Friday Fax
Volume 9, Number 3 | January 6, 2006
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Dear Colleague, We have been reporting over the past few weeks about a report issued by a European Union panel that lifts the mask of EU social policy radicalism. We report today on the part of the report that says that doctors cannot refuse to perform assisted suicides. Spread the word. Yours sincerely, Austin Ruse President Action item: You can access the EU report here: http://www.crlp.org/pdf/CFR-CDFopinion4-2005.pdf |
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EU Panel Calls For Protection of Assisted
Suicide, 'Gay' Marriage
A statement issued by a European Union advisory panel attempts making assisted suicide, same-sex marriage and access to contraception to be among the "human rights" guaranteed to citizens of the EU. Those findings were part of a larger 40-page opinion from the EU Network of Independent Experts on Fundamental Rights. As reported over the past two weeks in the Friday Fax, the opinion threatens the rights of medical professionals to refuse to participate in abortions and other procedures that may violate their religious beliefs. Though the panel was charged with examining a proposed treaty between the Vatican and Slovakia that dealt largely with abortion, panel members did not restrict their opinion only to abortion. The opinion argues that in any country where assisted suicide or same-sex marriage is legal it is not enough to simply allow this behavior; the governments of such countries must make sure that people have easy access to these services. "For instance, although neither euthanasia nor assisted suicide are protected as such under the European Convention on Human Rights or any other international human rights instrument, in a State where euthanasia or assisted suicide are partially decriminalized, the right to religious conscientious objection, while it should be recognized to the medical doctors asked to perform euthanasia or to assist a person in committing suicide, should not be exercised in a way which leads to depriving any person from the possibility of exercising effectively his or her rights as guaranteed under the applicable legislation." A similar argument is put forward on same-sex marriage which could possibly require clergy to perform ceremonies that directly contradict their faith. ". . . the right to religious conscientious objection may be invoked by an officer refusing to celebrate a marriage between two persons of the same sex or where one of the prospective spouses is a transsexual, it would be unacceptable to allow this to result in marriage being unavailable to the couple concerned: any form of discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation (as would result from the refusal to celebrate a marriage between two persons of the same sex where this institution is recognized), and any violation of the right to marry of transsexuals, should not be tolerated, and the public authorities should ensure in such circumstances that other officers will be available and willing to celebrate those unions." The opinion also says that pharmacists are obligated to dispense drugs to which they are morally opposed such as the Pill which can act as an abortifacient. "The case-law of the European Court of Human Rights suggests that, where access to contraceptives is legal, women should not be deprived of such access because of the exercise, by health practitioners or pharmacologists, of their right to religious conscientious objection: under this case-law, a State may oblige pharmacologists to sell contraceptives, at least where women would otherwise not have access to contraceptives" |
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Copyright 2005 - C-FAM (Catholic
Family & Human Rights Institute). Permission granted for unlimited use. Credit required. Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute 866 United Nations Plaza, Suite 427 New York, New York 10017 Phone: (212) 754-5948 Fax: (212) 754-9291 E-mail: c-fam@c-fam.org Website: www.c-fam.org |