Good News – U.S. Court Ruling for Disabled People

        David Hockenberry had a simple case of pneumonia; three weeks on a ventilator, and then he was fine. But the court-appointed guardians of the 53-year-old man had tried to stop the care because he’s had mental disabilities since birth. The trial court disagreed and he got the care, but the guardians appealed the decision so they would be able to deny care in the future. Fortunately, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that someone who isn’t terminally ill and never refused treatment does have the right to life-preserving care, as required by law. A dangerous slippery slide to euthanasia has been stopped.

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U.S. Election Season Starts in Earnest

         Labor Day weekend is when the official election season starts. We ask subscribers to share if you know of any consistent-life candidates that we should be aware of as a community. Additionally, are there any races we should be watching in terms of pro-life Democrats, or anti-war Republicans for Congress, or anti-death penalty Republicans for Governor? We make no endorsements, of course, but we do educate on an aspect of elections that isn’t normally covered.  Send this (and any other news items to share) to weekly@consistent-life.org.

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Sharing the Message: Semester Starts in Earnest

     For those who need a good speaker on the consistent life ethic – for colleges and universities, houses of worship and civic groups, etc. – we have a speaker’s list with a wide variety of excellent speakers.

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 Delving Deeper – Killing Does Not Prevent Killing

        An argument for killing as a problem-solver is that it prevents other killing. Yet studies tend to show the opposite.

  ∞ One of the most common arguments to justify the death penalty is that it deters murder, but a recent study in the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology shows 88% of criminologists don’t believe so. Potential murderers probably don’t identify with the executed, but more with the executioner. The government is modeling killing as a problem solver. Many studies show murder rates higher where the death penalty is practiced.

   ∞ Proponents have argued that legal abortion causes a drop in maternal mortality, but such mortality is lower in many of the countries that prohibit abortion. This is likely due to better health care provided to mothers, but this may be no coincidence if a greater sensitivity to unborn children is associated with concern for mothers. Compassion spreads.

  ∞ War is of course much more complicated in terms of arguments over whether it protects or has the opposite effect. For knowledgeable commentary on current events, we recommend keeping up with publications from Stephen Zunes, co-editor of our book, Consistently Opposing Killing.

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Quotation of the Week

Mattie Byrd
Letter to Ira Reiner, Los Angeles District Attorney, around 1989
(therefore referring to a legal abortion)

        “I am the mother of Belinda A. Byrd . . . I am also the grandmother of her three young children who are left behind and motherless. I cry every day when I think how horrible her death was. She was slashed by them and then she bled to death, taken from this world on January 27, 1987. She has been stone dead for two years now, and nobody cares. I know that other young black women are now dead after abortion at that address . . . Where is [the abortionist] now? Has he been stopped? Has anything happened to him because of what he did to my Belinda? Has he served jail time for any of these cruel deaths? People tell me nothing has happened, that nothing ever happens to white abortionists who leave young black women dead.”