OTTAWA  - The Catholic Organization for Life and Family is providing fresh ammunition for the battle against euthanasia and assisted-suicide.

It’s in the form of a downloadable booklet entitled Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide: Why Not?  Quick Answers to Common Arguments. It can be downloaded from www.colf.ca .


“It is more than likely that the majority of citizens would change their minds if they were properly informed,” it says, describing euthanasia and assisted suicide as “symptoms of the ideology of death.”

The booklet lists 12 common arguments in the pro-euthanasia mindset, then sets out to obliterate them with concise, bullet-like points based on natural law.

“It’s my life, my death, my freedom, my choice, my right!”; “I want to die with dignity!”; “Living is not an obligation. I don’t want to die hooked up to a bunch of machines or forced to stay alive when I know it’s time to pass on”; “We need to be compassionate. I would not even let my dog suffer through a long death. Why would I force someone I love to suffer uncontrollable pain?”;  and “I don’t want to be a burden on my family or society” are among them.

The booklet calls on Catholics to “present a vision of respect for human life and dignity in a largely secularized public arena.”

“We need to speak up with conviction, founding our reasoning on natural arguments,” the booklet argues. “Together, we must build a social barrier against euthanasia and assisted suicide.”

The euthanasia debate is heating up as a vote looms in Parliament on Bloc Quebecois MP Francine Lalonde’s private member’s bill C-384. It’s second and final hour of debate has been postponed twice and is tentatively set for Dec. 1, with a vote on second reading on Dec. 2.

COLF is urging Catholics to download and distribute the free booklet.

“Euthanasia is absolutely opposed to compassion because in the act of killing we abandon the patient when he or she needs us most,” the booklet says. “True compassion is all about presence, solidarity and love: to become a partner in suffering, helping the other find meaning until death occurs naturally.”

Deborah Gyapong, Canadian Catholic News Deborah Waters Gyapong has been a journalist and novelist for more than 20 years. She has worked in print, radio and television, including 12 years as a producer for CBC TV's news and current affairs programming. She currently covers religion and politics primarily for Catholic and Evangelical newspapers.

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