No right to do wrong

There are currently two Bills before the Senate – virtually identical in their terms – that would seek to undo the wise work done by the Commonwealth Parliament in passing the Euthanasia Laws Act 1997.

This Act clarified that the Legislative Assemblies of the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory have no power to make “laws permitting or having the effect of permitting (whether subject to conditions or not) the form of intentional killing of another called euthanasia (which includes mercy killing) or the assisting of a person to terminate his or her life.”

The Restoring Territory Rights (Assisted Suicide Legislation) Bill 2015 was introduced on 2 December 2015 by Liberal Democratic Party Senator David Leyonhjelm.

The Restoring Territory Rights (Dying with Dignity) Bill 2016 was introduced on 1 March 2016 by Australian Greens Senator Richard Di Natale and Australian Labor Party Senator Katy Gallagher.

Each of the Bills would remove from the Australian Capital Territory (Self-Government) Act 1988 and the Northern Territory (Self-Government) Act 1978 the explicit restriction on the two Territories’ Legislative Assemblies from passing laws that permit a “form of intentional killing”.

Proponents of the Bill are running the primary argument that laws that permit the intentional killing of some people under some circumstances are good because (a) some people are better off dead and/or (b) people have a right to ask to be killed at a time of their choosing.

However, they are also arguing that regardless of whether or not you support euthanasia you should support the right of the Territories’ Legislative Assemblies to make laws permitting “that form of intentional killing of another called euthanasia”.

Now this argument is a patent nonsense. It is illogical.

There is an exact parallel with the slavery issue in the mid-nineteenth century in the United States of America.

In the Sixth Joint Debate between Abraham Lincoln and Judge Stephen Douglas during the campaign to represent Illinois in the Senate held at Quincy on 13 October 1858, Lincoln exposed the illogicality of Judge Douglas’s attempt to claim that he could say slavery was an evil but that Territories should have the right to have slavery if they wanted too:

So I say again, that in regard to the arguments that are made, when Judge Douglas says he “don’t care whether slavery is voted up or voted down,” whether he means that as an individual expression of sentiment, or only as a sort of statement of his views on national policy, it is alike true to say that he can thus argue logically if he don’t see anything wrong in it; but he cannot say so logically if he admits that slavery is wrong. He cannot say that he would as soon see a wrong voted up as voted down. 

When Judge Douglas says that whoever or whatever community wants slaves, they have a right to have them, he is perfectly logical, if there is nothing wrong in the institution; but if you admit that it is wrong, he cannot logically say that anybody has a right to do wrong. 

When he says that slave property and horse and hog property are alike to be allowed to go into the Territories, upon the principles of equality, he is reasoning truly, if there is no difference between them as property; but if the one is property held rightfully, and the other is wrong, then there is no equality between the right and wrong; so that, turn it in any way you can, in all the arguments sustaining the Democratic policy, and in that policy itself, there is a careful, studied exclusion of the idea that there is anything wrong in slavery.

http://www.bartleby.com/251/pages/page366.html

During debate on the Voluntary Euthanasia Bill 2010 in the Western Australian Legislative Council on 22 September 2010 the Hon Helen Bullock MLC (Labor) said:

The Voluntary Euthanasia Bill raises the question of whether our election to Parliament gives us the right to sanction the killing of other human beings in circumstances other than self-defence or the defence of the nation. This is not a difficult question. The answer is simple. No. We do not have such a right. We do not have the right to sanction the killing of our fellow human beings.

No Parliament – including the Legislative Assemblies of the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory – has the right to sanction the intentional killing of human beings outside the context of self-defence or defence of the nation. Following Lincoln’s observation that we “cannot logically say that anybody has a right to do wrong”. The Commonwealth Parliament was right in 1997 to clarify that the Territories’ Legislative Assemblies had no right to pass a law permitting a form of intentional killing. It would be wrong in 2016 to pass a law which would have, and is intended to have, the effect of purporting to give the Territories’ Legislative Assemblies the power to do the specific wrong of making a law permitting a form of intentional killing.

The Restoring Territory Rights (Assisted Suicide Legislation) Bill 2015 and the Restoring Territory Rights (Dying with Dignity) Bill 2016 should be permitted to die a natural death when Parliament is prorogued for the next election and should not be revived.

Remembering the day the killing was authorised

On 22 January 2016 nearly 50,000 prolifers braved a major blizzard to participate in the March for life in Washington DC held to mark the 43rd anniversary of that awful day in the history of the United States when the Supreme Court struck down all state laws against abortion in its infamous Roe v Wade decision. 

In 2015, when there was no blizzard, about 800,000 prolifers participated in the annual March for Life.

22 January 2008 was the last time the March for Life was addressed by a US President - George W Bush. His remarks on that occasion are worth recalling:

As I look out at you, I see some folks who have been traveling all night to get here -- you're slightly bleary-eyed. I see others who are getting ready for a day out in the cold. But mostly I see faces that shine with a love for life. 

I see people with a deep conviction that even the most vulnerable member of the human family is a child of God. You're here because you know that all life deserves to be protected. And as you begin your march, I'm proud to be standing with you. 

Thirty-five years ago today the United States Supreme Court declared and decided that under the law an unborn child is not considered a person. But we know many things about the unborn. 

Biology confirms that from the start each unborn child is a separate individual with his or her own genetic code. Babies can now survive outside the mother's womb at younger and younger ages. And the fingers and toes and beating hearts that we can see on an unborn child's ultrasound come with something that we cannot see: a soul. 

Today we're heartened -- we're heartened by the news that the number of abortions is declining. But the most recent data reports that more than one in five pregnancies end in an abortion. America is better than this, so we will continue to work for a culture of life where a woman with an unplanned pregnancy knows there are caring people who will support her; where a pregnant teen can carry her child and complete her education; where the dignity of both the mother and child is honored and cherished.

We aspire to build a society where each one of us is welcomed in life and protected in law. We haven't arrived, but we are making progress. Here in Washington we passed good laws that promote adoption and extend legal protection to children who are born despite abortion attempts. We came together to ban the cruel practice of partial birth abortion. And in the past year we have prevented that landmark law from being rolled back.

We've seen the dramatic breakthroughs in stem cell research that it is possible to advance medical science while respecting the sanctity of life. Building a culture of life requires more than law; it requires changing hearts. And as we reach out to others and find common ground, we can see the glimmerings of a new America on a far shore. This America is rooted in our belief that in a civilized society, the strong protect the weak. This America is nurtured by people like you, who speak up for the weak and the innocent. This America is the destiny of a people whose founding document speaks of the right to life that is a gift of our Creator, not a grant of the state.

My friends, the time is short and your march is soon. As you give voice to the voiceless I ask you to take comfort from this: The hearts of the American people are good. Their minds are open to persuasion. And our history shows that a cause rooted in human dignity and appealing to the best instincts of the American people cannot fail. So take heart.Take heart, be strong, and go forth. May God bless you. 

As the American people once again go through the long and complex process of electing a new President, prolifers everywhere in the world must earnestly hope that the next President of the United States will have as a top priority appointing new members to the Supreme Court who will finally revisit Roe v Wade and consign it to the dustbin of legal history along with such similarly appalling decisions as Dred Scott v Sandford which affirmed that slaves were chattel property and not persons under the US Constitution.