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Bishop of Elphin Kevin Doran Screenshot via Salt and Light

Bishop compares abortion to involuntary Nazi euthanasia programme

Bishop of Elphin Kevin Doran also said that Eight Amendment had meant that “a great number of women were supported culturally in not choosing abortion”.

A CATHOLIC BISHOP has compared abortion to the involuntary Nazi euthanasia programme carried out during the Second World War.

Speaking at an event organised by pro-life organisation Family and Life, Bishop of Elphin Kevin Doran’s address hit on a number of contentious issues in the debate over the Eighth Amendment, and outlined the Catholic church’s opposition to it being repealed.

“There is an interesting, but chilling pamphlet that was published in Germany in 1920 and which contains the arguments of Karl Binding and Alfred Hoche in favour of euthanasia,” he said.

The document being referred to by Doran is Die Freigabe der Vernichtung lebensunwerten Lebens (Allowing the Destruction of Life Unworthy of Living), published by Binding and Hoche in 1920.

The pamphlet lays out under what conditions euthanasia is acceptable, and argues that killing people with intellectual disabilities can be justified by the money saved that would spent caring for them.

“The views of Binding and Hoche formed the ideological basis for the mass murder of hundreds of thousands of so-called ‘undesirables’ in places like Hadamar Euthanasia Centre [one of the main locations used by the Nazis during the euthanasia programme] ,” Doran went on.

Now people will laugh and tell you that there is no comparison at all between this and abortion in the case of life-threatening illness, but the comparison is perfectly clear. It is the acceptance of the principle that there is such a thing as a human life without value.

In the address the bishop also reflected on the introduction of the Eight Amendment in 1983 – something that he supported at the time.

“Looking back now, I have no hesitation in saying that we got it right,” he said.

I am convinced that thousands of lives have been saved and, notwithstanding the large numbers who traveled to England over the years, a great number of women were culturally supported in not choosing abortion.

In the speech he also said that any government seeking to legalise abortion is “guilty of a crime against humanity”.

He concluded by saying:

The most important thing of all is for pro-life people to arm themselves with the facts and to talk to their neighbours, just as you would about the All Ireland or the weather. This is not a time to be shy and retiring.

This is not the first time that Kevin Doran has come out strongly on a contentious political issue.

Last year during the same-sex marriage referendum he came under fire for saying that gay couples who have children are “not necessarily parents”.

He later said that he regretted any hurt caused by the comments.

Read: Bishop ‘regrets any hurt caused’ by saying gay couples with children are not parents

Also: Louise O’Reilly: “You can’t just tell a woman to be quiet because you feel like it”

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332 Comments
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    Mute The Divils Avocado
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    Mar 30th 2021, 6:24 AM

    No smoke without fire. An eradication of morale would fit with the recent reports on banning its members from partaking in a dance that every other emergency and voluntary rescue service in the country took part in. Publicising the organisation for all the wrong reasons. I don’t think I’d have much confidence in the management.

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    Mute David Corrigan
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    Mar 30th 2021, 6:17 AM

    “The official ‘Great Place to Work’ survey, commissioned by the Irish Coast Guard…”

    One would have to wonder if there are any connections between management and the company behind their own survey.

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    Mute Anto Curran
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    Mar 30th 2021, 6:56 AM

    @David Corrigan: wow that’s a fairly baseless accusation, one would have to wonder if there’s any connections between yourself and the unofficial survey that has no accountability or transparency (see I can do it too)

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    Mute David Corrigan
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    Mar 30th 2021, 7:02 AM

    @Anto Curran: Their own commissioned survey paints them in good light while the “unofficial” survey says that things are not so good within camp. Couple this to the fact that there is plenty of evidence of underhanded behaviour in this country means that there will always be suspicions around internally driven surveys.
    It’s not that hard to understand Anto is it?

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    Mute Madra
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    Mar 30th 2021, 7:21 AM

    @David Corrigan: those ‘Great places to work’ are a joke. A company I worked for won it once. They had more staff out on mental health issues due to senior directors and bully boy tactics.

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    Mute David Corrigan
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    Mar 30th 2021, 7:34 AM

    @Madra: Stone cold. There are a lot of people in this country who refuse to believe that kind of thing. It just couldn’t be true they say!!!

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    Mute Petulant mcbarity
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    Mar 30th 2021, 10:41 AM

    @David Corrigan: An unofficial survey might easily have a bias, being started by and forwarded to people with a grudge already.

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    Mute patrick boland
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    Mar 30th 2021, 12:48 PM

    @Madra: but it’s a great place to shop??

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    Mute Fintan Keating
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    Mar 30th 2021, 8:30 AM

    Why use a picture of RNLI boat and crew? Very different organisations.

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    Mute Mick McGuinness
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    Mar 30th 2021, 6:40 AM

    How many people actually use or know about the Coast Guard. Very few I’d imagine they do a great job when needed.

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    Mute flexfinn
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    Mar 30th 2021, 7:15 AM

    @Mick McGuinness: tbh here, everybody knows how good a job the coast guard and their volunteers do and luckily not many need to use their services

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    Mute Pat O'Leary
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    Mar 30th 2021, 10:21 AM

    Just as an aside, any sign of the official report on R116 crash in March 2017 (that would be fully 4 years ago) ever being published?? Not aware of any equivalent accident where within a couple of days they had the wreckage + a rough idea of what had happened, yet four years on people still waiting for the official accident report.

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    Mute Gavin Tobin
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    Mar 30th 2021, 10:17 AM

    Ask the right question, get the right answer?

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