6 January 2021

“But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand.” [Ezekiel 33:6]

“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” [Ephesians 6:12]

Presbyterians Week Headlines

[1] Court orders nutrition and fluids to be withdrawn from disabled Polish citizen

[2] Every Black Life Matters Drafts an Open Letter of Correction to Raphael Warnock

[3] Google Notifies Children If Parents Are Monitoring Their Accounts

[4] Ontario Pastor Fined $100,000 And Could Face Prison for Holding Church Services

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[1] Court orders nutrition and fluids to be withdrawn from disabled Polish citizen

The Order of Mr Justice Cohen which authorises University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust to withdraw all life-sustaining treatment from a middle-aged Polish man, referred to only as “RS”, will come into force at 4 pm on 7 January, the Court of Protection has decided.

In a dramatic last-ditch legal battle, the man’s mother, who lives in Poland, as well as his two sisters and niece, supported by the Christian Legal Centre, sought the Court’s permission to instruct an independent neurologist to examine the man before he would be dehydrated to death.

They relied on the videos taken during a Hospital visit on Christmas day, and the opinion of a consultant neurologist, Rev. Dr Patrick Pullicino, to argue that the man’s condition has improved since the Court’s original decision.

Dr Pullicino told the Court that the man had a 50% chance of eventually recovering from his brain injury so as to be independent within his house.

On 26 December the Foreign Minister of Poland, Zbignew Rau, sent an urgent request to the UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, asking for cooperation in repatriating RS to Poland. Mr Rau’s letter undertakes to use Poland’s Medical Air Rescue Service to take RS for treatment in the Interior Ministry’s Central Clinical Hospital in Warsaw.

A similar proposal was earlier sent by the Polish Ministry of Justice to the Lord Chancellor, Robert Buckland, on Christmas Eve. Diplomats from the Polish Embassy attended the online court hearing, and made submissions to Mr Justice Cohen.

However, in a judgment, Mr Justice Cohen said: “I unhesitatingly reject the suggestion that he should be moved overseas”. He agreed with the treating doctor’s concern that RS might “die in transit” as a result – instead of dying in a hospital bed if hydration is withdrawn.

The judge initially imposed reporting restrictions prohibiting any mention of Poland as RS’s country of origin, but changed his mind and lifted the ban on Friday 1 January 2021.

Mr Justice Cohen also rejected the evidence of Rev. Dr Pullicino, who is an ordained Catholic priest as well as an experienced consultant neurologist. The judge said: “I did not find Dr Pullicino a satisfactory witness” and that he was “concerned” about Dr Pullicino’s “level of objectivity”. He refused the family’s request for permission to arrange for an examination of RS by Dr Pullicino or another neurologist.

The Hospital had already withdrawn nutrition and hydration from RS on Christmas Eve, following a Court of Appeal decision the day before, but then re-instated hydration five days later on the orders of Mr Justice Holman. It has now agreed to delay the withdrawal until 4 pm on Thursday 7 January, to give a few days to the European Court of Human Rights to consider the case.

Sustaining life “not in his best interests”

After RS was taken to hospital following a heart attack in early November, the doctors at University Hospital Plymouth NHS Trust concluded within a few days that it was in his best interests to withdraw all life-sustaining treatment. At the end of November, an application was made to the Court of Protection to resolve the dispute with RS’s mother and other members of his family, who insisted on preserving his life.

Following an online court hearing earlier in mid-December, Mr Justice Cohen agreed with the NHS doctors that, with appropriate treatment and care, RS could survive “for up to five years or more”.  Since the heart attack RS has been recovering, but the judge found that he would never recover beyond “a minimally conscious state” where he could barely “acknowledge a presence of another human being”.

RS’s wife, who lives with him in England, tearfully told the Court that RS was a devout Catholic who believed that every life is precious, but also said that if he became seriously ill and “beyond saving”, he would not want to be a “burden” on his family.

RS wanted to be buried in Poland when he dies. The judge refused to allow any questions to be asked to RS’s wife by the lawyers acting for other members of his family, as she was distressed.

In his judgment the judge found that RS “would not want to be kept alive in a state which provides him with no capacity to obtain any pleasure and which is so upsetting to his wife and children”. The judge concluded that it was not in RS’s best interests to be kept alive. 

RS’s mother has already spent most of her savings trying to save her son. Her fight to save her son’s life is supported by her children and grandchildren, although not by RS’s wife.

Urgent hearing

The appeal from members of RS’s family was considered at an urgent hearing on 23 December, chaired by Lady Justice King, who in 2018 dismissed three appeals by the parents of Alfie Evans against the orders to withdraw his life support. At the hearing in the Court of Appeal, she commented in open court:

“Sadly, we have all done cases of this kind out of number. We’ve done trials as a matter of hours. We are all used to dealing with these cases at short notice.”

The family complained that they were given too short a notice of the trial, and had only two working days to instruct lawyers and prepare the evidence. The family’s lawyers pointed out that earlier cases of this kind were much rarer, and would only be decided “after many months of tests and with mountains of expert evidence, as well as intense examination of evidence from those who knew the patient to understand his perspective”. They argued that RS’s case was “an example of the pendulum having swung too far the opposite way”, where a rushed decision was made without a proper examination of RS’s Christian belief in the sanctity of life.

The family asked for a short delay in the withdrawal of nutrition and fluids to enable RS’s elderly mother to fly from Poland to the UK to say goodbye to her son. However, Lady Justice King emphasised that was a matter for the Hospital, and the Court’s order came into force immediately.

The same evening, RS’s mother booked the earliest available flight to see her son on Sunday. However, on Christmas Eve the Hospital informed the family that nutrition and fluids had already been withdrawn. Messages begging doctors to continue hydration until RS’s mother’s arrival were left unanswered.

RS’s survival causes “anguish for the clinical team”

The family made an urgent application to the European Court of Human Rights for the violation of RS’s right to life. The government of Poland declared that it wished to intervene to support the family’s case against the UK, and made its own application to ECHR to compel the UK to permit his repatriation. The European Court has indicated that the case will be heard on an urgent basis in early 2021.

The family has spent a rare 30-minute visit permitted by the Hospital taking videos of RS, and have asked an eminent neurological consultant, Rev Dr Patrick Pullicino, to interpret that evidence. In a written opinion, Dr Pullicino observed that the videos showed “a clear emotional response to the presence of family members”, and might indicate that RS’s prospects of recovery were better than suggested by the Hospital. He recommended further tests which could help to diagnose RS’s condition.

At an urgent hearing on 28 December, Mr Justice Holman suspended the permission to withhold nutrition and fluids from RS until this new evidence could be considered by Mr Justice Cohen. By that time, RS had already spent five days without being given any fluids, and the Hospital had written to the family to confirm he was “at the end of his life” and was expected to die within 24 to 48 hours.

However, at the hearing on Thursday 30 December, the doctors working for the Hospital told the Court that RS’s condition had not changed. The treating consultant (who cannot be named under the reporting restrictions) said: “We feel very strongly that his outcome won’t be one which would satisfy him. We should be palliating him, and that period should be made as short as possible, not prolonged by providing hydration.”

When asked by the family’s barrister, Charles Foster, about a possible transfer of RS to his country of origin, the consultant emotionally retorted that the family’s new application to the court had already forced the clinicians to stop administering palliative treatment such as morphine and midazolam, and that was causing “anguish for the clinical team”. He added: “I find it quite offensive to suggest that he should be transferred to another country, where he could die in transit away from his family.”

“I am devastated”

RS’s mother (whose name cannot be published under the Court order) said: “I am devastated that the British authorities have decided to dehydrate my son to death. I want to take my son back to his own country, where I would be allowed to care for him. What the British authorities are trying to do to my son is euthanasia by a back door”.

+ Christian Concern, 70 Wimpole Street, London W1G 8AX, England, 020 7935 1488, Contact Page

[2] Every Black Life Matters Drafts an Open Letter of Correction to Raphael Warnock

Dr. Alveda King joins the rally and march at MLK Park

NEWS PROVIDED BY
Every Black Life Matters
Jan. 2, 2021

ATLANTA, Jan. 2, 2021 /Christian Newswire/ — Earlier today, Co-Founder Kevin McGary of Every Black Life Matters(EBLM), a Christian alternative organization to BLM, along with special Guest Dr. Alveda King of Civil Rights for the Unborn held a prayer rally at MLK Park.  The purpose was to voice concerns over Raphael Warnock’s support of abortion as well as to pray for peaceful voting for the upcoming Senate election. After the prayer there was a peaceful walk to Warnock’s campaign office where McGary would hand deliver an open letter EBLM had written which has over 300 names of citizens from across the nation.

The letter was first posted on EBLM’s website earlier this week.  Supporters were encouraged to add their name to the letter.  The general content of the open letter calls for Warnock to repent and reconsider his position as a man of God who supports abortion. 

Dear Reverend Warnock, 

As an American with the desire to represent the people of Georgia in the U.S. Senate, you declare yourself an advocate and defender of Civil Rights, a protector against racism and a man called by God to Shepherd others; you must realize that great responsibilities come with those declarations! 

As a defender of Civil Rights, you have failed to recognize and embrace that they (civil rights) are undergirded by fundamental tenets to be extended to all Americans. Fundamentally, ALL are created equal and must be provided the right to “life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness” (see Declaration of Independence), for justice to prevail. It is hypocritical and “anti-civil rights” to reject the right to life for a specific subset of humanity (those in the womb) while you relish and partake in all the fruits of life; this is an ultimate injustice! It is a dishonor to assert being a defender of civil rights while endorsing the cultural forces that withhold the right to life from Blacks as they are disproportionally targeted for “extermination” via abortion. You have fundamentally failed in this regard.

Please correct your ways. …

The entire letter, along with the 300+ names can be found at https://everyblm.com/open-letter-to-warnock/.

Every Black Life Matters is a pro-life, pro-capitalist, pro-nuclear family organization who boldly stands in direct opposition to BLM.  Their mission is to protect black life from conception to death by confronting injustice and deconstructing barriers inside and outside the black community through a national platform of training, networked resources, community organizing and faith building.

If you would like more information about this topic, please call Kevin McGary at 510-886-7319, or email info@everyBLM.com.

Open Letter to Warnock
https://everyblm.com/open-letter-to-warnock/

Facebook Page of EBLM
https://facebook.com/everyblm

Website
https://everyblm.com

SOURCE Every Black Life Matters

CONTACT: Kevin McGary, 510-886-7319, info@EveryBLM.com

[3] Google Notifies Children If Parents Are Monitoring Their Accounts

The following is excerpted from “Google confirms,” Just the News, Dec. 21, 2020: “Google’s child-notification policies received attention when film director Robby Starbuck claimed on Twitter that his seven-year-old child had received a warning from Google that his account was being monitored. ‘Our seven-year-old son has to have google for homeschooling,’ Starbuck wrote on Twitter, ‘so naturally we setup parental controls but look what [Google] did. They sent my son an email telling him we’re supervising his account.’ ‘Your privacy is important to us,’ the company wrote to the seven-year-old boy, ‘and we want to remind you that your parent … is supervising your Google account.’ Reached for comment, the company confirmed it does notify young children when parents are monitoring their account activity. The company pointed to both the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the recently passed UK Age Appropriate Design Code as examples of child-privacy advocacy to which it adheres. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child– which dates to September 1990–holds, in part, that ‘no child shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his or her privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to unlawful attacks on his or her honour and reputation.’”

+ Way of Life Literature, Post Office Box 610368, Port Huron, Michigan 48061, 519-652-2619, fbns@wayoflife.org

+ Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, California 94043, 650-253-0000, Fax: 650-253-0001, press@google.com

[4] Ontario Pastor Fined $100,000 And Could Face Prison for Holding Church Services

The following is excerpted from “Ontario pastor,” Conservative Review, Dec. 25, 2020: “The Harvest Bible Church in Windsor, Ontario, released a press statement on Thursday, Dec. 24, claiming that the church’s lead pastor, Dr. Aaron Rock, has been fined up to $100,000 and could face a year in prison for holding church services. ‘Police also informed us that they will bar our congregation from entering the church on Christmas Eve, contrary to Section 176 of the Criminal Code and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. We are deeply grieved by these unlawful and immoral acts, having already been banned from meeting on Good Friday and Easter Sunday,’ a statement from the church reads. The church says that the Windsor-Essex County Health United has not responded to any written communication from the church while police close the premises. … Pastor Rock said that legal action against provincial governments that infringe on religious freedoms is coming soon. ‘Yes there will be lawsuits, they will start in the western provinces, with the goal to overturn their draconian rules. Then they will move to Ontario.’” Pastor Rock told the Post Millennial, “I think our justice system is under the spell of foolishness, but in all honesty whatever the courts decide or not decide, makes very little difference to me. I have a work for God, a mandate for God, and whether the court upholds this ridiculous charge or not, it doesn’t change my convictions” (“Ontario pastor,” Post Millennial, Dec. 28, 2020).

+ Way of Life Literature, Post Office Box 610368, Port Huron, Michigan 48061, 519-652-2619, fbns@wayoflife.org

+ Harvest Bible Church, 2001 Spring Garden Rd, Windsor, Ontario N9E 3P8, Canada, 519-250-5520, admin@harvestwindsor.ca