Scientist who discovered Ebola says he'd happily sit next to infected person on the train

Ninemsn - AFP, July 31, 2014

A nurse sprays preventives to disinfect the waiting area for visitors at the ELWA
Hospital during an outbreak of the Ebola virus in Monrovia, Liberia (AFP)

The scientist who helped discover the Ebola virus said the outbreak in west Africa was unlikely to trigger a major epidemic outside the region, adding he would happily sit next to an infected person on a train.

But Professor Peter Piot told AFP that a "really bad" sense of panic and lack of trust in the authorities in west Africa had contributed to the world's largest-ever outbreak.

The Belgian scientist, now based in Britain, urged officials to test experimental vaccines on people with the virus so that when it inevitably returns, the world is prepared.

Since March, there have been 1,201 cases of Ebola and 672 deaths in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has warned that the crisis is set to get worse and that there is no overarching strategy to handle the crisis.

Piot co-discovered the Ebola virus as a 27-year-old researcher in 1976.

He is now director of the prestigious London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and was previously executive director of the United Nations' HIV/AIDS program UNAIDS.

Even if someone carrying Ebola were to fly to Europe, the United States or another part of Africa, "I don't think that will give rise to a major epidemic," he told AFP.

"Spreading in the population here, I'm not that worried about it," he said.

"I wouldn't be worried to sit next to someone with Ebola virus on the Tube as long as they don't vomit on you or something. This is an infection that requires very close contact."

His insights are born of deep experience in the field, highlighted by his impressive CV and the mementos from around the world that dot his office in London.

Piot helped identify Ebola when the laboratory where he was working in Antwerp was sent a blood sample from a Catholic nun who had died in what was then Zaire and is now DR Congo.

From the blood, they isolated a new virus which was later confirmed to be Ebola.

He later went to Yambuku, a village in Zaire's Equateur province, where an epidemic had taken hold.

"People were devastated because in some villages, one in 10, one in eight people could die from Ebola," he said.

"I was scared but I was 27 so you think you are invincible."

Researchers noticed most of the infections were among women aged between 20 and 30 and clustered around a clinic where they went for pre-natal consultations.

It turned out that the virus was being transmitted through a handful of needles which were being reused to give injections to pregnant women.

There were also a string of outbreaks linked to funerals.

"Like in any culture, someone who dies is washed, the body is laid out but you do this with bare hands, without gloves. Someone who died from Ebola, that person is covered with virus because of vomitus, diarrhoea, blood," he said.

"That's how then you get new outbreaks and the same thing is happening now in west Africa."

He said recent history in Liberia and Sierra Leone was complicating efforts to tackle the deadly virus, which kills as many as nine-tenths of the people it infects.

"Let's not forget that these countries are coming out of decades of civil war," he said.

"Liberia and Sierra Leone are now trying to reconstruct themselves so there is a total lack of trust in authorities, and that combined with poverty and very poor health services I think is the explanation why we have this extensive outbreak now."

Staff are also often poorly equipped with no protective gear or gloves, he added.

While there are a couple of experimental Ebola vaccines and treatments which have shown promising results in animals, these need to be tested on people, he added.

"I think that the time is now, at least in capitals, to offer this kind of treatment for compassionate use but also to find out if it works so that for the next epidemic, we are ready," he said.

"It is quite clear that new viruses will emerge all the time and Ebola will come again -- hopefully not to this extent."

Related Article:

WHO Launching $100 Million Plan to Combat Ebola

'Hundreds of Dutch Moroccans involved in gangland killings'

DutchNews.nl, Thursday 31 July 2014

(NOS/ANP)

Hundreds of Dutch Moroccan youths are involved in at least six gangland killings in the Netherlands and Antwerp as well as a string of violent robberies, not just a few dozen as thought earlier, the Volkskrant reported on Thursday.

The group includes drugs dealers, gunmen and 'facilitators' who are all linked to each other and live in both the Netherlands and Morocco, the paper quotes Amsterdam detectives as saying.

The paper bases its claims on a police investigation into a string of gangland killings which began in 2012.

The robberies take place in the Netherlands and then the perpetrators move to Morocco which does not deport its nationals, the paper says. The money they earn through their crime spree is also taken out of the country.

Tangiers

Detectives claim between 25% and 33% of the new appartments under construction in Tangiers are funded with criminal proceeds.

Dutch detectives visit Morocco on a weekly basis as part of their investigations and have so far sequestrated property and other possessions totaling some €100m, the paper says.

The public prosecution department has now signed an agreement with the Moroccan authorities to make it easier to prosecute people suspected of crimes in the Netherlands under Moroccan law – with the exception of the death penalty.

Last week, Hamza B, suspected of a double shooting in Amsterdam in December 2012, became the first person to go on trial in Morocco under the new agreement. Two other suspects are being tried in the Netherlands.

The killing is said to be part of a dispute centering on 200 kilos of cocaine.

Related Article:

Mass DNA swap with Belgium may solve hundreds of crimes

Uganda activists launch court bid to overturn anti-gay law

Yahoo – AFP, Emmanuel Leroux-Nega, 30 July 2014

Ugandan human rights and gay rights activists attend a hearing at the
constitutional court in Kampala on July 30, 2014 (AFP)

Ugandan activists launched a petition Wednesday at the constitutional court seeking to overturn tough anti-gay laws that have been condemned by rights groups as draconian.

Signed by Uganda's veteran President Yoweri Museveni in February, the law calls for homosexuals to be jailed for life, outlaws the promotion of homosexuality and obliges Ugandans to denounce gays to the authorities.

But the activists argue that the law was passed in parliament without the necessary quorum of lawmakers.

The 10 petitioners -- including two Ugandan rights organisations -- also claim that the law violates the constitutional right to privacy and dignity, as well as the right to be free from discrimination, and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.

"I have a very good feeling about it," the group's lawyer Nicholas Opio said after the hearing in a crowded courtroom.

He said that if the judges decide the law was not correctly passed by parliament, "the entire act will collapse".

Rights groups say the law has triggered a sharp increase in arrests and assaults of members of the country's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community.

'Civilised' against 'barbarians'

Western nations have also made a raft of aid cuts to Uganda in protest since the law was passed.

But outspoken anti-gay preacher Pastor Martin Ssempa, who was in court, defended the law and warned against the "judicial abortion of our bill" due to international pressure.

"Our teachings find sodomy as being repugnant, and our members of parliament were right in passing this law," Ssempa said.

"It is really a question between the civilised and the barbarians."

US Secretary of State John Kerry has likened the Ugandan law to anti-Semitic legislation in Nazi Germany.

Washington last month froze some aid programmes, as well as cancelling military air exercises and barring entry to the US for specific Ugandan officials involved in "human rights abuses", including against the gay community.

The White House said the legislation "runs counter to universal human rights and complicates our bilateral relationship".

Opposition leader Kizza Besigye has accused the government of using the issue of homosexuality to divert attention from domestic problems such as corruption scandals or Kampala's military backing of South Sudan's government against rebel forces.

But homophobia is widespread in Uganda, where American-style evangelical Christianity is on the rise.

Gay men and women face frequent harassment and threats of violence.

With tabloid newspapers printing pictures of dozens of people alleged to be gay, scores have fled the country.

Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said in a joint report in May that Uganda's LGBT community had faced a "surge in human rights violations", with people being arrested, evicted or losing their jobs.

The report claimed at least one transgender person had been murdered since the law was passed.

Members of Uganda's gay community and gay rights activists react as the
 anti-gay law is declared null and void by the constitutional court. Photograph:
Isaac Kasamani/AFP/Getty Images

Related Articles:

Uganda anti-gay law declared 'null and void' by constitutional court - New

China court hears first gay 'conversion therapy' case

"The Akashic Circle" – Jul 17, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: Religion, The Humanization of God, Benevolent Design, DNA, Akashic Circle, (Old) Souls, Gaia, Indigenous People, Talents, Reincarnation, Genders, Gender Switches, In “between” Gender Change, Gender Confusion, Shift of Human Consciousness, Global Unity,..... etc.)  - (Text version)

“… Gender Switching

Old souls, let me tell you something. If you are old enough, and many of you are, you have been everything. Do you hear me? All of you. You have been both genders. All of you have been what I will call between genders, and that means that all of you have had gender switches. Do you know what happens when it's time for you to switch a gender? We have discussed it before. You'll have dozens of lifetimes as the same gender. You're used to it. It's comfortable. You cannot conceive of being anything else, yet now it's time to change. It takes approximately three lifetimes for you to get used to it, and in those three lifetimes, you will have what I call "gender confusion."

It isn't confusion at all. It's absolutely normal, yet society often will see it as abnormal. I'm sitting here telling you you've all been through it. All of you. That's what old souls do. It's part of the system. …”

Obama: World needs 'prosperous and self-reliant Africa'

Yahoo – AFP, Jérôme Cartillier, 28 July 2014

US President Barack Obama speaks during a "town hall" meeting at the Summit

 of the Washington Fellowship for the Young African Leaders Initiative in Washington,

DC on July 28, 2014 (AFP Photo/Mandel Ngan)

Washington (AFP) - US President Barack Obama kicked up a major outreach to Africa on Monday by urging youth leaders to build a "prosperous and self-reliant" future for the continent built on civil rights and the rule of law.

Speaking a week before almost all of Africa's leaders descend on Washington for a summit, Obama said the future stability of the world depends on progress on what is still the poorest continent.

"The security and prosperity and justice that we seek in the world cannot be achieved without a strong and prosperous and self-reliant Africa," Obama told 500 young Africa students and activists.

US President Barack Obama speaks

 during a "town hall" meeting at the 

Summit of the Washington
Fellowship for the Young African
Leaders Initiative in Washington,
DC on July 28, 2014 (AFP  Photo
/Mandel Ngan)

"Next week I'll host a truly historic event, the US-Africa Leaders Summit," he said. "It will be the largest gathering any American president has hosted with African heads of state and government."

Next week's meeting will attract 50 African leaders to Washington -- almost all of them, apart from pariah figures like Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe, Sudan's Omar al-Bashir and Eritrea's Issaias Afeworki.

The International Monetary Fund forecasts that the economies of sub-Saharan Africa will grow at an average of 5.4 percent this year and 5.8 the next, faster than the global average.

Many countries are growing from a low base, however, and others face population growth greater than their economic progress.

The United States, still the world's largest economy, is only Africa's third largest trade partner after the European Union -- some of whose members have post-colonial ties with African nations -- and China, which is hungry for the continent's natural resources.

Obama, born in the United States to a Kenyan father and American mother, is the first US president of part African descent, but has sometimes been accused of neglecting relations with the continent.

He announced the summit in June last year during his first major tour of African countries -- South Africa, Senegal and Tunisia -- a rare foray for a president who has focused on Asia and the Middle East.

Aside from the 2013 tour, Obama has made only two trips to sub-Saharan Africa during his presidency: one brief stopover in Ghana in July 2009 and a visit to South Africa for Nelson Mandela's funeral.

'Extraordinary potential'

This despite the fact that his 2008 election as America's first black president was greeted by many on the continent, and particularly in his father's native Kenya, as a great opportunity.

A woman reacts after asking US President Barack Obama a question during

 a "town hall" meeting at the Summit of the Washington Fellowship for the Young

 African Leaders Initiative in Washington, DC on July 28, 2014 (AFP Photo/
Mandel Ngan)

Asked by a member of the Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders what Africa can do, Obama stressed the importance of the "rule of law, of respect for civil rights and human rights."

Obama acknowledged that Washington was often forced to address "crises and challenges in other parts of the world that often dominate our headlines."

But he insisted that "we have to make sure that we're seizing the extraordinary potential of today's Africa, which is the youngest and fastest growing of the continents."

And he urged the young African future leaders to spurn corruption, respect women's rights -- including by ending the "barbaric" practice of female genital mutilation -- and building the rule of law.

"If you don't have a basic system of rule of law, of respect for civil rights and human rights, if you don't respect basic freedom of speech and freedom of assembly ... it is very rare for a country to succeed over the long term," he said. 

Related Articles:

"The End of History"- Nov 20, 2010 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll)

".. Africa

Let me tell you where else it's happening that you are unaware - that which is the beginning of the unity of the African states. Soon the continent will have what they never had before, and when that continent is healed and there is no AIDS and no major disease, they're going to want what you have. They're going to want houses and schools and an economy that works without corruption. They will be done with small-minded leaders who kill their populations for power in what has been called for generations "The History of Africa." Soon it will be the end of history in Africa, and a new continent will emerge.

Be aware that the strength may not come from the expected areas, for new leadership is brewing. There is so much land there and the population is so ready there, it will be one of the strongest economies on the planet within two generations plus 20 years. And it's going to happen because of a unifying idea put together by a few. These are the potentials of the planet, and the end of history as you know it.

In approximately 70 years, there will be a black man who leads this African continent into affluence and peace. He won't be a president, but rather a planner and a revolutionary economic thinker. He, and a strong woman with him, will implement the plan continent-wide. They will unite. This is the potential and this is the plan. Africa will arise out the ashes of centuries of disease and despair and create a viable economic force with workers who can create good products for the day. You think China is economically strong? China must do what it does, hobbled by the secrecy and bias of the old ways of its own history. As large as it is, it will have to eventually compete with Africa, a land of free thinkers and fast change. China will have a major competitor, one that doesn't have any cultural barriers to the advancement of the free Human spirit. …."

"The Timing of the Great Shift" – Mar 21, 2009 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

“ … The next one: You're going to heal a continent. Watch for it. It begins. Watch for major shift in Africa. We have said this before, even within the meetings I spoke in what you call the United Nations. Africa has never even been a potential player in the economic field, because it has been sick. What happens when you heal a continent? I'm going to tell you. Suddenly, the people on that continent also want what you have - government that works, peace, their own homes, schools, hospitals, and even banks where they can borrow from. They don't have any of those now, not really. Everything with substance is from somewhere else. That means you're going to have a continent that's going to arise that will become a major player on the stage of Earth's finances and political influence - an entire continent with all the resources on it, with even the potential for unification of common purpose, much like what you have now in your EU. I'm giving you information, and when it happens, again, I say you'll remember where you heard it.

Many years ago, the prevailing thought was that nobody should consider China as a viable player on the economic stage. They were backward, filled with a system that would never be westernized, and had no wish to become joined with the rest of the world's economic systems. Look what has happened in only 30 years. Now, look at Africa differently.. ...”

Sudan Christian woman spared death sentence arrives in Rome

Yahoo – AFP, 24 July 2014

File image shows Meriam Yahia Ibrahim Ishag (C), a Christian Sudanese woman

 sentenced to hang for apostasy, with husband (L), her newborn baby and
20-month-old son and members of the legal team at an undisclosed location
in Khartoum on June 23, 2014 (AFP)

A Sudanese Christian woman who was sentenced to death for renouncing Islam, then acquitted after intense international pressure on Khartoum, arrived on Thursday in Rome with her family en route to the United States.

Meriam Yahia Ibrahim Ishag was greeted on the tarmac by Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzo and his wife as well as Foreign Minister Lapo Pistelli.

"Today is a day of celebration", Renzi said.

A global outcry erupted in May after Ishag was sentenced under Sharia law to 100 lashings and then to hang for apostasy.

Days after her conviction, she gave birth to a second child in prison.

Ishag's conviction was overturned in June, but she was immediately rearrested while trying to leave Sudan using what prosecutors claimed were forged documents.

Two days later, Ishag was released from prison and she and her family -- including her American husband and two young children -- took refuge in the US embassy.

Ishag was born to a Muslim father who abandoned the family, and was raised by her Ethiopian Orthodox Christian mother, according to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Khartoum which said she joined the Catholic church shortly before she married.

Ishag was convicted under Islamic Sharia law that has been in force in Sudan since 1983 and outlaws conversions which are punishable by death.

Her case has raised questions of religious freedom and sparked an outcry from Western governments and human rights groups.

Sudanese Christian woman spared death sentence meets Pope Francis (AFP)

Related Article:

Sudanese Christian woman spared death sentence meets Pope Francis

Worldwide FGM ban sought at 'Girl Summit' in London

Yahoo – AFP, Danny Kemp, 22 July 2014

British Prime Minister David Cameron mets campaigners and activists at the

 'Girl Summit 2014' at Walworth Academy in south London on July 22, 2014

(AFP Photo/Will Oliver)

London (AFP) - British Prime Minister David Cameron called on Tuesday for a worldwide ban on female genital mutilation and child marriage as he launched the first UN-backed "Girl Summit" on issues that affect millions around the globe.

Cameron announced that parents in Britain would face prosecution for failing to prevent their daughters from being subjected to FGM, while setting out steps to tackle both practices in developing nations.

"Our aim is to outlaw FGM and child marriage everywhere for everyone," Cameron told the summit in London, to applause from an audience of experts and campaigners from around the world.

Pakistani rights activist Malala Yousafzai (L)

 listens to British Prime Minister David 

Cameron as he speaks at the 'Girl Summit

 2014' at Walworth Academy in south London

on on July 22, 2014 (AFP Photo/Oli Scarff)

FGM, which affects tens of millions of women, particularly in the Horn of Africa, ranges from removal of the clitoris to the mutilation and removal of other female genitalia. It can leave girls at risk of prolonged bleeding, infection, infertility and even death.

Cameron acknowledged that ending FGM and child marriage was no easy task, saying they ranked alongside the global health threats of polio and tuberculosis in terms of the commitment needed to tackle them.

But he argued: "All girls have the right to live free from violence and coercion, without being forced into marriage or the lifelong physical and psychological effects of female genital mutilation.

"Abhorrent practices like these, no matter how deeply rooted in societies, violate the rights of girls and women across the world, including here in the UK.

"I want to build a better future for all our girls and I am hosting the Girl Summit today so that we say with one voice -- let's end these practices once and for all."

The summit, which is co-hosted by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), will produce an "international charter" calling for the eradication of FGM and child marriage within a generation.

The summit will also launch new programmes to prevent child and forced marriage in 12 developing nations.

Speakers at the event included Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani schoolgirl who recovered from being shot in the head by the Taliban and is now a campaigner for girls' education.

"We should have the right to change traditions and we should make the changes. We ask that there be no more FGM or child marriage," Malala told the summit.

"We should not be followers of traditions that go against human rights... we are human beings and we make traditions."

Map of Africa showing countries where female genital mutilation

is most prevalent, created on February 19, 2014 (AFP Photo)

'Accelerate our efforts'

UNICEF warned in a new report that while the rate of FGM and child marriage has fallen over the past three decades, population increase in developing nations alone could reverse this trend if "intensive action" is not introduced.

More than 130 million girls and women have experienced some form of FGM in the 29 countries in Africa and the Middle East where the practice is most common, it said.

More than 700 million women worldwide were married as children, UNICEF added.

"The numbers tell us we must accelerate our efforts," said UNICEF executive director Anthony Lake.

Indian actress and Plan International Girls' 

Rights Ambassador Freida Pinto listens

 to speakers at the 'Girl Summit 2014' at

 Walworth Academy in south London on

July 22, 2014 (AFP Photo/Oli Scarff)

"FGM and child marriage profoundly and permanently harm girls, denying them their right to make their own decisions and to reach their full potential."

Cameron confirmed that Britain would introduce legislation under which doctors and teachers would be required by law to report FGM, while parents who allow their daughters to be cut will be prosecuted.

British lawmakers earlier this month said the prevalence of FGM in the country was a "national scandal", warning that up to 170,000 women may have had the procedure and another 65,000 young girls were at risk.

A damning report from the House of Commons home affairs committee condemned the failure of the government, police, health and education authorities over many years to address what it said was an "extreme form of child abuse".

Desmond Tutu plea for 'assisted dying' before historic Lords debate

Archbishop calls for 'mind shift' on right to die and condemns as 'disgraceful' the treatment of the dying Nelson Mandela

The Guardian, The Observer, David Smith and Daniel Boffey, Saturday 12 July 2014

Archbishop Desmond Tutu was speaking ahead of a debate in the House on Lords
on Lord Falconer's assisted dying bill. Photograph: News Pictures/Rex Features

Desmond Tutu, one of the world's most eminent religious leaders, has made an extraordinary intervention in the debate over assisted death, by backing the right of the terminally ill to end their lives in dignity.

Writing in the Observer, the 82-year-old retired Anglican archbishop, revered as the "moral conscience" of South Africa, says that laws that prevent people being helped to end their lives are an affront to those affected and their families.

He also condemns as "disgraceful" the treatment of his old friend Nelson Mandela, who was kept alive through numerous painful hospitalisations and forced to endure a photo stunt with politicians shortly before his death at 95.

Tutu, who calls for a "mind shift" in the right to die debate, writes: "I have been fortunate to spend my life working for dignity for the living. Now I wish to apply my mind to the issue of dignity for the dying. I revere the sanctity of life – but not at any cost."

Tutu's intervention comes at the start of a momentous week in the assisted dying debate. On Friday, the House of Lords will witness one of the most significant moments in its recent history when peers debate an assisted dying bill proposed by the former lord chancellor, Lord Falconer. A record number of peers – 110 so far – have registered to speak.

On Saturday the former archbishop of Canterbury Lord (George) Carey spoke out in favour of the bill. But in an article in the Times, Justin Welby, the current archbishop and head of the Church of England, reaffirmed the church's traditional hostility to any move that would endanger the principle of the sanctity of life. In a sign of the debate that has now been unleashed within the Anglican communion, the bishop of Carlisle, the Right Rev James Newcome, called for a royal commission to examine the "important issue" at length.

Falconer's proposed legislation would make it legal for a doctor to hand over a lethal medication to a terminally ill patient who is believed to have less than six months to live.

Tutu notes that Falconer's bill will be debated on Mandela Day, which would have been the 96th birthday of South Africa's first black president. He calls for his own country to follow Britain's lead in examining a change in the law.

"On Mandela Day we will be thinking of a great man," he writes. "On the same day, on 18 July 2014 in London, the House of Lords will be holding a second hearing on Lord Falconer's bill on assisted dying. Oregon, Washington, Quebec, Holland, Switzerland have already taken this step. South Africa has a hard-won constitution that we are proud of that should provide a basis to guide changes to be made on the legal status of end-of-life wishes to support the dignity of the dying."

Speaking to the Observer, Falconer, who said he was now confident that his bill would live on in parliament beyond Friday's debate, claimed that the intervention by Tutu illustrated that religious faith should be no obstacle to supporting a change in the law. He said: "I am really glad that someone of his stature is taking part in this important debate. It is a debate in which countries look to other countries for guidance. For someone of Archbishop Tutu's stature, understanding and human experience to speak out is really welcome. He is an Anglican bishop who has shown his moral strength to the world better than anybody. I very much hope that it will indicate that religion is not a bar to supporting this bill."

A London rabbi, Jonathan Romain, speaking on behalf of 60 religious leaders in support of the Falconer proposals, said he believed that backing the bill was the "religious response" to a situation where medical progress allowed people to live on in a physical and mental state that many felt was intolerable. He said: "I see no sanctity in suffering, nothing holy about agony."

Jane Nicklinson, widow of the campaigner Tony Nicklinson, a sufferer of locked-in syndrome who fought for the right to be helped to die in the UK, said she believed public opinion was now in favour of change, adding: "I hope that it is true among those that matter – the decision-makers."

Falconer's proposals are being fiercely opposed by key figures such as Welby, and campaigners for the rights of disabled people. Richard Hawkes, chief executive of the disability charity Scope, said he feared the bill would put some people under pressure to end their lives. He said: "Why is it that when people who are not disabled want to commit suicide, we try to talk them out of it, but when a disabled person wants to commit suicide, we focus on how we can make that possible?"

However, in his article for the Observer, Tutu says that he has been moved by the case of a 28-year-old South African, Craig Schonegevel, who suffered from neurofibromatosis and felt forced to end his life by swallowing 12 sleeping pills and tying two plastic bags around his head with elastic bands because doctors could not help him.

Tutu writes: "Some say that palliative care, including the giving of sedation to ensure freedom from pain, should be enough for the journeying towards an easeful death. Some people opine that with good palliative care there is no need for assisted dying, no need for people to request to be legally given a lethal dose of medication. That was not the case for Craig Schonegevel. Others assert their right to autonomy and consciousness – why exit in the fog of sedation when there's the alternative of being alert and truly present with loved ones?"

He also discloses that he has now had a conversation with his family about his own death. "I have come to realise that I do not want my life to be prolonged artificially," he writes. "I think when you need machines to help you breathe then you have to ask questions about the quality of life being experienced and about the way money is being spent. This may be hard for some people to consider.

"But why is a life that is ending being prolonged? Why is money being spent in this way? It could be better spent on a mother giving birth to a baby, or an organ transplant needed by a young person. Money should be spent on those that are at the beginning or in full flow of their life. Of course, these are my personal opinions and not of my church."

There was bitter controversy in South Africa in April last year when President Jacob Zuma and other African National Congress politicians visited Mandela at his home with a TV crew. The statesman looked weak, rheumy-eyed and uncomprehending. Mandela's family and personal assistant condemned the publicity stunt as exploitative and in poor taste. Tutu echoes that view. "What was done to Madiba was disgraceful," he writes. "There was that occasion when Madiba was televised with political leaders, President Zuma and Cyril Ramaphosa. You could see that Madiba was not fully there. He did not speak. He was not connecting. My friend was no longer himself. It was an affront to Madiba's dignity."

"People should die a decent death," he continues. "For me that means having had the conversations with those I have crossed with in life and being at peace. It means being able to say goodbye to loved ones – if possible, at home."

He adds: "I can see I would probably incline towards the quality of life argument, whereas others will be more comfortable with palliative care. Yes, I think a lot of people would be upset if I said I wanted assisted dying. I would say I wouldn't mind, actually."

Tutu, who chaired South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and admitted he was "angry with God" during apartheid, has never been afraid to take unpopular positions or stir debate. Mandela once said of him: "Sometimes strident, often tender, never afraid and seldom without humour, Desmond Tutu's voice will always be the voice of the voiceless."

Related Articles:

Ex-archbishop Carey backs assisted suicide

Assisted suicide campaigners fail to get supreme court to overturn ban

Assisted suicide campaigners await supreme court verdict on right to die

Top French court grants coma patient the right to die
Belgian law on euthanasia for children, with no age limit, will be first in world

Europe split on right-to-die regulations

French panel recommends legalising assisted suicide

Euthanasia declaration should be renewed regularly
Nine myths about euthanasia in the Netherlands


 "Current" Events –  Apr 10, 2005 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)

"... The Ethics of Life

You, as a Human Being, are designed to appreciate and love life. But you put it in a box. You think you live once. You say, life is precious; make it count; keep it going at all costs; make it work. And the underlying thought is that because you only go around one time, all the purpose is wrapped up in one lifetime. Well, I'm going to give you something to think about, something that happened just recently that tens of millions of people all over earth who have the western news media know of.

It was all about one woman's life, and you know who I'm talking about. I'm talking about Terri [Terri Schiavo]. And I'm going to talk about Terri because, you know, she's here [speaking of the real Terri]! And I'm going to give you a perspective about Terri that perhaps you hadn't thought about before, and as I do it, she's going to watch.

It's very metaphysical, you know? This perspective is one from my side of the veil. Terri leaned into the wind of birth many years ago, just as you did. I was there, too. There were potentials laying in front of her - a track that she could take if she wished. There was no predestination, only predispositions of energy that laid before her: the parents she would have (which she had selected), the man she might meet or marry, the accident waiting to happen. All of these things were in her "potential track," and she could have chosen not to go there.

But like so many of you, she looked at it and examined it. These were the times we spoke to her and said, "Dear one, you're going into another Human lifetime that has a potential that's awesome - grander than most Humans on the planet will ever experience. You'll get to present something to tens of millions of people. You'll make them think about life. You'll change the legal system of your country. You'll awaken peoples' awareness to situations that need to be addressed with respect to morality, integrity, and even intuition. Will you do it?"

And I remember what she said. The grand angel who stood before me, who you now call Terri, smiled broadly and said, "I'm ready for that." And some of you cry in your sorrow and say "Why is this Human dead? How could such a thing be tolerated? Why would such a thing happen? Life is so precious." And I ask you this, as Terri looks on in her joy, would you take this away from her? Would you take that away from humanity, what she showed and did that resulted directly in her passing?

Start thinking of these things, perhaps differently. We've told you before that there are even those Human Beings who come in with a predisposition of suicide! What a horrible thought, you might say. "Kryon, could that even be appropriate?" And we say this: More than appropriate, it's by design! "But why should that be?" You might say. "What a horrible dishonorable death." And if that's your reaction, you're placing the whole grand picture in your own little Human box.

When you start examining it spiritually, without Human bias, you start to see that around a suicide there's this energy that develops. It's all about the family. Is there shame? Is there drama? Does it kick the family in the pants so that perhaps they might study things they never did - or perhaps they might they even look within themselves for spirituality? Blessed is the one that comes in with these tasks [like suicide]. There are so many of them who do. For these are the grease of personal change within families, and provide a gift that is grand!

You see, Spirit looks at these things differently. The curtain goes up, it goes down. You come and you go and there are profound lessons, some of which are taught harshly, by those who teach them through their own deaths.

"Well, what is it Kryon? Don't dodge the question with a diversion to suicide, for this isn't what Terri did. Is it proper or is it improper to have somebody in this vegetative state put to death by others around her?" Our answer: Exactly which Human are you talking about? You want a blanket answer, don't you? For six and half billion souls and paths, you want one answer for all. Well, you won't get one. For Terri, the answer is a solid yes. It was as it should have been. She came in with this grand opportunity to change the world, and she did it while everyone watched.

There is appropriateness in all things and sometimes you create for yourselves what seems to be inappropriate. Yet later you understand what the gift was within the challenge. Celebrate Terri, and don't think of this as a shameful thing that Humans did to her. Think of it instead as a book that was written for you to look at, one which pushes you to a place to ask, "What should we do about this now, personally? What should our legislatures do about this, if anything? How can we approach these things more humanely and with more honor? Is our culture addressing this issue? Are we addressing this issue personally?" Let's put these questions where they belong. It's not about "right to life"; it's about the appropriateness of "this life." Each case is individual, and some are profoundly given for the planet and for those around the individual.

Oh, as all of you came into this planet and leaned into the wind of birth separately, each was unique. Each of you has a different story, a different goal, but all have the same purpose: the elevation of the vibration of the planet. Sometimes it happens to many of you at the same time. We'll get to that before we finish. ..."

"THE THREE WINDS" – Feb 23-24, 2013 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Humanity, Home - other side of the veil, Wind of Birth - Birth, Wind of Existence - Life, Wind of Transition - Death) - (Text version)