#632 - Peace & Life: Euthanasia / Nukes - October 7, 2022
Good News on Euthanasia in Europe
The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that the euthanasia of a depressed woman in Belgium violated Article 2 of the European Convention of Human Rights. The woman was given a lethal injection at the age of 64 for “incurable depression,” a surprise to her psychiatrist and a deep anguish to her son. We can hope that people like this woman can get greater care than can ever be available when being killed is pushed.
See our blog posts:
Figuring out Euthanasia: What Does it Really Mean?
Letter to the Editor: Nukes Aren’t “Small”
From Barry Gan (pictured):
In regard to the article “Russia—Nukes and Drafts,” while it is true that tactical nuclear weapons are “relatively small,” nuclear weapons have greatly enlarged in explosive power since the first bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Thus, to call the bombs “relatively small” is very misleading, even in scare quotes. Tactical nuclear weapons can be up to eight times more powerful than the 12,000-ton explosive yield and 17,000-ton explosive yield bombs dropped on Hiroshima or Nagasaki. But even the smallest tactical nuclear weapon is still five to ten times more destructive than the largest conventional bomb such as the one that the U.S. once dropped in Afghanistan, called the Mother of All Bombs (MOAB), with an 11-ton explosive yield.
Furthermore, aside from their explosive force, nuclear weapons irradiate the earth and the air and food, in ways that conventional bombs do not, and the radiation spreads in unpredictable ways.
Events
Sister Helen Prejean is one of our endorsers, and also provided us an excellent blurb endorsing our book, Consistently Opposing Killing.
Click here for more information and registration for the one-hour webinar with her on October 20, 2022, 2 PM U.S. Eastern Time.
Latest Blog Post
In the U.S., it’s referendum season, so to speak – that is, there will be many referendums of interest coming up November 8. In an encouraging trend, there will be five states voting on variants of Slavery: Removing the Exception. The exception to abolishing slavery, in the U.S. and several states’ constitutions, is for people convicted of a crime.
Quotation of the Week
Aimee Murphy
Catholic Courier, September 27, 2022
It can be easy to stand up for “human rights” as a concept or the “right to life” as an idea. It’s easy enough to go to marches to end abortion or protests to end war and still – at the end of the day – leave some humans out . . .
It’s easy enough to stay in our respective political silos (whether red or blue) and throw vulnerable people – immigrants, prenatal humans, disabled people, Black communities, etc. – under the bus for the sake of political expediency.
Both partisan sides refuse to acknowledge or protect the first and foundational right of all human beings: to live free from aggressive violence . . .
When we allow violence and discrimination, it isn’t a vague, generic violence against the idea of humans; it is actual harm inflicted against actual, living, unique, unrepeatable, individual human beings who are worthy of a name, who would have a future, and have a past.
