LifeSiteNews has been permanently banned on YouTube. Click HERE to sign up to receive emails when we add to our video library.
WESTMINSTER, U.K., May 27, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) – A new bid to legalize assisted suicide has begun in the U.K., when the Assisted Dying Bill was introduced into the House of Lords on May 26, with the purported aim of alleviating “intolerable suffering.”
Meanwhile, Members of Parliament (MPs) opposed to the bill have warned that any move to legalize assisted suicide is a “slippery slope” that leads inevitably to euthanasia.
Baroness Meacher, chair of the assisted-suicide lobby group Dignity in Dying, made the first steps in the process to bring in assisted suicide into the U.K., with the House of Lords giving her Assisted Dying Bill its first reading on May 26.
In its first reading, the bill was formally introduced. It will be debated in its second reading, which will most likely take place later this year.
Modeled on legislation from Oregon, under the terms of the bill, assisted suicide would be legalized for “terminally ill, mentally competent adults” who are judged to be in the final six months of their life.
When assisted suicide is requested, two doctors and a High Court judge would be required to assess the case in order to grant approval for a person to end his or her life.
Should the judges approve the death, then a patient would be able to choose the place, time and manner. Meacher’s bill declares that it has the aim of alleviating “intolerable suffering.”
The legislation is the third attempt in the past 10 years to legalize assisted suicide and comes some years after the 2015 Marris-Falconer Assisted Dying Bill which was defeated in the House of Commons by a vote of 330-118.
Assisted suicide is currently illegal in England and Wales under the Suicide Act (1961) and in Northern Ireland under the Criminal Justice Act (1966). Anyone who “encourages or assists a suicide” could face up to 14 years in prison under the current laws.
While there is no specific legislation relating to assisted suicide in Scotland, the Scottish parliament is expected to launch its own consultation on the matter, with a bill expected to be introduced next year.
Assisted-suicide campaigners have been lobbying the courts since their defeat in Parliament in 2015 but were told by the High Court in 2019 that “In our judgment, the courts are not the venue for arguments that have failed to convince parliament.”
The campaigners have been supported by Secretary of State for Health Matthew Hancock, who recently advocated for a data-based debate on the matter, and wrote to the Office for National Statistics for information on “suicides by terminally ill people and the possible impact of the ban on assisted dying.”
The Sunday Times launched a campaign on May 23 supporting the bid to legalize assisted suicide and attempting to drum up public support for the bill.
Last month, 70 MPs and Peers signed an open letter calling on the government to reject requests by the All-Party Parliamentary Humanist Group, which had lobbied the government to conduct an inquiry with a view to changing the ban on assisted suicide.
“We do not consider that a new inquiry into this complex and emotive subject is warranted,” wrote the parliamentarians.
PETITION UPDATE (5/5/2021) - BREAKING: Facebook permanently removes LifeSiteNews’ page
Facebook has just permanently banned LifeSiteNews’ Facebook page. This apparently is not a temporary measure: It is gone for good.
"Much like when LifeSite was removed from YouTube, this comes with little surprise,” noted LifeSiteNews Marketing Director Rebekah Roberts.
"Facebook has been silencing any voice that goes against their beliefs and agenda," continued Roberts. "Our LifeSiteNews Facebook page has been removed simply because we have shared reports of doctors, nurses, expert researchers, and even the former Pfizer VP speaking out against the COVID shots. We’ve also been tagged for the numerous articles we have shared making the connection between the COVID shots, and really all vaccines, and aborted baby cell lines."
"This all comes down to another case of Big Tech silencing free speech on their platform," she added.
"At this time, I encourage those of you who are still on Facebook, Twitter, and other Big Tech platforms to continue sharing LifeSiteNews articles with your friends and family, please!” urged Roberts. “I also encourage you to follow us on these alternative platforms:"
Telegram: https://t.me/lifesitetelegram
Gab: https://gab.com/LifeSiteNews
MeWe: https://mewe.com/i/lifesitenewscom1
Rumble: https://rumble.com/user/LifeSiteNews
Brighteon: https://www.brighteon.com/channels/lifesitenews
The absolute best way to connect with LifeSiteNews is to subscribe to our daily news emails, click here.
Thank you for SIGNING and SHARING this petition, vital to our freedom of speech.
_____________________________________________________
PETITION UPDATE (2/23/21) -
LifeSite has signed on to a Media Research Center (MRC) letter to all 50 state Attorneys General, calling for an investigation into Big Tech.
Google, Facebook, and Twitter have monopolized the industry, and are using their influence to collect user data, suppress content, and silence those who voice ideas and beliefs counter to their own.
As we urged prior, action must be taken to combat these efforts, and that is why we’ve joined the MRC in this fight.
Please take a couple of minutes to READ this LifeSiteNews article about MRC's initiative: https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/lifesite-joins-effort-asking-state-attorneys-general-to-investigate-big-tech-for-deceptive-trade-practices
Then, please SIGN and STOP using Twitter, Facebook, Google (YouTube) and Amazon to take back your privacy and freedom of speech!
________________________________________________________
PETITION UPDATE (2/9/21) -
YouTube just completely removed the LifeSiteNews YouTube channel. This isn’t a ban, every single one of our videos is completely gone. Being completely removed from YouTube means we’ve lost access to 300,000+ followers.
This is the latest and appalling affront to free speech which is happening to many conservative and Christian organizations.
Please SIGN this petition and STOP using YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Google (owner of YouTube) and Amazon to take back your privacy and freedom of speech!
We are not going to take this lying down!
Thankfully, we have backups of all our videos:
You can watch our current videos on Rumble, here: https://rumble.com/user/LifeSiteNews
Or on our LifeSiteNews Catholic Rumble channel, here: https://rumble.com/user/LifeSiteNewsCatholic
You can also sign-up to receive email alerts about our recent videos here: https://bit.ly/LifeSiteVideoSub
Please help us build Rumble and our other alternative platforms by donating through our secure link: https://give.lifesitenews.com/
After you SIGN this petition, please also see our 'Goodbye Google' resources to find out how to quit Big Tech and learn more about good alternatives!
____________________________________________________________________________
PETITION UPDATE (1/26/20) -
Twitter has again locked LifeSiteNews out of two of our accounts on the platform for displaying a message noting that President Joe Biden’s newly named Assistant Secretary of Health “Rachel” Levine is a man.
Both accounts displayed a simple message which read: “Biden names transgender ‘woman’ as Assistant Secretary of Health. ‘Rachel’ Levine is a father of two who divorced his wife in 2013 after 30 years of marriage.” The tweets also included a link to LifeSite’s article Biden names transgender ‘woman’ as Assistant Secretary of Health, and contained part of the opening sentence of that article, “Joe Biden has announced his intention to appoint a gender-confused man” as Assistant Secretary of Health.
For stating biological or Biblical truths, Twitter and Big Tech are trying to shut down conservative voices.
Therefore, it is now more important than ever to consider dumping Twitter, Google (who own YouTube) and Facebook. To be clear: LifeSite is still using Twitter and Big Tech to encourage others to migrate away from these illiberal platforms.
This is not the first time that LifeSiteNews has been censored by Twitter. In December 2019, Twitter indefinitely suspended our account for a tweet that linked to an article on transgender activist Jonathan “Jessica” Yaniv.
At the time, Twitter gave LifeSite the option to delete the tweet and reactivate our account right away. LifeSite remained steadfast that the tweet did not violate any of the company’s “rules and policies,” and sought several appeals with Twitter, while looking into legal action against the company.
And, while LifeSite's account was eventually restored, we must now consider what course of action we will pursue in this case, over and above appealing the ban.
Meanwhile, since taking office on Wednesday last week, Joe Biden has already signed an executive order which will force women’s athletic programs, restrooms, and locker rooms to be open to men. He has also turned back the Trump administration’s policy protecting women’s sports programs in schools.
Last week, LifeSite was banned for two weeks from our YouTube channel, after the site determined that one of our videos about vaccines violated YouTube’s “community guidelines.” We are also in the middle of appealing this ban.
Please considering SIGNING and SHARING this petition. Thank you!
__________________________________________________________________________
Twitter just deplatformed President Trump premanently! And, other conservatives, including General Flynn and Sidney Powell, were also summarily deplatformed.
Conservatives, Christians and freedom-loving Americans of all political persuasions must now take a decision to preserve their free speech AND their ability to peaceably assemble by dumping Twitter and Big Tech, and by finding other good alternatives to communicate with each other and share their opinions.
Please SIGN our petition-pledge to Dump Twitter and Big Tech, and take back your freedom of speech and privacy. [CLICK HERE for our "Goodbye Google" resources page to find good alternatives to Twitter, Facebook, Amazon, and Google!]
When you use Twitter or Facebook to communicate, and, or, Google and Amazon to search for something online, these companies can stifle your ability to share your thoughts and opinions and manipulate your search results, threatening your privacy, your freedom of speech, and even our democracy.
Evidence suggests that Twitter and Facebook's 'community guidelines' are selectively enforced against conservatives and Christians, while Google rigs their search algorithms to direct traffic away from conservative and Christian websites, effectively choking traffic to those sites.
Simply put, Twitter, Facebook, Google (who owns YouTube) and Amazon appear to be actively suppressing access to pro-freedom, pro-family and pro-life news and opinion.
Don't contribute to this assault on democracy: Stop using Twitter, Facebook, Google and Amazon as your default social media platforms and search engine! [CLICK HERE to find a good alternative to Google.]
To repeat: a few liberal and completely unaccountable computer programmers in Silicon Valley are dictating what we do and do not see in our Twitter and Facebook feeds, and in our Google searches.
We, here, at LifeSite, also recently had our Twitter account suspended by the company over "misgendering" a man who claims to be a woman.
LifeSite has also experienced a fall-off in Google search-related traffic since the company updated its search algorithms at the beginning of May.
And, since the November election, Twitter and Big Tech appear to have dramatically INCREASED their censorship of conservatives and Christians as the President Trump disputed the results of the election and when evidence of election fraud began to mount.
Now, it seems likely that they are trying to cut-off conservative leaders (like President Trump) from conservatives on the ground, and effectively exclude us from the national conversation.
But, this tactic will not work. Because Twitter, Facebook, Google and Amazon are not the only game in town! There are a good number of excellent alternatives which we list in our 'Goodbye Google' Resources page.
The great irony is that, while Twitter, Facebook, Google and Amazon executives talk a lot about maintaining freedom of speech and diversity, in fact, these hypocrites are ATTACKING free speech point-blank!
This kind of manipulation poses a lethal threat to our democracy, but as we see so clearly now, Twitter and Big Tech have shown no hesitation in excluding conservatives and Christians from the public square.
So, at this point, the only way to stop Twitter, Facebook, Google and Amazon is to quit using their platform.
Please SIGN and SHARE this petition to pledge to stop using Twitter and Big Tech. Then, please CLICK HERE to find alternative search engines and social media platforms. Thank you!
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Follow LifeSiteNews on these alternative channels:
Telegram: https://t.me/lifesitetelegram
Gab: https://gab.com/LifeSiteNews
MeWe: https://mewe.com/i/lifesitenewscom1
Rumble: https://rumble.com/user/LifeSiteNews
Parler: parler.com/profile/lifesitenews (currently down due to Amazon removing their web hosting)
Ready to say "Goodbye Google"? Find alternatives for search engines, browsers, email, and more: https://lifefacts.lifesitenews.com/goodbye-google/resources/
'BREAKING: Twitter permanently bans President Trump from platform' - https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/breaking-twitter-permanently-bans-president-trump-from-platform
WATCH LifeSite's exclusive series - 'Big Tech vs Free Speech' - of interviews with experts on how Big Tech censorship is killing free speech: https://www.lifesitenews.com/bigtech/
From YouTube to social media and beyond, online censorship is rampant. Read the latest articles covering this ongoing struggle: https://lifefacts.lifesitenews.com/goodbye-google/censorship/
They pointed to the “slippery slope” of assisted suicide, which led to euthanasia as its “natural destination.” Such laws would replace the current law, which the signatories of the letter say is “a law based on the rational and widely-accepted principle that we do not involve ourselves in deliberately bringing about the deaths of others – with a law based on artificial and arbitrary criteria like a prognosis of terminal illness.”
Meacher’s bill has also been met with stern opposition from pro-life campaigners as well as clerics. Catherine Robinson, a spokesperson for Right to Life UK, warned that in practice any legalization of assisted suicide would lead to the deaths of far more than just those people deemed to be experiencing “intolerable suffering.”
“Supporters of a change in the law on assisted suicide frame the debate in terms of unbearable suffering ‘beyond the reach of palliative care,’ as Baroness Meacher put it. Yet the experience of other jurisdictions, particularly Canada and Oregon, which have legalized assisted suicide and/or euthanasia, tell a very different story,” Robinson said.
“The majority of people who choose to end their own lives with medical assistance say it is because they fear being a ‘burden,’ or ‘loss of autonomy’ or ‘loss of dignity.’ These reasons have nothing to do with physical suffering, and it should be a source of scandal that people who are struggling in this personal, psychological and social manner are offered death as a solution.”
Robinson was echoed by Alithea Williams of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC), who noted that though Meacher’s bill was “unlikely” to become law, it was nevertheless part of “a fresh assault on Westminster by the assisted suicide lobby.”
“This bill marks the start of a new battle against the lives of the most vulnerable – we must fight back now,” declared Williams.
Catholic Diocese of Shrewsbury Bishop Mark Davies issued a statement in response to Meacher’s bill, pointing out the irony of such a bill after more than a year of restrictions that had the supposed intent of saving lives from an infection.
“If Parliament were ever persuaded to legalize Assisted Suicide, we should be in no doubt as to the moral line that would be crossed,” Davies said.
“A line that has never been legally crossed in our care of the sick and elderly since the foundation of our society. The culture built on the commandment ‘You shall not kill’ has protected the most vulnerable, led to the development of the finest end of life care and never required of our medical and nursing professions that they assist in the suicide or the killing of their patients.”
Speaking to LifeSiteNews, Fiona Bruce MP, Co-Chair All Party Parliamentary Pro-Life Group, also noted the heavy price which had been paid during the last year in the name of saving lives, and what a paradox was being proposed by now seeking to legalize assisted suicide:
Perhaps one of the most affected groups are those in our society who are more isolated even in the best of times – the elderly, and those who rely on friends and family being able to regularly pop into their house, to break the silence, to give the physical contact of a hug, and to show them that they are loved and supported. Many people have suffered, and felt their most vulnerable, over the last year. We are now warned that we face a mental health crisis that will not end with restrictions. Surely it would be completely inappropriate – indeed, insensitive – to go anywhere near making access to any form of suicide easier.