New Zealand Legalizes Euthanasia

John Stonestreet, Radio Host and President of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview.

New Zealand is the sixth country to legalize euthanasia.

The October referendum, called the “End of Life Choice Act” had the support of both major parties, and received over 65% support from voters.

Kiwis are being promised that proposed “safeguards” will prevent the sort of abuse and spread of the practice that we’ve seen in the Netherlands and Belgium. One journalist assured Al Jazeera that the New Zealand law is “more stringent,” because it is only for “terminally-ill patients” that “they need two doctors to approve” and “there’s a long checklist” of necessary conditions. 

But of course, the Netherlands and Belgian had their own “safeguards” which didn’t hold. They never do. Once a nation accepts that some lives aren’t worth living and that it’s okay for doctors to become killers, it’s impossible to prevent financial incentives from entering consideration or the most vulnerable from being pressured.

To put it another way, not even the best Kiwi intentions is immune to gravity when the slope is this slippery.

Copyright 2020 by the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. Reprinted from BreakPoint.org with permission.

Arkansas A.G. Joins Brief Before U.S. Supreme Court Over Election Problems in PA

Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge

Last week Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge joined nine other state Attorneys General in an amicus brief filed with the U.S. Supreme Court.

The amicus brief is part of a lawsuit over the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s judgment that allowed ballots in the presidential election to be received by mail three days after Election Day in that state.

The filing argues:

[T]he Pennsylvania Supreme Court overstepped its authority and encroached on the authority of the legislature in ruling that ballots received three days after election can be accepted, including ballots with an illegible postmark or no postmark at all. Second, that voting by mail can create risks of voter fraud, including in Pennsylvania. And lastly, that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision exacerbated these risks of absentee ballot fraud.

The brief goes on to argue,

In a typical Presidential election, it is often hard to predict in advance whether the outcome will be close in any particular State, and whether that State’s decision will affect the outcome of the election. But the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s decision in this case created a window of time for unscrupulous actors to wait and see until after Election Day whether the outcome would be close enough—both in Pennsylvania, and in the nation as a whole—to make attempting fraud worthwhile.

The brief closes by asking the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s judgment.

Missouri’s attorney general filed the brief. State A.G.s from Oklahoma, Alabama, Louisiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, and Florida signed it as well.

Read the full amicus brief here.

Arkansas Lottery’s Prize Budget Four Times Larger Than Its Scholarship Budget

The Arkansas Lottery’s prize budget for lottery players is more than four times larger than its budget for college scholarships, a new report indicates.

The Arkansas Lottery’s financial report for the month of October shows since July 1 the Arkansas Lottery has spent nearly $134.1 million on prizes, but it has spent less than $32.6 million on students.

All told, only about 17% of the Arkansas Lottery’s budget actually funds college scholarships, but nearly 71% of its budget pays for prizes for lottery players.

As we have written repeatedly, the typical state-run lottery budgets approximately 60% of its revenue for prizes and 30% for education.

The Arkansas Lottery could pay millions of dollars more to scholarships if it simply would reduce its prize budget and raise its scholarship budget — plain and simple.

Below is a breakdown of Lottery revenue and prize spending since Fiscal Year 2021 began on July 1.

Scholarship Spending

MonthGross Lottery RevenuePaid to Scholarships% Gross Revenue
July$49,780,369.99$8,592,573.9317.3%
August49,672,105.047,862,917.4415.8%
September47,501,224.727,691,576.9916.2%
October42,615,839.968,447,337.0019.8%
Total$189,569,539.71$32,594,405.3617.2%

Prize Spending

MonthGross Lottery RevenueTotal Prizes% Going to Prizes
July49,780,369.9935,641,717.4871.6%
August49,672,105.0435,023,856.8370.5%
September47,501,224.7233,422,556.1470.4%
October42,615,839.9629,995,072.5070.4%
Total189,569,539.71134,083,202.9570.7%