THE Catholic Leader (4/7/04) contained both letters and articles pertaining to pro-life issues.
Abortion, cloning and stem cells and the legal finalisation of the Nancy Crick case all reflect upon the battle currently being fought for the right to life of all and against those individuals and organisations who see no or only relative value in human life, especially defenceless life.
Increasingly, the value is measured in dollar terms, as the use of embryos is being negotiated in the hope of finding a commercial use for them.
Australians owe a debt of gratitude to Senator Brian Harradine for his many initiatives in the parliamentary arena, especially his efforts in preventing the introduction into Australia of the abortifacient drug RU486 and his dogged defence in the face of personal abuse to continually bring before Parliament the disgrace of abortion. He will not be easily, if ever, replaced.
However, we all have an opportunity each election to take the time to choose from among the candidates a pro-life person who is worthy of our vote.
This is easily done simply by ringing, writing or e-mailing electoral offices or other contact points which are supplied by candidates to the electoral office and are available on request from them.
Unfortunately, it seems to be the unwritten policy of the ALP at election time to advise their candidates not to answer ‘awkward’ questions such as those from pro-life organisations.
This is why it is more effective for individuals to contact their local member and other candidates, as they are not so easily refused an answer.
To those who would say why single out pro-life issues as a benchmark, the response is that there is a priority of issues. Some are obviously more important.
Life issues are the most important because, firstly, all other matters are irrelevant if one is not alive, or been ‘given’ the right to life in the first place, and secondly, if our society does not have a correct ordering of principles, it will make other enormous errors.
This is very clear from the Nazi era, which did not just begin with Hitler, but with a philosophy expounded some 20 years earlier by a jurist and a medical doctor in a paper entitled ‘The Release of the Destruction of Life Devoid of Value’ in 1920.
The paper advocated the killing of ‘worthless people’ and was so popular that two years later it went to a second edition.
Long before Hitler ordered the killing of Jews, doctors were euthanasing mentally ill or disabled people and children in gas caravans hidden in the forests.
It is the legal and medical professions, aided by morally disabled parliaments who not only fail to condemn the anti-life evils of our day, but who determine that we all pay for abortion and its consequences through the taxation system.
Parliaments in turn avoid their responsibility because there are not enough people willing to make them accountable through the ballot box.
Anyone who has a vote has the responsibility of finding out what their candidates really believe in.
DR DONNA PURCELL
President
Queensland Right to Life
Toowoomba, Qld
