This is me, Eccles

This is me, Eccles
This is me, Eccles

Thursday 18 December 2014

Thou shalt kill

Many readers have asked me "What the blazes did the Supreme Court think it was playing at when it ruled that two Catholic midwives would be obliged to supervise abortions carried out by their colleagues? Is it not a complete travesty of the Commandment that says 'Thou shalt not terminate'?" (We don't use words like "murder" or "kill" any more, as that might give the game away.)

Moses and Commandments

Thou shalt kill.

Lady Hale explains: "We are the Supreme Court, and there is a clue in the title. Theologians will tell you that the Supreme Court is the Court of Heaven, and the Supreme Judge is God. This proves irrefutably that I am God, and I have a right to change the definitions of Good and Evil to suit myself."

Actually, as Deputy President of the Supreme Court, Baroness Hale of Richmond is only entitled to be called Deputy God, and God Himself is called Baron Neuberger of Abbotsbury. Still, He wasn't involved in this decision, and the power of life and death has devolved to Brenda Hale (or Jehovah Hale, as she should really be known).

Baroness Hale

Judge Eternal, throned in splendour...

It is expected that the Supreme Court will come out with further decisions in the near future, all designed to foster the culture of death. Lifesavers will be ordered to drown people; workers for the Samaritans will be ordered to tell people "Your situation is beyond help: go and top yourself, you time-wasting moron." Doctors, who used to swear a Hippocratic Oath all about maintaining ethical standards, will be encouraged to kill helpless babies in the womb - oh, I'm sorry, that one already happens, I'm told. But of course doctors will also be asked to swear a Shipman Oath (Shippocratic?) undertaking to bump off a regular quota of old people.

lollipop lady

Protecting children? You're doing it all wrong.

Then again, lollipop persons (as above) will be asked to push children under buses, and mountain rescue services will be told to employ St Bernard dogs carrying cyanide. Finally, as the great Fr Hunwicke has observed, those who worked in Nazi concentration camps were only obeying orders, and we know what a wonderful job they did.

Oh Brenda, Brenda, Brenda! BPAS and the National Secular Society think you are wonderful, so I wouldn't dare call you an evil woman destined for Hell (or, more charitably, a loopy old bat). Whatever I might think.

4 comments:

  1. Ah. So Lady Hale is a female and Deputy God.

    Does that make her eligible for promotion to a Bishopric ?

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  2. There is excellent legal commentary on the legal contradictions in this case on Neil Addison's blog: http://religionlaw.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/call-midwife-i-want-abortion-3.html

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  3. I wonder if the midwives will now be able to claim unfair dismissal because they are unable to work!

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  4. This seems to depend upon a new interpretation of the 1967 Act. Having worked in hospital Theatre suites for many years (in different parts of England but not in Scotland) I have never found it to be an issue. You were asked, when you started, if you wished to declare a conscientious objection, you said yes, and from then on you were not expected to have anything to do with abortions before and during the act, although you were required to care for the woman afterwards, if needed. This applied equally to anyone working in Theatres, AFAIK, whatever their role (medical, nursing, technical, portering, admin). Why moving the procedure to a midwife unit should change this, I can't see. PS, I suspect also that abortions on a labour ward would mean medication-induced, "late" abortions, ie up to 24 weeks, or even later in some circumstances. In such cases the woman actually goes through a labour, at the end of which is a stillborn child - or not.

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