Page 204 – Family Council

Assisted Suicide Legislation in Maryland, Delaware Underscore Dangers of So-Called “Right to Die”

Oct 8, 2024Jerry CoxEuthanasia and Assisted SuicideAssisted Suicide, Euthanasia

Last week the Baltimore Banner published an article highlighting unsuccessful efforts to pass assisted-suicide legislation in Maryland and Delaware this year. The story is a sobering reminder of the dangers of the so-called “right to die” movement.

Oregon first allowed physician-assisted suicide in 1998, and we have seen time and again the harm that it has caused there.

Official state reports show 560 terminally-ill patients received lethal prescriptions for assisted-suicide in Oregon last year. Out of those 560 people, only three were referred for psychological or psychiatric evaluation. The rest were given a lethal prescription without question.

The reasons people gave most often for wanting to end their lives in Oregon last year were loss of autonomy, decreasing ability to participate in activities that made life enjoyable, and loss of dignity. Most patients did not express concerns about pain.

Many of these patients are lonely and feel like they are losing control over their lives because of their illness. That means they need counseling and support — not a prescription for poisonous drugs.

In spite of all of this, Oregon passed a law last year letting non-residents end their lives under the state’s assisted-suicide law — meaning the situation there is liable to get worse in the future.

Evidence elsewhere shows how assisted-suicide actually robs patients of compassionate care.

In 2019 a Canadian man with ALS made headlines when he chose to take his own life under the country’s assisted suicide and euthanasia laws after the government chose not to provide him with 24-hour home healthcare services due to costs.

In parts of the U.S. where physician-assisted suicide is legal, insurance companies have refused to pay for patients’ medical care, but have offered to cover assisted-suicide drugs.

And we have heard stories about patients in Europe being denied care or actively euthanized thanks to bad government policies.

Being pro-life means believing innocent human life is sacred from conception until natural death.

That’s why Family Council helped defeat a very bad bill in 2019 that would have let doctors prescribe lethal drugs to patients in Arkansas and two bad pieces of end-of-life legislation in 2021. These were flawed measures that fundamentally disrespected the right to life.

Just like abortion, euthanasia and assisted-suicide are murder, and they violate the sanctity of human life. They simply have no place in our society.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

Church Ambassador Network of Arkansas Releases “Choose Well 2024” Toolkit

Oct 7, 2024Jerry CoxReligious FreedomChurch Ambassador Network, Elections

The Church Ambassador Network of Arkansas has released its Choose Well 2024 toolkit.

The Church Ambassador Network is a nonpartisan initiative of Family Council designed to build relationships between ministry leaders and community leaders.

The Choose Well Toolkit helps church navigate the 2024 election cycle. The toolkit is available for free to church leaders who volunteer to become part of the Church Ambassador Network.

Along with the toolkit, Church Ambassador Network also offers free YouTube videos church can use.

You can learn more about the Church Ambassador Network of Arkansas here.

The Courage of Eva Edl: Guest Column

Oct 7, 2024John StonestreetAbortionAbortion, Life, Pro-life, Sanctity of Human Life

Above: Eva Edl was arrested for criminal trespassing during a protest at a surgical abortion facility in Little Rock in 2021. She has since been charged federally for blocking an abortion facility entrance in Michigan (Photo Credit: via Facebook).

89-year-old death camp survivor faces prison time under DOJ’s criminalization of pro-life advocates.

Last month, seven pro-life protestors were convicted of engaging in “civil rights conspiracy” and violating the Clinton-era Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act. The protesters were arrested in August 2020 after standing in front of an abortion clinic in Sterling Heights, Michigan. Combined, the seven face up to 11 years in prison and $250,000 in fines.

One of those who were found guilty is Eva Edl, an 89-year-old widow from South Carolina who survived a death camp in her youth. She first came to the U.S. in 1955 at the age of 20 after fleeing a government-led ethnic cleansing in Yugoslavia. The target was the Danube Swabians, a German-speaking ethnic group to which her family belonged. As she recounted to the the Daily Signal, Eva’s mom decried the injustice, “We haven’t done anything wrong! Who would harm us?”

When Eva was nine, she, her parents, sister, and brother were rounded up by soldiers, loaded on a cattle car, and taken to an extermination camp. The prisoners were forced to share the same living quarters and one outhouse. Adults were forced to work but also kept on the brink of starvation. One day, while working in the fields, Eva’s mother escaped on a wagon under a pile of grain. She would later come back and help rescue her family.

It was in 1968, after moving to America, that Eva was introduced to the atrocity of abortion. During a discussion in English class, a fellow student declared it should be legalized (this was before Roe v. Wade ruled a constitutional right to abortion). “[A]fter that,” Eva said, “I just brought up the subject all the time because it bothered me that people would actually think of killing their own children.”

In the fall of 1988, 400 protesters were arrested outside of abortion clinics after two months of pro-life protests following the Democratic National Convention in Atlanta. Eva was shocked by this, but also compelled to do something. Likening abortion clinics to her experience in the death camp, Eva recalled:

When we were rounded up to be killed, we were placed in cattle cars, and our train was headed toward the extermination camp. What if citizens of my country would have overcome their fear, and a number of them stood on those railroad tracks between the gate of the entrance to the death camp and the train? The train would have to stop. And while the guards on those trains would be busy rounding up the ones that were in front of the train, another group could have come in, pried open our cattle car and possibly set us free, but nobody did.

Later that year, Eva joined a peaceful protest in Atlanta and was arrested for the first time. She has now been part of more than 50 “rescues” (what she calls the protests) and has been arrested about as many times.

Having emigrated from the tyranny of post-war, Communist-controlled Yugoslavia, Eva said she never imagined she would be imprisoned for protecting innocent lives here:

America, in my eyes, was this country of justice and opportunity and everything that is good. A beacon for us, over there, that didn’t know what all that meant, because we had nothing but oppression from whoever was ruling us at the time. … [H]uman life is sacred. Government does not have the authority to permit what God forbids. And murder is forbidden by God.

Since Roe was overturned a few years ago, the Department of Justice has indicted 40 pro-life advocates with FACE-related charges. Pray for Eva and protesters across the country who are being persecuted for standing for life.

This Breakpoint  was co-authored by Jared Hayden. If you’re a fan of Breakpoint, leave a review on your favorite podcast app. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org. 