LifeSiteNews.com - 18 Set 07

Poland Insists EU "Right to Life" Venture against Death Penalty Should Include Abortion and Euthanasia
By John-Henry Westen

A debate in the European Union is simmering over the upcoming World Day against the Death Penalty on October 10. The current EU President from Portugal is requesting that the EU jointly declare an EU-wide day against the death penalty on that date.

However, Poland has rightly seen hypocrisy in the venture with regard to the "right to life". The 2006 declaration by the Presidency of the EU on the occasion of the World Day against the death penalty stated: "The European Union considers the death penalty as a cruel and inhuman punishment and a violation to the right to life."

According to a Polish Radio report by Joanna Najfeld, Polish diplomats are being pressured to back the EU death penalty proposal but are nonetheless remaining firm in their stance that euthanasia and abortion should be included in the "right to life" discussion.

Polish Radio quotes Krzysztof Bosak, of the League of Polish Right (LPR), who is also a member of the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly. "I think it is hypocritical on the part of the EU to promote abortion, destructive lifestyles and euthanasia and at the same time to pretend to care about the right to life in only one case - death penalty," he said.

"Death penalty is already illegal in the European Union. Maybe it is time to consider protecting the right to life of other social groups. Maybe it is time to establish a European Day of Life to protect also the weakest and most innocent - children before birth, especially those diagnosed with a disability, they are exterminated on a mass scale across Europe. But also to protect the disabled who are already born, the sick and the elderly - to save them from the tragedy of death on demand, or euthanasia," said Bosak.