The death-toll of World War II was a tragic prelude to the far greater slaughter by abortion and euthanasia that has happened since, I told this past weekend's SPUC annual national conference. Deaths of unborn children worldwide through abortion vastly outnumber the total of military and civilian war deaths.I also spoke out against the government's promotion of an end-of-life care scheme which experts have now said allows doctors to shorten patients' lives.
70 years on we're not fighting Nazi tyranny but the tyranny of politicians who promote legislation worldwide that destroys the lives of unborn children. We are also fighting the tyranny of politicians who undermine the Catholic Church's pro-life resistance to such legislation.
Tragically, the history of the past 43 years - since the current British abortion law was introduced - is a history of ever-growing, calamitous attacks on the right to life by governments and parliaments in country after country throughout the world, thereby abusing and flagrantly failing to abide by their commitments and obligations under international agreements to respect the right to life.
About 55 million people were killed during the 1939-45 conflict, but 57 million unborn children have been killed since 1967 in Britain and the United States of America alone. This is not to mention the deaths of human embryos through in vitro fertilisation procedures and the countless deaths of human embryos through abortifacient birth control.
Neither can we ignore widespread killings through euthanasia, not least in Britain, where the government's silent euthanasia policy is clearly taking a grip throughout the country. The Liverpool Care Pathway (LCP) is just the tip of the iceberg in relation to euthanasia practices in hospitals. Alison Davis, the national co-ordinator of SPUC's disability rights division No Less Human, told the conference that the guidance was "very disturbing". She said:
"Some people are not dying naturally - they are being pushed into death. They are having food and fluid withdrawn."The Daily Mail recently featured the experience of Mrs Felicity Smart whose neighbour, though relatively healthy, died after three days under the LCP. Mrs Smart challenged the nurses and doctors over her neighbour's care, but was unable to save her life. SPUC's Patients First Network (PFN), which helps patients and their advocates fight euthanasia supported Mrs Smart. PFN, which is available to help anyone concerned about relatives or friends under threat from euthanasia, recently help save the life of a man with learning difficulties in a west country hospital.
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