Daily Archives: May 11, 2017

10 May 2017 | by Tom Heneghan The Belgian chapter decided in late April to allow assisted death, even for people not in the terminal stage of illness

Brother Ren Stockman, global head of the Brothers of Charity order, has condemned a decision by its Belgian branch to allow euthanasia in its 15 psychiatric hospitals the first time a Catholic institution would officially comply since it was legalised in 2002.

The Belgian chapter decided in late April to allow assisted death, even for people not in the terminal stage of illness. Its nine-page guidelines said staff should focus on protecting life but also respect the autonomy of patients who no longer want to live.

Because human situations are complex and ambiguous, no single choice of concrete action can fully match all values, the guidelines said. Neither value was absolute and doctor-patient dialogue would lead to the best solution.

The decision had been discussed for a year, Br Stockman said, and the committee that took it had a majority of lay people and only a few brothers as members.

Br Stockman a Belgian posted at the orders Rome headquarters, and a specialist in psychiatric care said he had raised the issue with Vatican authorities and the Belgian bishops conference. He told Catholic News Service: I am in contact with the Vatican - the Congregation [for Institutes] of Consecrated Life [and Societies of Apostolic Life] and the Secretary of State [Pietro Parolin] who asked me for more information I hope that there will come a clear answer from the Belgian bishops and the Vatican. I have trust in it.

Br Stockman also said he was hugely disturbed by Antwerp Bishop Johan Bonny, who said he had not read the guidelines in full but thought they were balanced. The Brothers, Bishop Bonny told Belgian television, have to find a modus vivendi between medical insights, moral judgement, public opinion and the prevailing culture in Belgium.

In an interview with the Dutch weekly 'Katholiek Nieuwsblad', Br Stockman recalled the law allows exceptions and that Brussels Cardinal Jozef De Kesel has insisted Catholic institutions can refuse euthanasia.

PICTURE:Activists take part in an anti-euthanasia protest in Brussels

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Superior condemns Belgian order's green light to euthanasia - The Tablet

The Longest Night By Otto de Kat Translated by Laura Watkinson MacLehose Press, 168 pages, $22.99

Emma, the sympathetic protagonist of Otto de Kats The Longest Night, is 96 and ready to say goodbye to her life. But first she will relive it, re-experiencing her emotions, debating her choices.

A nurse is at her side, and a euthanasia team is on its way. As Emma waits, her past and present converge. She drifts through labyrinthine memories of two husbands, two countries and two sons, of the terror of World War II and the painful recovery in its aftermath.

Her life had shattered into fragments, crystal clear, light and dark, an endless flow, de Kat writes in the novels opening pages. Time turned upside down, and inside out.

De Kat is the pen name of the Dutch publisher, poet, novelist and critic Jan Geurt Gaarlandt, a past winner of Hollands Halewijn Literature Prize. Hes not well known to American readers, but he should be. Its not surprising to learn that de Kat is also a poet; his linguistic gifts are evident. This is a lovely novel, at once psychological and historical, written in spare, elegant prose and beautifully translated by Laura Watkinson.

The Longest Night is the fifth in a series of interconnected World War II novels that share characters and plot points and draw on de Kats own family history. (The others are The Figure In The Distance, Man On The Move, Julia and News From Berlin.) Its dedication to the two daughters of Clarita and Adam von Trott and the memory of Christabel Bielenberg is also worth noting.

To students of the Nazi period, Adam von Trott is a familiar name, a German diplomat and Resistance member who tried in vain to convince the Allies of the possibility of a negotiated peace. He was executed (along with more than 4,000 others) after the failure of the July 20, 1944, plot to assassinate Hitler.

Bielenberg was the British wife of Peter Bielenberg, a German lawyer who opposed the Nazi regime and was friendly with Adam von Trott. When Bielenberg was arrested and sent to a concentration camp after the coup attempt, his wife successfully pleaded his case to the Gestapo. Both husband and wife survived the war, and she wrote two memoirs before her death at 94.

Emmas backstory and narrative arc are different: She is Dutch, and her good German husband, Carl Regendorf, meets a darker fate than his real-life counterpart. But Bielenberg seems to have been an inspiration for the character (along with de Kats own mother).

After July 20, de Kat writes, Emma and Carl had lived in a pressure cooker of fear and tension, dreading every footstep and creaking floorboard. When Carl, meeting with von Trott, is taken by the Gestapo, Emma flees from suburban Berlin to a supposedly Nazi-free village in the Black Forest, to stay with a friends relatives.

After the war, a brutal journey takes her back to the Netherlands, where her mothers prosperous cousin lives. She arrives like a ghost, without Carl, parched with grief. But soon, at a dance club, she meets Bruno Verweij, a gentle man who stirs her enough to become her second husband.

They settle on a street in Rotterdam whose residents form a tight, mutually supportive community. Emmas relationship with Bruno isnt perfect she is romanced (and proselytized) by a pastor, and Bruno may still harbor feelings for a wartime love. Both his family and hers have a history of fractures (elucidated more fully in the earlier novels). But the marriage has solidity and endures.

The jangling of a phone, the taste of raspberries, the glint of a ring: These Proustian details inspire snatches of verse and pull Emma into the past, along a complex network of corridors, the crumpled map of her life.

De Kat re-creates the dangers and suspicions of the war years, the postwar awakening of Europes economies, the steady normalizing of relations between a Germany gleaming with prosperity and the rest of the world. Bruno wanders this new Germany as a Chamber of Commerce official, while Emma commits to [h]appiness as a task, as a duty.

The novels title refers to more than Emmas two nights of waking dreams. It turns out to be a quasi-mystical reference to a lifetime of somnolence. Awaiting death, Emma suddenly felt that she had been sleeping all her life, de Kat writes, as if she had slept through it, in fact.

To some extent, he seems to suggest, we are all like Emma, half-awake at best. Entangled in our personal and historical pasts, we sleepwalk through dramas of love and loss against the nightmare backdrop of circumstances largely beyond our control. Emmas cousin, before his death, is reading Schopenhauer, and the quote de Kat excerpts suggests a tragic balance between destiny and free will: Fate shuffles the cards, and we play.

Julia M. Klein, the Forwards contributing book critic, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circles Nona Balakian Citation For Excellence In Reviewing. Follow her on Twitter, @JuliaMKlein

Excerpt from:

WWII Survivor Facing Euthanasia Relives Her Life - Forward

At 19 years, I knew statistically it would be soon. One evening we returned home from dinner to find our beloved male, Oedipus, could not move his back legs. He had jumped from a chair excited to eat three hours prior. I knew time was short, so I made an appointment for euthanasia the next day. I took both cats to the vet.

In the vet's office, I placed Oedipus on the table and let his sister, Phaedra, out of the cage to join him. She jumped up with him and inspected him thoroughly. When she lost interest, I placed her back in her cage.

After the vet euthanized Oedipus and we were sure he was gone, I let Phaedra out of the cage to be with him again. She checked him out thoroughly and eventually lost interest again; I put her back in her cage, and we departed.

Her grieving process was very short. She looked everywhere in the house, then adopted his position as primary lap cat. The difference in the grieving process with Phaedra seeing that Oedipus was gone was remarkable. I know in my heart that her being able to know he was dead and not suddenly just gone helped her.

I recommend allowing surviving pets to see the deceased, acknowledge the change in being and grieve gently, instead of fretting about the disappearance and fearing the same unknown will happen to them. I hope this information helps some people with the future loss of their pets.A.A.R., Naples, Fla.

Dear A.A.R.: Your observations and suggestions are important for all cat owners to consider, beginning with adding another cat to the home if you have only one. The essential steps to take to introduce a new cat are posted on my website, http://www.DrFoxVet.net.

I have also posted a long review on how animals grieve the loss of a loved one, human or non-human. As you note, some show little grief but may well benefit from having the opportunity to examine the deceased. Some cats will yowl loudly day and night after experiencing such loss, but others, like many people, seem to take it in stride. In my experience, cats will search the house more frequently when the companion animal is missing (for instance, at the vet's office or escaped outdoors for a while) than after they have been able to see the body of the deceased before removal from the home.

Dear Dr. Fox: It became apparent that it was time to put my 17-year-old cat down on New Year's Eve. Not able to stand "Kitten's" pain, I called around and found a vet who was willing to come to my home on New Year's Day. He claimed a shot right into Kitten's stomach was the best thing to do, and after the injection my family and I petted him for several minutes as he died. During this time, Kitten opened his eyes fearfully and gasped for airthen was gone. It didn't seem like a particularly painless way to go.

I would like your opinion on the least painful method of putting a cat or dog to sleep, as I have several other animals who will one day need to be put down.S.S., Herndon, Va.

Dear S.S.: I regret that you and your cat went through this experience, because this is not the best or usual way to euthanize a cat or dog.

Injecting the euthanasia solution into the abdominal cavity should be done only when a vein cannot be successfully injected, which usually ensures a smooth and quick unconsciousness and death from cardiac arrest. The abdominal injection process is slower, and the animal may struggle and gasp for air repeatedly.

In such instances where a limb or neck vein cannot be successfully injected, the best euthanasia protocol is to give an injection first into the thigh muscle of a strong sedative. This two-step procedure is the best way to help ensure a humane death. The next time around, request that the veterinarian who comes to your home follows this protocol.

Correction

In an earlier column concerning a dog's fear of being in a car, I suggested a veterinary prescription of Xanax (alprazolam). However, I included an incorrect dosage: Rather than giving the dog 0.5 grams, I recommend giving 0.5 milligrams. In addition, I want to add that you should never treat a companion animal with any of your own medications.

Send all mail to animaldocfox@gmail.com or to Dr. Michael Fox in care of Universal Uclick, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106. The volume of mail received prohibits personal replies, but questions and comments of general interest will be discussed in future columns. Visit Dr. Fox's website at http://www.drfoxvet.net

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Euthanasia: the challenging responsibility - INFORUM

PUEBLO -

A local group is calling for drastic change at Pueblo Animal Services.

"it's something at least to aim for. When you have the city of Los Angeles going 'no-kill,' I think the city of Pueblo can handle it as well," said Suzanne Morgan, whose worked with various animal rescues for years.

Members of Stand Up For Pueblo Animals say some of the concerns they've had for years about the shelter were recently made public after a Pueblo man tried to adopt a puppy from the shelter--and was told she was going to be put down because she failed their behavioral assessment.

"It's kind of well known in the rescue community about our shelter here. Happy really got the word out there and had a lot of people join up and take notice," said one of the group's members Helinda Edwards.

Pueblo Animal Services is standing by their assessment, though, saying in a statement Tuesday:

"The evaluation is one tool we use to see if the animal exhibits behavior indicating they may be a risk to the safety of the community."

They go on to say:

"If a dog doesnt pass the evaluation, we may contact a partnering shelter with a behavior modification program to see if they are willing and able to accept the dog."

Which is exactly what eventually happened with Happy, who has since been adopted by the man who fought to keep her alive.

"Happy of course was the lucky one," said Morgan.

"There's many more in Pueblo that aren't so lucky," she added.

News5 pulled 2015 statistics from all of the Colorado shelters and found that four of the state's five shelters with the largest K9 intake numbers--including Pueblo Animal Services--also had the largest K9 euthanasia numbers.

But Pueblo Animal Services' euthanasia rate was considerably higher than the other shelters, at 27%.

This past year, it dropped to 22%. Morgan says that's still way too high.

"These peoplethink that they're going to put their animal in to get them 're-homed'--only 3/4 of them do. The rest of them are dead. And that's just wrong," she said.

Her concerns have already caught the city's attention, though.

"We did ask for the city manager to have the administration come to council and hear their side of the story and put out some questions and get some answers," City Council President Steve Nawrocki explained.

That meeting will likely happen sometime early June.

We'll keep you updated.

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Pueblo animal shelter under fire for high euthanasia rate - KOAA.com Colorado Springs and Pueblo News