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Pro-life Arguments

• Moral Arguments
• Scientific Arguments
• Legal Arguments

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Moral Arguments

• Pro-choice argument 1
• My body my choice

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Moral Arguments

• This is argument cannot justify abortion because
  of the following reasons
• 1. The baby is not truly a part of the mothers
  body because he/she has their own unique and
  distinct DNA, whereas any other part of the
  mothers body would have to have her DNA for her
  to have any right to do anything to it.
• The baby is clearly a distinct and separate being
  from the mother. The mother is merely entrusted
  with the care of the babys health and growth,
  but has no right to make life and death decisions
  for the baby.

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Moral Arguments

• Pro-choice argument 2
• We dont know or we cant prove when human life
  begins, therefore abortion is permissible.

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Moral Arguments

• Exactly, which is why abortion cannot be
  justified. Even if we dont know when human life
  begins, we at least know that an unborn baby has
  human DNA at the moment of conception, and
  therefore there is evidence that there MAY be a
  human life at stake

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Moral Arguments

• If this is indeed true then all abortions should
  at the very least be suspended until we know with
  100 certainty that the baby that is being
  aborted is not a human person.
• Man/Coat Analogy

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Moral Arguments

• This knowledge is extremely important because if
  the baby is found to be a human person then their
  right to life trumps any right to privacy that
  the mother may claim to have over her child.
• Life, Liberty, Pursuit of Happiness.

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Moral Arguments

• Pro-choice Argument 3
• Its better to abort unwanted children so
  every child is a wanted child
• Its ok to abort unborn babies because they are
  not worth as much and dont contribute to
  society.

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Moral Arguments

• For starters there is already a long waiting list
  of parents who want to adopt unwanted children,
  even children who are terminally ill.
• Also, everyone has the same right to life no
  matter who they are. Even though some people may
  not CONTRIBUTE as much to society, everyone is
  still WORTH the same.

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Moral Arguments

• We can look into the past for examples of what
  happens when one group of people decide another
  person or group of people are not worth as much
  as everyone else.
• Nazi Germany
• Slavery in the United States

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Moral Arguments

• Also, by the same logic, if we can arbitrarily
  assign value to people based on their
  contributions to society, murdering 5 school
  children would be less wrong than murdering 5
  doctors because the children are worth less
  because they dont contribute as much to society.
  
• This is obviously not true which is why this
  Pro-choice argument doesnt work or make any sense

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Moral Arguments

• Pro-choice Argument 4
• Abortion is ok because Society and the Law says
  its ok and legal.

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Moral Arguments

• Society at one point once said that slavery was
  ok and acceptable, and this was supported by our
  own laws.
• The same situation occurred in Nazi Germany. Laws
  were created which made it legal to dehumanize
  and kill Jews.
• Simply because a law or society says something is
  acceptable doesnt mean that it is right or true

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Moral Arguments

• One of the most interesting things to note in the
  abortion debate are peoples aversion to seeing
  pictures of aborted babies.
• To this we have to ask Why is it so bad to show
  these pictures and why dont people especially
  those who are pro-choice have a problem with
  seeing them. After all, if the baby isnt a
  human being or a person then their shouldnt be a
  problem with showing them to people, yet people
  resist seeing it at all costs.

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Moral Arguments

• Also, at about 4,000 a day, abortions are the
  most common surgical procedure in the US. Why
  wont news stations like MSNBC, or CNN show this
  procedure which is so common?
• Once again, why the aversion to it if the baby
  that is being aborted is really not a human
  person?

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Moral Arguments

• What about cases of Rape and Incest?

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Moral Arguments

• I am personally opposed but
• What are you personally opposed to?

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Legal Arguments

• Pro-choice Argument 1
• The Supreme Courts decision in Roe vs. Wade
  upheld a Womans Fundamental Right to have an
  abortion

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Legal Arguments

• The US Constitution nowhere states that there is
  a fundamental right to abortion. In fact the
  Preamble of the Constitution contradicts the idea
  of abortion
• We the people of the United States, in order to
  form a more perfect union, establish justice,
  insure domestic tranquility, provide for the
  common defense, promote the general welfare, and
  secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and
  our posterity, do ordain and establish this
  Constitution for the United States of America.
  --- Preamble to the US Constitution.
• Also, the Supreme Court has made erroneous
  rulings before such as in the Dred Scott case
  where they said that a black man has no rights
  that a white man need worry about
• Also, the Supreme Court ruling that allowed
  segregation in schools as long as separate was
  equal this ruling was later overruled.

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Legal Arguments

• Pro-Choice Argument 2
• There is no legal precedent for overturning Roe
  vs Wade

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Legal Arguments

• There was no legal precedent for Roe vs Wade to
  have happened in the first place.
• Just because there may or may not be legal
  precedence for an issue doesnt mean it should be
  allowed to happen. Legal precedent is by no means
  infallible.
• Or else, by that same logic, we could bring back
  slavery because there is legal precedence for
  it in the Dred Scott ruling.

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Legal Arguments

• Pro-choice argument 3
• The government has no right to tell me what I
  can do in the privacy of my own bedroom

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Legal Arguments

• This is argument is obviously a false one because
• If that logic is true than killing someone in the
  privacy of your home is ok because the
  government has no right to interfere in
  individuals private affairs and cant tell
  you what to do in the privacy of your bedroom

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Legal Arguments

• Also, whenever the lives of a countrys citizens
  are in jeopardy the government not only has the
  right but the duty to step in and protect its
  citizens no matter what the prevailing public
  opinion of the time is
• This is after all the fundamental role of the
  government to first and foremost protect the
  lives of its citizens.

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Legal Arguments

• "We need not resolve the difficult question of
  when life begins. When those trained in the
  respective disciplines of medicine, philosophy,
  and theology are unable to arrive at any
  consensus, the judiciary, at this point in the
  development of man's knowledge, is not in a
  position to speculate as to an answer." Supreme
  Court Ruling in Roe vs Wade.
• One of the most disturbing and dangerous things
  about this passage is that the Supreme Court
  never decided when life begins.
• This legally and technically means that anyone in
  the US may not be alive according to some
  arbitrary standard made by the Supreme Court

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Legal Arguments

• The burden of proof in law is on the
  prosecution. The benefit of doubt is with the
  defense. This is also known as a presumption of
  innocence. The defendant is assumed to be
  innocent unless proven guilty. Again the burden
  of proof is on the entity that would take away
  life or liberty. The benefit of the doubt lies
  with the defense.
• The Supreme Court clearly stated that it does
  not know when life begins and then violated the
  very spirit of this legal principle by acting as
  if it just proved that no life existed in the
  womb.

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Legal Arguments

• The decision also seems unpretentious by
  acknowledging that it did not know when life
  begins. But if the Court did not know, then it
  should have acted "as if" life was in the womb. A
  crucial role of government is to protect life.
  Government cannot remove a segment of the human
  population from its protection without adequate
  justification.
• The burden of proof should lie with the
  life-taker, and the benefit of the doubt should
  be with the life-saver. Put another way "when in
  doubt, don't." A hunter who hears rustling in the
  bushes shouldn't fire until he knows what is in
  the bushes. Likewise, a Court which doesn't know
  when life begins, should not declare open season
  on the unborn. ---Kerby Anderson

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Legal Arguments

• Another way in which the legalization of abortion
  makes no sense is in the laws of several states
  regarding pregnant women and their unborn
  children.
• An example of this is Laci Peterson who was
  killed along with her unborn son and her husband
  was charged with both of their murders.

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Legal Arguments

• The reason this is significant is because the
  baby in this instance is being treated as a
  human and a person because the baby was
  wanted.
• However, it would have been perfectly legal for
  Laci to have had an abortion and no murder
  charges could have been filed because in the case
  of an abortion the baby is unwanted

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Legal Arguments

• So the baby is treated as a human person when
  he/she is wanted as is treated as a non-person
  and non-human when the mother does not want
  them.
• In order for this to make legal sense when the
  mother makes the decision to have an abortion
  rather than keep her child, the childs DNA and
  personhood must magically change from person and
  human to non-person and non-human as soon as the
  mother makes that decision. And it can change
  back and forth as much as the mother wants
  depending on whether she wants the child or not

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Scientific Arguments

• Pro-Choice Argument
• The unborn baby is just a fetus or cluster
  of cells and is not really a human so abortion
  is scientifically permissible.

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Scientific Arguments

• This argument is incorrect because we know that
  at the moment of conception a new life with
  totally different and unique DNA is created
• Unborn children are simply humans in the fetal
  stage of development, similar to how an infant is
  considered a human person in the infant stage of
  development
• This makes them no more or less human then you or
  me

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Scientific Arguments

• There is no fundamental difference between a 3
  month year old unborn baby and an 80 year old
  man.
• The only difference is time and level of
  development which doesnt add or take away from a
  persons humanity

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Scientific Arguments

• What some leading doctors and researchers have to
  say about when life begins.

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Scientific Arguments

• The late Dr. Jerome LeJeune, Professor of
  Genetics at the University of Descartes in Paris,
  and discoverer of the genetic cause of Down
  Syndrome said, "After fertilization has taken
  place and a new human being has come into being. 
  It's no longer a matter of taste or opinion, and
  not a meta-physical condition, it is plain
  experimental evidence." 5
• Professor Micheline Matthews-Roth, Harvard
  University Medical School  It is incorrect to
  say that biological data cannot be decisive...It
  is scientifically correct to say that an
  individual human life begins at conception." 6
• Professor Hymie Gordon, Mayo clinic  "By all
  criteria of modern molecular biology, life is
  present from the moment of conception." 7

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Scientific Arguments

• Dr. Bradley M. Patten's textbook, Human
  Embryology, states, " It is the penetration of
  the ovum by a spermatazoan and the resultant
  mingling of the nuclear material each brings to
  the union that...marks the initiation of the life
  of a new individual." 1
• Dr. Louis Fridhandler in the medical textbook
  Biology of Gestation, refers to fertilization as
  "that wondrous moment that marks the beginning of
  life for a new individual." 2
• Time and Rand McNally's Atlas of the Body states,
  "In fusing together, the male and female gametes
  produce a fertilized single cell, the zygote,
  whch is the start of a new individual." 3
• Encyclopedia Britannica, says, "A new individual
  is created when the elements of a potent sperm
  merge with those of a fertile ovum, or egg." 4

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Sources

• http//www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/constituti
  on.preamble.html
• http//www.leaderu.com/orgs/probe/docs/arg-abor.ht
  ml
• http//www.modestopolice.com/laci/

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Sources

• http//www.wpclinic.org/parenting/fetal-developmen
  t/first-trimester/
• http//www.goodsearch.com/Image.aspx?imgurlhttp/
  /www.praize.com/teens/jesusfreak1p211/7weeks.jpgt
  hurlhttp//sp1.mm-a1.yimg.com/image/2000604309ru
  rlhttp//www.praize.com/teens/jesusfreak1p211/bab
  y_pics.shtmltt716no1name7weeks.jpgw300h4
  85size83.3typejpeg
• http//www.webmd.com/baby/guide/understanding-conc
  eption
• http//youtube.com/watch?vO2l1-kvKomg
• Goodsearch.com
• http//www.nebcathcon.org/Proof20of20Life.htmRe
  veal

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Suggested Readings

• Three Approaches to Abortion by Peter Kreeft
• The Apple Argument Against Abortion by Peter
  Kreeft http//www.priestsforlife.org/articles/appl
  eargument.htm
• Ending Abortion by Fr. Frank Pavone
• The Grand Illusion by George Grant

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Questions/Comments?
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Stem Cell Research

• What is a Stem Cell?

A stem cell is essentially a blank cell,
capable of becoming another more differentiated
cell type in the body, such as a skin cell, a
muscle cell, or a nerve cell. Microscopic in
size, stem cells are big news in medical and
science circles because they can be used to
replace or even heal damaged tissues and cells in
the body. They can serve as a built-in repair
system for the human body, replenishing other
cells as long as a person is still alive.
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Stem Cell Research

• There are two basic types of stem cells used in
  research
• These are embryonic and adult stem cells

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Stem Cell Research

• In both cases the point of researching stem cells
  is to help find cures or treatments for different
  diseases
• Stem cells do this by being manipulated by
  researchers to create the types of cells a
  patient in a particular type treatment might need.

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Stem Cell Research

• There are significant medical and scientific
  differences between embryonic and adult stem cell
  research and therapy. Here is a comparison
  between the two types, including some of the
  advantages and disadvantages of each.

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Stem Cell Research

• Adult Stem Cell Advantages 1. Special adult-type
  stem cells from bone marrow and from umbilical
  cord have been isolated recently which appear to
  be as flexible as the embryonic type
• 2. Already somewhat specializedinducement may be
  simpler
• 3. Not immunogenicrecipients who receive the
  products of their own stem cells will not
  experience immune rejection
• 4. Relative ease of procurementsome adult stem
  cells are easy to harvest (skin, muscle, marrow,
  fat), while others may be more difficult to
  obtain (brain stem cells). Umbilical and
  placental stem cells are likely to be readily
  available
• 5. Non-tumorigenictend not to form tumors
• 6. No harm done to the donor

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Stem Cell Research

• Adult stem cells are a natural solution. They
  naturally exist in our bodies, and they provide a
  natural repair mechanism for many tissues of our
  bodies. They belong in the microenvironment of an
  adult body, while embryonic stem cells belong in
  the microenvironment of the early embryo, not in
  an adult body, where they tend to cause tumors
  and immune system reactions.

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Stem Cell Research

• Most importantly, adult stem cells have already
  been successfully used in human therapies for
  many years. As of this moment, NO therapies in
  humans have ever been successfully carried out
  using embryonic stem cells. New therapies using
  adult type stem cells, on the other hand, are
  being developed all the time.

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Stem Cell Research

• Adult Stem Cell Disadvantages 1. Limited
  quantitycan sometimes be difficult to obtain in
  large numbers
• 2. Finitemay not live as long as ES cells in
  culture
• 3. Less flexible (with the exception of 1
  above)may be more difficult to reprogram to form
  other tissue types

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Stem Cell Research

• Where do they come from?
• Adult type stem cells come from Umbilical
  Cords, Placentas and Amniotic FluidAdult type
  stem cells can be derived from various
  pregnancy-related tissues.
• Adult TissuesIn adults, stem cells are present
  within various tissues and organ systems. These
  include the bone marrow, liver, epidermis,
  retina, skeletal muscle, intestine, brain, dental
  pulp, and elsewhere. Even fat obtained from
  liposuction has been shown to contain significant
  numbers of adult type stem cells.
• CadaversNeural stem cells have been removed
  from specific areas in post-mortem human brains
  as late as 20 hours following death.

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Stem Cell Research

• These are some of the diseases that adult stem
  cell research has helped provide treatments for.
• Brain Cancer
• Retinoblastoma
• Ovarian Cancer
• Skin Cancer Merkel Cell Carcinoma
• Testicular Cancer
• Tumors abdominal organs Lymphoma
• Non-Hodgkins lymphoma
• Hodgkins Lymphoma
• Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia
• Acute Myelogenous Leukemia
• Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia
• Juvenile Myelomonocytic Leukemia
• Chronic Myelomonocytic Leukemia
• Cancer of the lymph nodes Angioimmunoblastic
  Lymphadenopathy

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Stem Cell Research

• Multiple Myeloma
• Myelodysplasia
• Breast Cancer
• Neuroblastoma
• Renal Cell Carcinoma
• Various Solid Tumors
• Soft Tissue Sarcoma
• Ewings Sarcoma
• Waldenstroms macroglobulinemia
• Hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis
• POEMS syndrome
• Myelofibrosis

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Stem Cell Research

• Auto-Immune Diseases
• Diabetes Type I (Juvenile)
• Systemic Lupus
• Sjogrens Syndrome
• Myasthenia
• Autoimmune Cytopenia
• Scleromyxedema
• Scleroderma
• Crohns Disease
• Behcets Disease
• Rheumatoid Arthritis
• Juvenile Arthritis
• Multiple Sclerosis
• Polychondritis
• Systemic Vasculitis
• Alopecia Universalis
• Buergers Disease

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Stem Cell Research

• Cardiovascular
• Acute Heart Damage
• Chronic Coronary Artery Disease
• Ocular
• Corneal regeneration
• Immunodeficiencies
• Severe Combined Immunodeficiency Syndrome
• X-linked Lymphoproliferative Syndrome
• X-linked Hyper immunoglobulin M Syndrome
• Neural Degenerative Diseases and Injuries
• Parkinsons Disease
• Spinal Cord Injury
• Stroke Damage

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Stem Cell Research

• Anemias and Other Blood Conditions
• Sickle Cell Anemia
• Sideroblastic Anemia
• Aplastic Anemia
• Red Cell Aplasia
• Amegakaryocytic Thrombocytopenia
• Thalassemia
• Primary Amyloidosis
• Diamond Blackfan Anemia
• Fanconis Anemia
• Chronic Epstein-Barr Infection
• Wounds and Injuries
• Limb Gangrene
• Surface Wound Healing
• Jawbone Replacement
• Skull Bone Repair

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Stem Cell Research

• Other Metabolic Disorders
• Hurlers Syndrome
• Osteogenesis Imperfecta
• Krabbe Leukodystrophy
• Osteopetrosis
• Cerebral X-Linked Adrenoleukodystrophy
• Liver Disease
• Chronic Liver Failure
• Liver Cirrhosis
• Bladder Disease
• End-Stage Bladder Disease
• There are over 70 treatments that have come from
  adult stem cell research

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Stem Cell Research

• These are how many treatments and therapies have
  come from embryonic stem cell research

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Stem Cell Research
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Stem Cell Research

• Embryonic Stem Cell Advantages1. Flexibleappear
  to have the potential to make any cell 2.
  Immortalone ES cell line can potentially provide
  an endless supply of cells with defined
  characteristics 3. Availabilityembryos from in
  vitro fertilization clinics

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Stem Cell Research

• Embryonic Stem Cell Disadvantages 1. Difficult
  to differentiate uniformly and homogeneously into
  a target tissue 2. ImmunogenicES cells from a
  random embryo donor are likely to be rejected
  after transplantation
• 3. TumorigenicCapable of forming tumors or
  promoting tumor formation
• 4. Destruction of developing human life

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Stem Cell Research

• This last point makes it obvious that embryonic
  stem cell research should be outlawed. No matter
  what potential good the treatments might do, it
  is not worth killing innocent people to get them.

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Stem Cell Research

• Where do they come from?
• As their name suggests, embryonic stem cells come
  from living, human embryos. They are harvested
  from two sources. EmbryosEmbryonic stem cells
  are obtained by harvesting living embryos which
  are generally 5-7 days old. The removal of
  embryonic stem cells invariably results in the
  destruction of the embryo. FetusesAnother
  kind of stem cell called an embryonic germ cell
  can be obtained from either miscarriages or
  aborted fetuses.

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Stem Cell Research

• Another one of the problems of embryonic stem
  cell research could be the exploitation of women
• The following is a quote from Dr. Pia de Solenni

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Stem Cell Research

• Advocates of embryonic stem cell research are
  poised to create an industry built on the bodies
  of millions of women. The industry needs women
  because it needs our eggs. Somatic cell nuclear
  transfer involves transferring the nucleus from
  one of the specialized cells in the human body
  into an egg in which its own nucleus has been
  removed. No matter whether the clones or embryos
  are created for research or reproductive
  purposes, they must be created by using a woman's
  egg.

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Stem Cell Research

• Dr. David Prentice, formerly a professor of life
  sciences at Indiana State University, now at
  theFamily Research Council, has crunched the
  numbers to show how many women would be involved
  just to cure diabetes. To date, the highest
  cloning efficiency with animals has been 20-30
  percent. This means about 50 eggs per animal
  treatment are required. In the US, there are 17
  million diabetes patients. Given the best
  successes with animal cloning, scientists would
  have to obtain a minimum of 850 million eggs,
  harvested from at least 85 million women.
  Scientist Peter Membaerts gives an even higher
  estimate of 100 eggs per treatment. According to
  the 2000 census, there are about 60 million
  American women of reproductive age. Where will
  the other eggs come from? And would all 60
  million American women be amenable to this?

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Stem Cell Research

• Women whose eggs are harvested undergo a long,
  uncomfortable, painful, and potentially dangerous
  process called ovarian hyper stimulation. Some of
  the drugs used have never been approved for this
  use by the FDA. Complications from the procedure
  include a potential link to ovarian cysts and
  cancers, severe pelvic pain, rupture of the
  ovaries, stroke, possible negative effects on
  future fertility, and even death.
• In clinical studies using Pergonal for ovarian
  hyper stimulation, 2.4-5.5 percent of women
  developed complications. If we're talking about
  80 million women, that means at least 800,000 of
  them would develop complications. 224,000 would
  be classified as severe cases. Similarly, the
  FDA's data on Lupron, another drug used for
  ovarian hyper stimulation, records a death rate
  of .5 percent. That means we could expect 400,000
  deaths in the group of 80 million women required
  to treat diabetes - just one disease.

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Stem Cell Research

• So, for these reasons and the most important
  reason that embryonic stem cell research (on a
  large scale) requires the destruction of a human
  person to obtain the stem cells and quite
  possibly the death of hundreds of thousands of
  women, we can see why adult stem cell research
  should be pursued and embryonic stem cell
  research should be ended immediately

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Sources

• http//www.stemcellresearchfacts.com/pros_cons.htm
  l
• http//www.stemcellresearchfacts.com/articles/PiaD
  eSolenniTestimony.pdf
• http//www.newscientist.com/article/dn13170-stem-c
  ell-breakthrough-leaves-embryos-unharmed.html
• http//www.21stcenturysciencetech.com/articles/win
  ter01/stem_cell.html
• http//www.stemcellresearch.org/facts/treatments.h
  tm

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Euthanasia
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Euthanasia

• The Practice of Euthanasia is often referred to
  as mercy killing
• This generally occurs when a person near the end
  of their life or who has a serious debilitating
  disease or terminal illness is killed to put
  them out of their misery

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Euthanasia

• Many times people who are pro-euthanasia will use
  an argument similar to the choice argument for
  abortion, such as Its my body so I have the
  choice about when and how I should be able to
  die. And this kind of argument is used to
  justify the practice.

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Euthanasia

• There are several problems with logic like this
  when it comes to legalizing a practice such as
  euthanasia.

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Euthanasia

• 1. Legalizing the deliberate killing of humans
  (other than in legitimate self-defense/war or
  possibly for the most heinous of crimes)
  fundamentally undermines the basis of law and
  public morality.
• 2. No system of safeguards could ever be
  foolproof, so in practice legalizing voluntary
  euthanasia would result in legalizing
  involuntary euthanasia. This has been the
  experience in both Nazi Germany and, currently,
  in Holland.(ref)
• 3. Legalizing voluntary euthanasia on the basis
  of excruciating hard cases would result in its
  being routinely practiced on a large scale. Bad
  cases do not make good law. One leading medical
  ethicist said more than twenty years ago "We
  shall begin by doing it because the patient is in
  intolerable pain but we shall end up doing it
  because it is Friday afternoon and we want to get
  away for the weekend"1. The precedent of
  abortion is chilling "Aging Advisory Services"
  would offer a 1-stop shop where you could pop in
  your inconvenient relatives and, for a suitable
  fee, euthanize them in your lunch-hour.

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Euthanasia

• 4. Even if someone sincerely wants to be
  euthanasia this may well be due to depression or
  to a misapprehension of their true prognosis.
  Palliative specialists report that such requests
  are often used by patients to assess their worth
  and value to others. A positive response merely
  confirms their worst fears and such a decision,
  once acted upon, is irreversible.
• 5. Legalized euthanasia would produce huge social
  pressures on very vulnerable people to
  volunteer, causing much stress and suffering.
• 6. It would undermine the financing and provision
  of proper geriatric and palliative care with
  stretched budgets euthanasia would be seen as the
  cost-effective option. Indeed it would be very
  "cost effective".
• 7. It would also undermine funding of research
  into these areas.

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Euthanasia

• 8. Even without it being explicitly stated,
  legalizing euthanasia (and presumably making it
  available on the NHS) would mean that the state
  was offering it as an alternative to people who
  were seeking benefits for sickness or
  unemployment or to pensioners, to refugees and
  people with disabilities. If it were legalized,
  why not then insist that such people have
  euthanasia counseling before they receive care
  or benefits

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Euthanasia

• 9. It would fundamentally undermine the
  relationships between elderly or dependent
  relatives and their families, with overwhelming
  pressures being applied on people to take the
  honorable course and not be a burden.
• 10. It would fundamentally undermine the basis of
  trust between doctors and patients that is at the
  heart of effective medicine. Many people in
  Holland are rightly terrified of going to
  hospital and being euthanized against their will.
  Far from being the 'ultimate expression of
  patient autonomy' legalized euthanasia becomes
  the ultimate act of medical paternalism.

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Euthanasia

• 11. Any form of suicide is devastating for the
  people left behind who love the person who has
  decided that his or her life is no longer worth
  living it is especially damaging for children.
• 12. Whereas the advocates of euthanasia are
  mostly members of the chattering classes who seem
  to be having difficulty in coming to terms with
  their own mortality, the victims would
  predominantly be the most disadvantaged members
  of society the old, poor, disabled, infirm and
  unemployed.

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Euthanasia

• Euthanasia would not only be for people who are
  "terminally ill
• Euthanasia can become a means of health care cost
  containment
• Euthanasia will become non-voluntary
• Euthanasia is a rejection of the importance and
  value of human life
• It also would significantly cheapen the value of
  life

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Euthanasia

• Euthanasia would not only be for people who are
  "terminally ill."
• There are two problems here -- the definition of
  "terminal" and the changes that have already
  taken place to extend euthanasia to those who
  aren't "terminally ill."
• There are many definitions for the word
  "terminal." For example, when he spoke to the
  National Press Club in 1992, Jack Kevorkian said
  that a terminal illness was "any disease that
  curtails life even for a day." The co-founder of
  the Hemlock Society often refers to "terminal old
  age." Some laws define "terminal" condition as
  one from which death will occur in a "relatively
  short time." Others state that "terminal" means
  that death is expected within six months or less.

82
Euthanasia

• The movement from voluntary to involuntary
  euthanasia would be like the movement of abortion
  
• from "only for the life or health of the mother"
  as was proclaimed by advocates 30 years ago to
  today's "abortion on demand even if the baby is
  half born".
• Euthanasia people state that abortion is
  something people choose - it is not forced on
  them and that voluntary euthanasia will not be
  forced on them either. They are missing the main
  point - it is not an issue of force - it is an
  issue of the way laws against an action can be
  broadened and expanded once something is declared
  legal.
• You don't need to be against abortion to
  appreciate the way the laws on abortion have
  changed and to see how it could well happen the
  same way with euthanasia/assisted suicide as soon
  as the door is opened to make it legal.

83
Euthanasia

• Past history shows us what happens when a society
  starts to devalue human life
• 1960s Pope Paul VI
• Current history shows us what legalizing
  Euthanasia can lead to. It could lead to
  involuntary euthanasia which is currently
  practiced in Denmark.

84
Euthanasia

• The Terri Schiavo case
• This is one example of what terrible effects
  legalizing euthanasia could have on our society
  and our world. Slippery Slope

85
Euthanasia

• When is it ok to pull the plug?

86
Euthanasia

• There is nothing wrong with letting a disease or
  an illness take its natural course even if it
  leads to death if the patient involved has
  refused treatment
• we can never take direct action to end someones
  life or be the direct cause of someones death in
  an end of life situation, even if they request it.

87
Sources

• http//www.euthanasia.com/argumentsagainsteuthanas
  ia.html
• http//www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/8270/herron.h
  tm
• http//www.terrisfight.org/pages.php?page_id32
• http//www.mercatornet.com/articles/60_years_after
  _nuremberg_how_much_have_we_learned/
• http//www.starcourse.org/euthanasia.htm
• http//www.cyberessays.com/Politics/97.htm