Belgium: Considering extending euthanasia law to children
Belgium is considering allowing children and Alzheimer’s sufferers to ask to be euthanized. The proposed changes to the country’s decade-old law were submitted to Parliament on Tuesday by the Socialist Party. The draft legislation calls for ‘the law to be extended to minors if they are capable of discernment or affected by an incurable illness or suffering that we cannot alleviate’. Belgium was the second country in the world after the Netherlands to legalise euthanasia, but it applies to people over the age of 18. The European Institute of Bioethics has already criticised the current law in Belgium, in a report reviewing ten years of euthanasia in the country. Dr Peter Saunders, director of campaign group Care not Killing, warned in response to the report: ‘The lessons are clear. Once you relax the law on euthanasia or assisted suicide steady extension will follow as night follows day.’
Pray: that the Care not Killing response be listened to and these proposed changes would not be accepted. (Ps.119:126)
More: http://www.christian.org.uk/news/belgium-considering-extending-euthanasia-law-to-children/
Belgium: Considering extending euthanasia law to children
Belgium is considering allowing children and Alzheimer’s sufferers to ask to be euthanized. The proposed changes to the country’s decade-old law were submitted to Parliament on Tuesday by the Socialist Party. The draft legislation calls for ‘the law to be extended to minors if they are capable of discernment or affected by an incurable illness or suffering that we cannot alleviate’. Belgium was the second country in the world after the Netherlands to legalise euthanasia, but it applies to people over the age of 18. The European Institute of Bioethics has already criticised the current law in Belgium, in a report reviewing ten years of euthanasia in the country. Dr Peter Saunders, director of campaign group Care not Killing, warned in response to the report: ‘The lessons are clear. Once you relax the law on euthanasia or assisted suicide steady extension will follow as night follows day.’
Pray: that the Care not Killing response be listened to and these proposed changes would not be accepted. (Ps.119:126)
More: http://www.christian.org.uk/news/belgium-considering-extending-euthanasia-law-to-children/
NIGERIA: 36 killed over Christmas
Attackers stormed a church in Kyachi village, Chibok, and shot 15 people on Sunday in the latest violence against Christians. Nigeria’s military downplayed the incident, but the official who spoke of the attack is the regional coordinator for the country’s National Emergency Management Agency. The attack followed violence on Friday when attackers slit the throats of 15 Christians in a pre-dawn raid in Musari, also in the north-east. Musari and Chibok are located in Nigeria’s Borno state, where Boko Haram has been based. During a Christmas Eve service gunmen killed six people in north-eastern Yobe state, then they set the building ablaze. Violence linked to Boko Haram’s insurgency in northern and central Nigeria is believed to have left some 3,000 people dead since 2009. While the violence has been severe in certain areas this Christmas season, it has been less bloody than in 2011.
Pray: for President Goodluck Jonathan as he attempts to end Boko Haram tyranny, pray also for the Church to be strengthened and encouraged during 2013. (Ps.68:28)
More: http://dawn.com/2013/01/01/attackers-kill-15-at-nigerian-church-rescue-official/
Pakistan: Charity workers killed
Two health workers and five teachers were shot dead in north-west Pakistan on January 1st. They were all Pakistani citizens and were attacked near a school and clinic, specializing in maternal health. Militants targeting a vaccination programme are suspected. In December a series of attacks killed nine health workers employed in a national polio vaccination drive. Pakistani Taliban have long denounced the vaccination drive as Western plots to gather intelligence or to sterilize Muslim children. The killings have prompted the UN children's agency and the World Health Organization to suspend work on polio campaigns in Pakistan. Pakistan is the only country where there is public opposition to immunization programmes and health workers are paying a heavy price for their efforts. Thousands of them hit the streets every couple of months to immunize children across the country and they do it despite a growing risk to their lives.
Pray: the clerics using FM channels to decry health programmes would stop challenging and resisting those trying to help the poor and sick in deprived areas; may polio be eradicated from Pakistan.
More: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-20880948
