of killing the vulnerable in Canada.

It is ironic that this is all going on at the same time that the sentencing hearing for Kenneth Law, who provided suicide kits to hundreds of people in many countries across the world, is being heard in Newmarket, Ontario (79 people in England to date). Indeed, it shows the split brain thinking that our Canadian society, which is touted around the world as the worst and most egregious example of a suicide cult, would turn around and then prosecute a man who just facilitated people committing suicide of their own volition. Such contradictions however are not new to us nor to anyone who follows the pro-life battles. In effect, the defeat of the Leadbeater bill is a victory, but we must be very careful as to how we analyse this victory. Though it should be celebrated, we should remember that, in the words of Winston Churchill, such events are not the elements of a true victory over evil but merely the stemming of the tide. Still in all things, it is good to be able to stem the tide of evil so that we may be building that culture of life.

Lastly in this regard, the Holy Father has landed today, September 25th, in France for a four-day pastoral visit and even though the French have recently passed a mercy killing bill, he bravely and steadily has identified the disrespect for life and this particular bill as not befitting the French people and asking for both the repeal of the bill and a building up of the civilization of life. We, too, can heed his message and be cheered by the success of the defeat of the UK bill in our ongoing battle. But we too must ever remain alert!

Fr. Tom Lynch (PFLC National President)