Slippery Slope II

On the 21st the Times reported on UK doctor Howard Martin's killing of patients whom he deemed "had such dreadful suffering". Significantly, the good (?) doctor said he did them in "not because they wanted to die" but because he decided their suffering was too great.

Though the connection may not be immediately clear, this is one of the bitter and inevitable fruits of abortion. Once a society accepts the killing of innocent human beings near the beginning of life, there is no logical reason not to kill them at any other time. Once the principle that innocent life is inviolate is violated, it takes only some "difficult" cases and clever words to open the hunting season on everyone else. Note also that at least some of Dr. Martin's victims did not wish to die; he simply arrogated the power of life and death to himself. One shudders at the partially-realized spectre of those in authority simply deciding others need to die, whether they want to or not. Shudder a second time that the British courts acquitted Dr. Martin of his crimes. It is bad enough when someone commits murder; it is even worse when government, whose first and most important job is to protect its citizens, sets their murderer scot-free.

Martin's appeal to "Christian compassion" in murdering his patients is complete hogwash. Christian ethics never allow the deliberate taking of innocent life. Pain, both physical and mental, can be managed. Dr. Martin appears to have forgotten that his calling includes killing pain, not patients.

Swaziland, beware of the creeping (and largely western-imported) culture of death. Respect life for the gift that it is, from conception to natural death.

Rudy Poglitsh
rpoglitsh@live.com
more letters at http://letterstotheTOS.blogspot.com

Abortion Reality Check

This space has discussed abortion from many different angles. Sometimes it is important to revisit the basics of an issue. Let us remember that abortion always kills a child, and that it very frequently injures, in numerous ways, the mother of that child. Folks with access to the internet are encouraged to visit www.abortiontruth.com for photographs of the results of an abortion. Here's what Karen Sullivan Ables experienced during and after her abortion:

"I could feel the baby being torn from my insides. It was really painful...Three quarters of the way through the operation I sat up...In the cylinder I saw bits and pieces of my little child floating in a pool of blood. I screamed and jumped off the table. They took me into another room and I started vomiting...I just couldn't stop throwing up...I had nightmares and recurring dreams about my baby. I couldn't work my job. I just laid in bed and cried. Once, I wept so hard I sprained my ribs. Another time while crying, I was unable to breathe and passed out. I was unable to walk on the beach because the playing children would make me cry. Even Pampers [a brand of nappies] commercials would set me into fits of uncontrollable crying."

Ms. Ables' experience is not uncommon. Vastly increased rates of alcohol abuse, drug abuse, depression, suicide attempts, and miscarriages of later pregnancies beset many post-aborted women. Visit www.afterabortion.org for more information about abortion's effects on women.

For the sake of women and their children, may the Kingdom never show respect to abortion. May Swaziland build a culture of love and life.

Rudy Poglitsh
rpoglitsh@live.com
more letters at http://letterstotheTOS.blogspot.com

To Empower Women

UNFPA's poster competition "When You Empower a Woman, You Empower A Family" submissions are due by June 30; winners will be announced later. One suggestion says "Draw how a woman can empower a family". We all know that Swazi women carry a heavy load when it comes to supporting a family. Maybe a good way to empower women and families would be for husbands and dads to assume a bigger role at home. If dads will bring home the financial support regularly, help children with homework and know how they are doing in school, and listen to their children so that they could offer fatherly support through childhood problems, I think mothers will feel very empowered. These mothers will no longer have to do the jobs of two parents. Additionally, the dad's sacrificial and thoughtful actions will cultivate love among family members. I hope that present and future husbands/dads will endeavour to give their wives and children the time and effort they need to thrive. May Swaziland prosper as husbands and dads lead the way in caring for their families.

Rudy Poglitsh
rpoglitsh@live.com
more letters at http://letterstotheTOS.blogspot.com