Antipolo Bishop Gabriel Reyes during a Mass lamented how other countries now recognize the minors’ ‘right to die’ and asked the faithful to pray for the intention of the start of the oral arguments against the RH Law today.
MANILA, July 9, 2013—A Pandora’s box of social and spiritual disasters – this is how a bishop describes the RH Law, which, according to him, will pave the way for euthanasia, not just for the old, but even for children, among other things.
In a holy mass this morning, specifically for the intention of the opening of oral arguments on R.A. 10354 today, Antipolo Bishop Gabriel Reyes cited how Belgium is now considering allowing minors—individuals who are not even allowed by the state to drink, marry or vote—to decide to take their own lives.
Children’s ‘right to die’
“Aren’t we like animals this way? When a leg gets broken, we just end its life. But we are not animals, we are human beings,” he said during homily at the Archdiocesan Shrine of Nuestra Señora de Guia in Ermita, Malate.
Explaining the link between the RH Law and euthanasia, Reyes said, a distaste for life in utero, as exemplified by R.A.10354, can only open the doors for other anti-life and anti-family laws.
Reyes, who also heads the Episcopal Commission on Family and Life, explained how tenuous the definition of ‘deciding to die’ would be in the case of euthanasia for minors and how the decision to end their lives would probably be made by other older individuals for them.
“It’s unimaginable…Where will it end?” he asked, noting how the trend of anti-life legislations is quickly advancing to conquer Philippine society and policy-making, beginning with the passage of the RH Law.
Social teachings of the Church
Reyes was clearly troubled by the state of some Western countries without mentioning that since 2005, Netherlands has been euthanizing newly-borns with birth defects like spina bifida, which causes a deformity in the spine, but which, most often, does not affect intelligence or cognitive skills.
In closing, he said, the only answer to such inhuman practices is to go back to the social teachings of the Catholic Church, which include the protection of all human life and the promotion of human dignity.
“Ultimately, we have to act according to our conscience. We believe that a correct conscience is one that is in accordance with the moral teachings of the Catholic Church,” Reyes said to the hundreds of pro-life supporters who were present for the 9 a.m. mass.
Oral arguments against the RH Law are set to begin today, July 9, at the Supreme Court. [Nirva’ana Ella Delacruz]
