null / Credit: Photo by RODNAE Productions / Pexels
Denver Newsroom, Jul 18, 2022 / 14:32 pm (CNA).
In response to the recent decision of Peru’s Supreme Court to permit euthanasia for Ana Estrada, a woman with an incurable disease, the archbishop of Piura in northern Peru, José Antonio Eguren, said “there’s no right to dispose of the life of others” nor one’s own life.
“There’s no right to dispose of the life of others, there’s no right to dispose of one’s own life,” the prelate wrote in a July 16 statement. “Euthanasia is a crime against life, which never loses its dignity. In addition, incurable is not synonymous with ‘little value,’ ‘less dignity,’ or ‘un-careable.’”
The Peruvian Supreme Court upheld on July 14 the decision of a lower court to allow Estrada, who suffers from polymyositis, an incurable disease that has left her in a wheelchair, to put an end to her life through euthanasia.
According to Eguren, the Supreme Court’s ruling “constitutes a usurpation of legislative functions.”
“Euthanasia is unconstitutional, and it’s also prohibited by the Civil Code, the Penal Code, and the General Law on Health No. 26842, which establishes that the life of the human being must be respected from its conception to its natural end — i.e., death — without the intervention of third parties or of the person himself,” he explained.
The Peruvian prelate stressed that “human life is a nondisposable good, i.e., it’s a fundamental right that is not susceptible to being disposed of at will.”
“Human dignity is a value in itself and is not subject to a person’s self-perception. In that regard, legalizing euthanasia is in practice legalizing suicide. Both in euthanasia and in abortion, there is an appeal to a misunderstood compassion in order to thus eliminate the greater good that is life,” he pointed out.
The archbishop said that instead of promoting euthanasia, what should be promoted is providing “palliative medicine and being with the sick person, accompanying him, listening to him, making him feel loved and wanted.”
“That’s what can prevent loneliness, the fear of suffering and death, as well as the discouragement that this entails, which are the elements that are among the main causes today of requesting euthanasia or assisted suicide,” he said.
Eguren said that “promoting at the present time an agenda of death (abortion and euthanasia) is absurd when we are coming out of the tragedy of a pandemic in which we have all witnessed the heroic struggle for life of the sick, family members, and health care personnel.”
“I accompany with my prayer and closeness all those who are suffering the trial of sickness, so that in the midst of the pain and anguish that they have had to experience, they know how to open their hearts to faith, to the merciful love of God, as so many people have done who have gone through the mystery of pain and illness with their faith, finding in it the meaning to their sufferings,” he concluded.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
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Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speaks during a White House press briefing, conducted by White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, at the White House Jan. 21. / Alex Wong / Getty Images
A photo of Deborah Emmanuel’s photo on her Facebook page. Emmanuel, a Christian student in Nigeria, was killed by an Islamic mob on her college campus on May 12, 2022. / CNA
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 23, 2022 / 14:01 pm (CNA).
Deborah Emmanuel, the Nigerian Christian student who was murdered by a Muslim mob last month, spent her final hours with a close friend who has shared exclusive details of the brutal killing with CNA.
CNA is using the pseudonym “Mary” for the woman’s protection. A Christian herself, she nearly was killed by the same mob.
Significantly, Mary’s account contradicts the claim of authorities that they attempted to rescue Emmanuel from the mob but were “overwhelmed.”
On the contrary, the police “could have stopped the murder if they had really tried,” Mary told CNA.
Emmanuel’s so-called “blasphemy murder” took place on May 12 on the campus of Shehu Shagari College of Education in Sokoto, Sokoto State, a major city located in the northwest corner of Nigeria. The city is home to the Muslim Sultan who serves as the top religious authority for Nigeria’s 100 million Muslim believers.
Prior to the attack, Emmanuel, a home economics major who attended Evangelical Church Winning All, was bullied by fanatical Muslim students at the teacher’s college for audio statements she made on WhatsApp, a messaging platform. She credited Jesus Christ for her success on a recent exam, and when threatened and told to apologize she refused, invoking the Holy Spirit, saying “Holy Ghost fire! Nothing will happen to me,” according to WhatsApp messages reviewed by CNA.
In the aftermath of these heated exchanges, a Muslim mob attacked Emmanuel on the college’s campus. After an hours’ long siege, the mob beat and stoned her to death, then set her body on fire with burning tires, according to graphic video footage posted online. The rioters also rampaged in a Catholic Church compound in Sokoto, according to reports. The riots spread to other Christian-owned properties over two days.
A relative of Emmanuel’s, who said he was standing approximately 60 feet from the mob, also told CNA he believes the police could have saved her. He, too, asked that his identity be withheld for his safety.
Unarmed campus security personnel made a futile attempt to rescue Emmanuel, according to a campus security report shared with CNA. But Emmanuel’s relative said there were dozens of armed police officers on the scene who didn’t fire their weapons.
The commissioner of police in the state also said officers did not fire their weapons. However, he maintained that only 15 of his officers were at the scene, according to a report in The Epoch Times.
Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah of the Diocese of Sokoto has strongly condemned the attack and called on Emmanuel’s killers to be brought to justice..
“This matter must be treated as a criminal act,” he said. You can read his full statement here.
A plea for help
On the day of Emmanuel’s death, Mary received a frantic phone call from her around 9 a.m, asking for help. By that time, women who lived in her dormitory had begun slapping Emmanuel, Mary told CNA.
Mary arrived at the campus to see her friend surrounded by a mob and being led by a campus staffer to a gatehouse building for her protection. The Muslim students had bloodied her face and head with blows from rods and were joined by male students who believed their duty was to execute a blasphemer on the spot, Mary said.
“Allahu Akbar!” meaning “God is Great” was bellowed for hours, she said.
Mary initially stayed outside the building and tried to intercede for her friend, but she said it wasn’t long before the mob turned on her, too. Within moments Mary was trying to ward off punches and blows from sticks as she backed away from the gatehouse and toward the gate of the college 40 feet away.
Mary said a college lecturer rescued her and brought her to join Emmanuel inside the gatehouse by 10 a.m.
At 10:25 a.m., the relative said, six officers of the Department of State Security (DSS) — the equivalent to the FBI in the U.S. — arrived, firing their rifles in the air but with no effect. Five minutes later, he said, a group of Sokoto police came on the scene and fired tear gas, temporarily scattering the mob.
The above map is based on eyewitness accounts of the murder of Nigerian Christian student Deborah Emmanuel on her college’s campus on May 12, 2022. Graphic by Alexander Hunter
For about 10 minutes police had an opportunity to disperse the mob and force their way to the gatehouse to extract Mary and Emmanuel, Emmanuel’s relative believes. But that did not happen.
By 11 a.m., the mob had returned to the building, holding cloths against their faces to ward off the tear gas. The mob tried hurling stones at Mary through the windows of the locked gatehouse, but Mary barricaded herself behind a table.
The mob then threw gasoline on the women through the front windows and attempted to burn them alive, Mary said.
“Deborah was soaked with gasoline, but when lighted plastic was pitched in through the windows, I quickly stamped the flames out,” Mary said.
No escape
All of this transpired as police and DSS officers watched from a safe distance, according to Emmanuel’s relative.
The traumatized women said little to each other, but Emmanuel was still hoping to do her examination that day, Mary said. At one point, she recalled, Emmanuel asked, “What time is it? I have an examination at noon.” Mary said she looked at her cell phone and told her it was 1 p.m.
After another excruciating hour of siege, the mob pushed down a single Sokoto policeman guarding the door, broke the padlock on the door, and rushed in to find Mary and Emmanuel hiding behind furniture, Mary and the relative related. Two rioters placed a chain around Mary’s neck and pulled it hard, trying to strangle her, she recounted.
“Let this girl go! She is not an offender,” Mary recalled one of the rioters shouting. But as they released her, a young man in the mob grabbed Emmanuel and took her to the front steps of the gatehouse. There she was bludgeoned with steel pipes and wooden rods and stoned, the relative said.
Two DSS officers attempted to rescue Emmanuel but were hit by stones and pushed aside, the relative said. The police officers remained in position and did not come to her aid, he alleged.
Mary collapsed inside the gatehouse gasping from the strangulation. Approximately 40 minutes later, she said, she was roused by one of the mob to leave the building, which was on fire.
As she walked through the smoke, Mary saw the gatehouse burning and Emmanuel’s lifeless body in flames.
The face of Christian persecution
In the aftermath of Emmanuel’s murder, human rights advocates and others have leveled sharp criticism at Nigeria’s government leaders for not doing enough to stem the rising tide of violence directed at Christians and other non-Muslims.
Relatives of Deborah Emmanuel at her burial in Niger State, Nigeria. Courtesy of the Emmanuel family
Anti-Christian hatred was evident in days of rioting in Sokoto following the arrest of two suspects in Emmanuel’s murder. The rioters reportedly were incensed that there were any arrests at all.
“Deborah Emmanuel, like kidnapping victim Leah Sharibu (who was enslaved by Boko Haram insurgents in 2019), has become the face of Christian persecution in Nigeria,” said Kyle Abts, executive director of the International Committee on Nigeria (ICON). “There has not been an official report from the security forces on the lynching of Ms. Emmanuel. Her killing and subsequent riots show clear government complicity and coverup.”
Tina Ramirez, founder of the international nonprofit Hardwired Global, also believes the Nigerian government has been unwilling to take a strong stand against blasphemy killings.
“The recent attacks on students are reminiscent of the attacks at Nigerian colleges two decades ago that were the precursor to the growth of extremist groups across Nigeria’s North and Middle Belt,” Ramirez wrote in a text to CNA.
CNA Staff, May 17, 2020 / 05:00 am (CNA).- Pro-life groups in Ecuador say that United Nations aid to combat the coronavirus pandemic should not require access to abortion as a condition for assistance.
On April 30, Ecuador’s Ministry of Foreign Relations and Human Mobility confirmed it had presented to the United Nations a $46.4 million budget request to implement the U.N.’s “Humanitarian Response Plan COVID-19” whose goal is “to support national response efforts and ensure the aid is delivered in an organized manner.”
One objective of the U.N. plan is to “maintain continuity of maternal, neonatal and children’s health and other sexual and reproductive health services during the pandemic.” These terms are understood to include access to abortion.
In addition, the plan aims to “sensitize and train healthcare personnel to implement the “Minimum Initial Service Package (MISP) for Reproductive Health in Crisis Situations” which includes promoting “access to contraception including emergency contraception, safe legal abortion and post-abortion care.”
Abortion is illegal in Ecuador, except when continued pregnancy threatens the life and health of a woman.
Against this background, Ecuadorian pro-lifers have launched a petition drive, calling on President Lenin Moreno to “not accept ideological interference by the UN.”
The citizen petition says that “in the face of the COVID-19 drama, the United Nations has offered to send humanitarian aid to Ecuador, but the aid is not free, since in various sections of the document it is explained that said aid is conditional on Ecuador legalizing abortion.”
“And it seems it has already begun to produce results because Ecuador is one of the 59 countries that in the midst of the pandemic has already committed to promote abortion,” the petition adds, referring to a May 6 joint declaration signed by a number of countries, including Ecuador “to protect sexual and reproductive health and rights and to promote gender-responsiveness” during the pandemic.
In an interview with ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish language news partner, Martha Villafuerte, who represents the Guayaquil Family Network, said the “fear is that our highest authority in Ecuador will even consider accepting this economic shakedown of $46 million in exchange for the lives of thousands of unborn children.”
Villafuerte said the U.N. plan “it goes against the Constitution, specifically article 45, which guarantees the right to life from conception, a right that was ratified last September 17 at the plenary session of the National Assembly.”
“The U.N. …intends to shakedown the country by offering it more than 46 million dollars, of which 3 million would go directly to ‘sensitize and to train health personnel on safe, legal abortion and post-abortion care when this is expressly prohibited by law in Ecuador,” Villafuerte stressed.
Members of the National Assembly “are already publicly denouncing the plan and expressing their objection to international organizations placing conditions on their financial contributions,” she added
Assemblyman Héctor Yépez tweeted “Unbelievable! The UN conditions ‘safe legal abortion’ in its humanitarian support plan for Ecuador. While we all want to save lives, some insist on eliminating the lives of unborn girls and boys.”
In a statement to ACI Prensa, Yepez pointed out that the National Assembly had already “voted on abortion and the pro-life position won, preventing abortion from being legalized and protecting life from conception, as our Constitution says.”
“The UN must respect the Assembly’s decision, the sentiments of the majority of families in Ecuador and the right to life, which is inviolable,” he emphasized.
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