Category Archives: Euthanasia

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Our species is conditioned for survival and our societies are organized to govern how we live and to facilitate how we can all live well together.

Our medical system, our vaccines and the global response to the pandemic are built around the same instinct to protect and prolong individual lives. So it can feel jarring, and counterintuitive, to ask: What obligation does the government have in ensuring an individuals right to die?

Around the world, people facing a loss of autonomy, dignity and quality of life have the opportunity to set the date of their own deaths through voluntary euthanasia or assisted suicide. But this choice is only legally available in a few countries, including Belgium, Luxembourg, Canada and Colombia.

Additionally, only a handful of American states allow doctors to help patients who meet well-defined criteria and are on the threshold of dying choose when and how to end their lives. The laws are modeled after the first Death With Dignity Act, passed in Oregon in 1997.

Catholic organizations, anti-abortion advocates and some disability groups continue to oppose aid in dying. The California Catholic Conference, the churchs public policy organization, for example, argued in June that liberalizing the states law puts patients at risk of abuse and the early and unwillful termination of life.

But polls regularly show broad public support for euthanasia. In 2020, Gallup found that 74 percent of respondents agreed that doctors should be allowed to end patients lives by some painless means if they and their families request it.

This week, we told the story of Marieke Vervoort, a Paralympic medalist from Belgium who chose when and how she would die. In doing so, we hoped to reveal the personal implications of a highly personal debate. Below, we share a note from Lynsey Addario, the photographer who spent almost three years reporting on Vervoort.

I have been a conflict and humanitarian photographer for 20 years, which means I have met people at their most vulnerable moments. Somehow I have to photograph them in ways that are compelling to viewers, but sensitive to the subjects.

The moments I capture exist forever as photographs, and the publication of this trauma has an effect on the subjects and on their loved ones and their feelings about me, the photographer. I dont often spend more than a few hours, days or weeks with someone I am shooting, and I rarely get the opportunity to see the person again once the assignment is complete.

But with Marieke, an initial three-day assignment turned into a three-year friendship, one in which I continuously struggled with my role as an objective observer, especially as I grew to love and admire a friend who was choosing to die according to her own timeline.

Marieke had this unique ability to love the people in her life as passionately as she pined for her death whenever her pain seemed to take over her life. She believed that the public needed to see and feel her pain in order to understand the importance of ones right to euthanasia to choose exactly when and how she would end her life. Marieke was uniquely articulate and honest about the complexities of how and why she believed in her right to die on her own terms, and she wanted me to tell that story. In the process, she asked and allowed me to photograph moments that made her loved ones uncomfortable.

I will always be conflicted about whether I should have deferred to her wishes or her parents wishes in her final moments and in her death. I got to know her parents over the years, and as a mother of two children, I couldnt fathom how they had the strength, generosity and courage to let their daughter go.

What I will remember about Marieke are the details I couldnt capture with images alone. So much about Marieke was in her laughter and her tears, her jokes and her pain things that are difficult to convey in a still image. A lot of our time together was spent joking around, until she would disappear into fits of pain so powerful she had seizures, and she would fall into unconsciousness for hours sometimes days.

I wanted to share our audio interviews and voice messages to tell a more complete, more nuanced version of Mariekes journey in a way still photographs simply cannot.

This podcast is unusual in a number of ways it aired more than two years after her death, and unlike most Times stories, it isnt pegged to a specific news event. But I believe Mariekes unflinching honesty offers incredible insight into the process of euthanasia something she trusted me to convey. She wanted this to be published and I wanted to do right by her wishes. I also hoped it would provide insight into how photojournalists work, what we have to do in order to properly convey the intimate human stories we have the privilege to witness.

We have a new show coming out. Its about a mysterious letter, detailing a supposed Islamist plot to take over schools, that shocked Britain in 2014. The scandal resulted in new national policies, multiple investigations, banned educators and revamped schools. But despite all of the chaos the letter caused, it remained strangely unclear who wrote it.

When Brian Reed, of the hit podcast S-Town, and Hamza Syed, a doctor-turned-reporter from Birmingham, England, tried to uncover the authors identity, the investigation became bigger than they ever imagined. From Serial Productions and The New York Times comes The Trojan Horse Affair, a mystery told in eight parts. You can listen to the trailer now and the entire show will be out next Thursday, Feb. 3.

Link:

The Right to Die - The New York Times

From open-heart surgery on a snake to putting your dog through chemotherapy, there have never been so many options to treat unwell pets. But vets are warning that too many owners are spending huge amounts of money on keeping their pets alive, even when its not always the most humane option.

Channel 4s Supervet and news stories such as Goldie the pufferfishs tooth surgery are making pet owners aware of the increasingly advanced and complex surgical and medical procedures that pets can undergo.

While veterinary science has made impressive advances in recent years, allowing many pets to be healthier for longer, vets say extending an animals life at all costs is not always the best option for them, and can result in bills of thousands of pounds for their owners.

Danny Chambers, a vet in Hampshire who runs a phone-in on BBC Radio Devon, said: There are some situations where for the welfare of the animal, euthanasia would be appropriate to end the suffering. If youre going to put them through quite complex surgery which has many months recovery time with complications, there is an ethical discussion to be had around that.

Chambers cited the example of a person undergoing chemotherapy. Although it is a long and painful process, humans are able to rationalise suffering as a means to get better, or to enable them to spend time with family or to do things theyve dreamed of. Animals dont have a desire to live a long life, they dont want to make it to Christmas or someones birthday or to be 10 years older. They just want to be happy day by day.

He said most vets were able to give a list of three to five options for treatment plans, and owners should not feel as if they have to choose the most expensive one if they cant afford it, especially since it wont always be best for the animals welfare.

I hope people dont feel guilty for not being wealthy enough to try these advanced procedures when the reality is that dogs are quite happy when given the best treatment you can afford.

Andrew Knight, a veterinary professor at the University of Winchester, said part of the reason for higher expectations from owners was that they are increasingly viewing their animals as important members of their households and families.

He added that as people were treated for free on the NHS, they often did not understand the costs of some of the most advanced medical and surgical procedures, especially without pet insurance. These can be unexpectedly expensive, even though they constitute very good value, compared to the costs of medical care for people.

Sean McCormack, a vet in Surrey who writes a newspaper advice column, said that where previously people would consider complex treatments only for pets such as dogs and cats, he was seeing an increase in demand from people who had developed a close emotional bond with more unusual pets such as turtles, rabbits and snakes.

He has removed tumours from fish, done open-heart surgery on a snake, spayed a gecko, removed a bladder stone from an iguana and pinned, plated and fixed broken wings on birds.

Readers who replied to a Guardian callout shared their stories of complex surgeries for their pets, and the thousands of pounds they had spent, with many considering it worth it to keep their beloved animals alive.

Lisa Kucyk, from Swansea, estimated veterinary bills for her dog Nambo at up to 20,000. He had four operations on problems with his legs, including damage to his cruciate ligament, patella and cartilage, before he was diagnosed with degenerative myelopathy, the canine equivalent of motor neurone disease. He now has weekly physiotherapy, acupuncture and laser therapy.

Kucyk said she had bought the highest insurance coverage available for Nambo at the time, but still had to dip into savings to cover his final two operations, at 3,000 each.

Nambo is now paralysed, and Kucyk is able to keep him alive while she works from home, but she knows her physio will tell her when his quality of life has deteriorated to the point he needs to be euthanised.

Kucyk said the bills and care were worth it: Hes a member of our family, and to be honest I prefer my dog over most people. Hes everything to me.

Justine Shotton, the president of the British Veterinary Association, said owners should be assured that vets always conduct a quality-of-life assessment and will advise on health and welfare impact and the costs involved.

She said: In some cases, they may recommend that euthanasia is in the best interests of an animal if their quality of life is low, or if a treatment option may cause them a lot of pain and suffering or carry low chances of success. These are very difficult conversations, which take an emotional toll on all involved.

Read more:

Too many pets kept alive when its not the kindest option, say vets - The Guardian

Well, well, well, that didnt take long, did it?

Spain legalised euthanasia on June 25 last year and already transplant surgeons are using organs from euthanised patients. According to a report in the Spanish magazine Redaccon Mdica, 7 patients donated their organs even though the government has still not release national guidelines for such procedures.

Why the rush?

The head of Spains National Transplant Organization (ONT), Beatriz Domnguez-Gil, said that the ONT intuited [sic] that some euthanasia patients would like to donate their organs. It quickly drafted some guidelines for transplant coordinators so that euthanasia donation could be normalised throughout the country.

Every case has to be treated very delicately, says Sra Domnguez-Gil. If a euthanasia patient wants to donate, he has to do it in a hospital setting, and not at home.

She emphasized that the decision to donate and to provide aid in dying must be independent. Totally independent professionals participate. The provision of aid in dying is channeled and then the donation is considered, she says.

No official figures have been released, but the ABC, a national newspaper estimated that about 50 people had been euthanised in 2021. To have persuaded 7 out of those 50 to donate their organs 14% is an amazing achievement.

Read the rest here:

7 Spaniards who were euthanised last year donated their organs - BioEdge

Published: 1/27/2022 2:40:04 PM

Modified: 1/27/2022 2:38:47 PM

Sen. Jo Comerford got it right, Dr. Mark Rollos comments in a Jan. 15 letter are misleading (Wishes Comerford would drop fight for physician-assisted suicide).

As family physicians in this community who have cared for patients in all phases of life, and who have a long history of support for racial and class equity, we are taken aback by Dr. Rollos misleading tactics to try and prevent the passage of the End of Life Options Act, which would legalize Medical Aid in Dying (MAID) in Massachusetts.

To avoid honestly stating his own personal stance against MAID, Dr. Rollo cherry picks and references long outdated polls from small sections of Massachusetts to advance the ridiculous idea that MAID represents an effort of wealthy white authorities to inflict some sort of fantasmagorical set of atrocities upon the poor.

Yes, we believe that disadvantaged people of all races should have the right to choose MAID, if they so wish. We do not believe Dr. Rollo represents the views of any particular portion of the diverse Massachusetts public. We find Dr. Rollos reference the Nazi euthanasia program (as a means of attacking the Death with Dignity Act) to be not merely offensive, but egregiously mendacious . As a child whose parents were both Holocaust survivors, Dr. Berkowitz is only willing to support MAID (End of Life Options Act) because of the stringent safeguards in place in the Massachusetts bill.

Dr. Rollo states, it was not the Nazis who taught the doctors how to kill; it was the other way around. The Jewish Virtual Library notes on their pages regarding Nazi murder, that the term euthanasia reflects the Nazi penchant for euphemism and that there was no intent to provide mercy for those suffering from painful terminal conditions, but rather, the killing program reflected the philosophy of racial purity eugenics was the philosophical cornerstone of Nazi doctrine. The initial orders to begin the Nazi T-4 (euthanasia) program was given to Dr. Karl Brandt by Adolf Hitler in 1939. Nazi doctors were following proverbial orders.

In short, Dr. Rollo is either quite misinformed or purposely spreading overtly false information because he is personally against MAID. It must be noted that no victim of the Nazi T-4/euthanasia program every requested death. The Nazis, as any student of history knows, used the T-4 program to develop their system of gas chambers disguised as shower rooms. People were deceptively murdered in line with violent Nazi policies toward all people who had no place in their eugenic utopia. This program never had a medical foundation, but used medical jargon as a front for racist murder.

Please refrain from distracting hyperbole when discussing these issues, and allow people to have the option to make their own personal, voluntary choices. Lets be perfectly clear about what MAID is: It is about rational, mentally clear individuals with a terminal illness who want to have a choice to end their own suffering and pain on their own terms.

As in other states where MAID has been legalized, we do not expect this option to be frequently used by our patients. We simply want the choice to be available for our patients when appropriate.

Dr. Shelly Berkowitz lives in Northampton and Dr. Kate Atkinson lives in Amherst.

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My Turn: Doctors support End of Life Options Act - The Recorder

Meg Brew| UF/IFAS, Lake County Extension

As residents of Lake County, we share our habitat with the Florida black bear (Ursus americanus floridansus), the only species of bear found in Florida. Once considered a threatened species, the black bear is now thriving with an estimated populated of more than 4,000 bears (as of 2018).

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Compared to their more fearsome cousins, like the Grizzly, the Florida black bear is not considered an especially aggressive animal. However, when they become food conditioned and lose their sense of fear, the potential for human-bear conflict is far more likely.

Like us, black bears are omnivorous. Their natural diets are largely plant-based with 80 percentof their daily meals being comprised of nuts, berries, and acorns. They will readily consume insects such as termites, ants, and grubs to the tune of 15 percentof their diet and make up the remaining 5 percentby scavenging for the carrion of small mammals like opossums.

These healthy eaters also have very healthy appetites, with adult males consuming up to 20,000 calories per day (thats 10times what the average adult human requires). In order to satisfy their hunger, bears are equipped with an excellent sense of smell and are able to sniff out a meal from up to a mile away.

This need to feed is what brings otherwise shy bears into close contact with humans, and this close contact can lead to conflict.

Human homes often feature a high-calorie smorgasbord of easily accessible food: trash cans fullof fragrant rotting garbage, barbecue grills plastered with the residue of recently grilled meat, yards full of fruit trees ripe for the picking, cat food bowls filled to the brim, and birdseed in feeders just waiting to be raided.

These temptations draw bears in and keep them in close proximity to neighborhoods. The promise of an all-you-can-eat buffet eventually becomes more compelling than their innate desire to avoid humans.

Bears and humans are both growing in population, leading to an inevitable increase in the number of human-bear conflicts.As residents of bear country, we have an important role to play in preventing these conflicts.

By eliminating, or at least minimizing, negative interactions with bears we can enjoy safer neighborhoods while at the same time knowing that bears will be less likely to face euthanasia because of losing their fear of humans and becoming aggressive in their pursuit of food.

Purchasing, and using, a bear-resistant trash can is a good way to prevent bears from accessing your refuse. Ideally, your cans should be stored in a closed garage or other secure structure until the morning of pickup.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission has instructions on how you can retrofit your existing trashcan to become more bear resistant https://myfwc.com/media/20202/combined-retrofit-kit-directions.pdf.

Everyone loves a good BBQ, including bears. After you grill out, or use a smoker, be sure to thoroughly clean your grill/smoker and store it in a secure area where a bear cannot help himself to leftovers.

If you enjoy feeding birds, take care to assure that birds are all you are feeding by hanging feeders at least 10 feet off the ground and fourfeet from any attachment points. Use a catch pan to capture waste seed and only put out enough seed to last a single day, bringing in the feeder at night.

Of course, bird seed is not the only animal feed that attracts bears they will readily help themselves to pet and livestock feed if available. When feeding your animals, only put out enough feed for a single day, bring in leftovers, and dont leave feed out overnight. Store feed inside if possible, and in airtight containers to keep the smell from attracting a would-be bear burglar.

By taking these simple steps we can help to keep bears wild, and our neighborhoods safe. For more information on being bear aware please visit https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/UW389 from which this article was adapted. To report problem bears in your neighborhood, please contact the FWC at 352-732-1225.

UF/IFAS Lake County Extension is open regular business hours8 a.m. to5 p.m. Monday through Friday or visit us online anytime at sfyl.ifas.uf.edu/lake and follow UF/IFAS Lake County Extension on Facebook. Our Gardens are 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the same days, as well as the 3rd Saturday of every month.

An Equal Opportunity Institution. UF/IFAS Extension, University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, Andra Johnson, Dean for UF/IFAS Extension.

Single copies of UF/IFAS Extension publications (excluding 4-H and youth publications) are available free to Florida residents from county UF/IFAS Extension offices

Excerpt from:

From the Extension: Be mindful of your neighbors the bears - Daily Commercial

Bishop David A. Zubik

Some of you may remember Father Patrick Rager, a priest of our diocese ordained May11, 1985. Not long after his ordination, Paddy (as he was affectionately called by his family) was diagnosed with a very rare form of ALS, better known as Lou Gehrigs Disease.

For over twenty-five years of his priestly life, until his passing on July20, 2010, Father Ragers disease robbed him of almost every activity associated with a normal day of life: walking, running, eating, touching, speaking and, in his case, some might even say priesting. Father Rager was confined to bed in his moms home, paralyzed from his neck to the tips of his toes. His only means of communication were his eyes and his smile. Father Paddy was at the very least a marveland many of us believe him to be a saint.

Because of the ALS, he was not able to celebrate Mass, preach a homily or offer the sacraments. Yet, he still communicated Gods gracethrough his radiant smiling eyes. Some in our culture might claim he was useless. Nothing could be further from the truth! He helped others who struggled with disabilities. He helped me grow in holiness. He did so with a deep Christ-like presence, evident in his gentle and discerning eyes.

What a sharp contrast his life is to the main character in a 1970s playlater a movieentitled Whose Life Is It, Anyway? The storyline focused on a promising sculptor paralyzed from the neck down following a car accident. Both the movie and the play became a forum in support of euthanasia. They advanced the idea that the sculptor was trapped in a useless body and should have the right to say whether he should live or die.

What an interesting contrast with Father Rager; between a life lived in joy and compassion, and a life abandoned to despair and deemed useless.

This past week, we marked the 49th anniversary of the 1973 Supreme Court decision, Roe vs. Wade. Whether physically present at the March for Life in Washington or prayerfully standing witness near home in one of our parishes, we had the chance to promote the joy that Father Rager knew. We stood for embracing the gift of life, and against a culture of death.

What value does our society place on human life? What value do we as daughters and sons of God place on human life? Once God is taken out of the equation as the Creator of human life, eliminating the truth that all life is sacred and in Gods hands, the question remains, Whose life is it, anyway?

Many in the secular world fumble for an answer or evade the question by claiming falsely that there is no answer. Biology alone should tell them that, from the moment of conception, each unborn child is a unique individual, genetically different from either parent, part of no one elses body. Our duty is to assist and protect both mother and child, before and after birth.

As I share this reflection, there are roughly 2,800 abortions a day in the United States, with about 22% of all pregnancies ending in abortion. There are strong political efforts to force the participation of medical personnel who have deep concerns of conscience over abortion, and to force you and me to pay for abortions with our taxes.

Several states have legalized physician-assisted suicide. Society cant figure out under what conditions we can give water to a dying person. Conventional wisdom has decided that any means to prevent birth is good. It is not! Capital punishment remains an acceptable option for doing away with criminals. It is not! These are ways our society has legally approved the culture of death.

When a culture denies God as Creator, life is reduced to a functionto what a person can do, not who they are. The horrific result allows those with power to decide who lives and who dies.

This kind of thinking shrinks in the face of Jesus own words: I came that they might have life, and have it more abundantly (John 10:10).

As the movie Whose Life Is It, Anyway? is ending and the court gives the sculptor the option to kill himself, the camera pans to an overhead shot. It creates the illusion that the sculptor is in the hand of a statue representing God. While it might be clever cinematography, it advances a profound contradiction to the movies premise. God is the Creator of all Life. Our lives are in His hands, not our own.

That image of the statue takes on true meaning when we envision it enfolding the beauty and integrity of Father Ragers lifeas well as your life and mine. Created in the image and likeness of God, our lives belong to God, not to ourselves. Embracing that truth, we arrive at a true answer to the question: Whose life is it, anyway?

If our life belongs to God, then the value of our life can never be owned or determined by any human beingnot by a president, not by a physician, not even by ourselves. The value of a human life cannot be snuffed out by abortion or euthanasia nor by capital punishment. The value of a human life cannot be diminished by any ideology. Nor can it be redefined by any attempt to play god instead of acknowledging that God is the Creator of all Life.

Life is sacred because it comes from Godthe Giver of Life. Whose life is it, anyway?

It is Gods!

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Bridging the Gap: Whos life is it, anyway - Pittsburgh Catholic

Beavers and their dams can positively impact essentially any environment theyre placed in, even the scorching heat of the Moab Desert in Utah. And thats what a university researcher has achieved.

Looking for solutions to drought and wildfires, a Utah State University student began relocating problem beavers captured in other parts of the state into small, struggling waterways around the Price and San Rafael rivers.

Desert hydrology is delicate and fascinating. With far less rain than temperate ecosystems, many remain dry, or small trickles for large parts of the year before coming alive during short rainy periods. Decades of pollution and agricultural runoff means that many of Utahs small delicate waterways are heavily degraded.

Studies have shown that beaver dams can vastly improve the quality of wetlands and streams leading to better animal life and improved river health. It was for this service that the ecosystem engineer was targeted by Emma Doden as a potential rescuer, even if the idea of beavers in the desert raised a few eyebrows.

Working by the Price and San Rafael rivers that run through some of eastern Utahs driest areas, Doden specializes in passive river restoration, which means there is no help from homo sapiens.

We believed the system could support a lot more beavers, Doden told the BBC, and we wanted to supplement it with translocated beavers.

The translocated beavers would have been euthanized, so the project also gives the animals a second chance after invading urban areas.

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Beaver dams are gaining popularity as a low-tech, low-cost strategy to build climate resiliency at the landscape scale, says one study investigating beaver dams effectiveness at protecting against wildfires. They slow and store water that can be accessed by riparian vegetation during dry periods, effectively protecting riparian ecosystems from droughts.

Another study found that the ponds which are created on the dammed side of the beaver lodges can store huge amounts of sediment, then distribute it more safely around the river ecosystem.

This is the case, the study found, both in entirely wild areas with no human alterations and those adjacent to intense agricultural regions, meaning that no matter the conditions of sedimentation, beaver dams can help keep waterways clearer.

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Sediment runoff from intense agriculture can result in heavily degraded waterways, and even degraded ocean ecosystems as the sediment reduces light, chokes coral, and causes toxic algae blooms.

Dodens university has a program for catching problem beavers and relocating them to the desert, where they will build dams to provide these benefits.

The ultimate goal is to get them to build dams, she said. The dams are what are going to increase habitat complexity and restore water.

In the dam-building seasons of 2019, 2020, and 2021, Doden and her team released more than 50 beavers into the area, some of which moved off downstream sometimes as far as 12 miles to build their dams.

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Bill Thomas Hamilton wrote about trappingin Utah in My Sixty Years on the Plains, and how the rivers were plentiful with beaver, such that it would take 8 months to trap out an area.

Currently, little research exists, Doden says, on dam-building and river restoration in desert environments. But if research in other biomes is any indication, the project should be a resounding success, as millions of beavers used to lodge on Utahs rivers.

SHARE The Fascinating Eco-Restoration Story on Your Dam Social Media,,,

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Beavers Saved From Euthanasia Transform and Replenish Rivers in the Utah Desert - Good News Network

Cardinal Blase J. Cupich will be a guest speaker at the March for Life Chicago Rally on Saturday, Jan. 8, 2022 at 1 p.m.

Chicago, (Jan. 6, 2022) The Archdiocese of Chicago will participate in local events in January commemorating the March for Life, an annual pro-life gathering in Washington, D.C., occurring on the anniversary of the 1973 Roe v. Wade court decision legalizing abortion. The Archdiocese of Chicagos Respect Life Ministry is a sponsor of March for Life Chicago.

When a child is born, our lives are enriched and our human family benefits from this great gift of life and the contributions and talents we dream and pray a child will bring to our world, said Cardinal Cupich. Then, quoting the papal nuncio, Archbishop Christophe Pierre, Cardinal Cupich continued, The Church must be unapologetically pro-life. We cannot abandon our defense of innocent human life or the vulnerable person. Yet, (we also need) to understand better why people seek to end pregnancies; what are the root causes of choices against life and what are the factors that make those choices so complicated for some; and, to begin to form a consensus with concrete strategies to build the culture of life and the civilization of love.

Pilgrims from the Archdiocese of Chicago will join Catholics from dioceses across the country at the National March for Life Pilgrimage from Thursday, Jan. 20 Sunday, Jan. 23 at the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

The archdioceses Respect Life Ministry promotes the dignity and protection of human life through programs, education, pastoral care and advocacy. Programs focus on many topics, including protection of the unborn, euthanasia and assisted suicide. For more information about Respect Life events, please visit https://pvm.archchicago.org/human-dignity-solidarity/respect-life-chastity-education/events.

Originally posted here:

The Archdiocese of Chicago to Participate in Local Respect Life Events throughout January - archchicago.org

Served as a giant of the pro-life movement for nearly 40 years

PROSPECT HEIGHTS After serving as the director of pro-life activities for the New York State Catholic Conference (NYSCC) for almost four decades, Kathleen M. Gallagher is retiring at the end of January.

No one in New York State, or across the country, has done more to advocate on behalf of all human life from conception until natural death than Kathy Gallagher, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York and president of the NYSCC, said in a statement.

He thanked Gallagher for her service in the organization that represents the states bishops in areas of government and public policy and called her a giant of the pro-life movement who fought for the most vulnerable.

In that time, she has not only represented the New York State bishops, but has been a national leader in the pro-life movement, advocating against abortion, capital punishment, and euthanasia, and in favor of supports for pregnant women in need and people near the end of life, Cardinal Dolan added.

Even in Gallaghers retirement, Cardinal Dolan said she will still serve as a consultant to the NYSCC: God knows we need her voice.

A Long Island native, Gallagher graduated from the New York Institute of Technology and joined the NYSCC in 1984 after a brief stint working in the New York Legislature. At that time, she served as the organizations pro-life lobbyist and spokesperson. Her initiatives helped spearhead pro-life advocacy groups including New Yorkers for Life and the New York Alliance Against Assisted Suicide.

She has received the Diocesan Pro-Vita Award from the dioceses of Brooklyn, Rockville Centre, and Buffalo, and the Bishop Broderick Award from the Diocese of Albany.

I am grateful to Cardinal Dolan and the bishops for allowing me to represent them for so long, Gallagher said, and blessed beyond measure to have received a salary to advocate for moral principles in which I deeply believe.

In addition to being an outspoken advocate for pro-life policies regarding abortion, the death penalty, and assisted suicide, Gallaghers efforts have resulted in several state-approved programs including the Prenatal Care Assistance Program that serves low-income mothers and their children; the continuation of the state-funded abortion alternatives; and the Health Care Proxy Law that allowed competent adults to appoint agents who can help decide health care options in the event they become unable to decide for themselves.

Pro-life work is not an easy vocation, but Kathy never lost faith, said NYSCC Executive Director Dennis Poust. She has continued to put all of her passion into her work to implement policies that protect human life in the law and to convert hearts toward a culture of Life.

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Kathleen Gallagher to Retire as NYSCC Pro-Life Activities Director - The Tablet Catholic Newspaper

Cat-Themed NFT Play-to-Earn (P2E) Game Nyan Heroes Aims to Save 1 Billion Cats from Euthanasia in Animal Shelters Across the United States

Nyan Heroes is an upcoming NFT battle royal shooter style game built on the Solana blockchain that will allow players to compete against each other using NFTs depicting animated cats which are used to pilot mechanical robot NFTs in the game.

The US-based project has been in development since October and the game is slated for release in Q4 2022. Its first NFT drop is currently available for hodling and trading in markets such as Fractal.

According to data from Solana Art, Nyan Heroes is the fourth NFT project on Solana in terms of seven-day volume and market cap, at $ 279,000 and $ 18.2 million, respectively.

In an interview with TBEN, Nyan Heroes co-founder and Australian Wendy Huang described the companys charitable vision for the future, as well as an overview of the game to come.

Huang has been involved in crypto since 2016 and has also built a successful career as a creator of content ranging from vlogs to DIY videos, pranks and music and has amassed nearly 14 million subscribers on YouTube.

Huang said that she and her co-founder Max Fu, love for cats was a key factor behind linking animal-focused charity work to Nyan Heroes. She said they had an ambitious goal of saving 1 billion cats from euthanasia in animal shelters via charitable donations generated by a portion of the projects NFT sales.

Nyan Heroes revealed his first efforts in this area on December 24, when he announced a donation of $ 250,000 from the proceeds of his first NFT drop to the non-profit Best Friends Society. It was one of the proudest moments I have had on this project, she said.

The Best Friends Society provides a no-kill sanctuary for orphaned animals and also prevents the deaths of cats and dogs at shelters across the United States through its charitable work. The group estimates that its no kill movement has helped reduce the number of cat and dog deaths in animal shelters from 17 million per year to around 347,000.

Huang revealed that the game project will launch a DAO that will give its members the right to vote on the future allocation of Nyan Heroes donations.

Were going to create a young DAO hero. And part of those DAO responsibilities will be deciding where to donate funds, to which animal shelter, and to what causes in that particular area. she said.

Related: A game to win organizes a Christmas charity campaign for the Ol Pejeta Conservancy

Huang pointed out that a major sticking point for P2E blockchain games is sustainability over a long period of time. She said that many P2E games depend on a continuous flow of new users to stay profitable and suffer as players continually cash in and withdraw value from the game.

We dont know how many players will enter the economy. So we have to realize that building a game is not just about the game, but also the economic system and the sustainability of everything, she said.

Huang said that Nyan Heroes sustainability model relies on several factors, such as the introduction of a stablecoin into the game to reduce the volatility of its assets, rewards for wagering on NFTs, and a triple A gaming experience. similar to Fortnite which has historically attracted gamers who want to spend money on the game:

The way we approach it is to deliver a better game where users will actually want to play the game and inject value into the system to balance the players who enter the ecosystem for value.

We keep the in-game token stable so that the value of your in-game items doesnt get stuck and burn. And we think thats what players need to want to stick with a game. You dont want your in-game items to be worth $ 1,000 one day and then $ 10 the next, she added.

Link:

P2E game Nyan Heroes aims to save 1 billion protected cats - The bharat express news