Fighting the fight of his life for life

MS warrior battles society's move to legislate murder

By RENATO GANDIA
WCR Staff Writer
Beaumont

Wheelchair bound by multiple sclerosis, this 48-year-old's self-appointed mission is to fight euthanasia, assisted suicide and abortion.

So he produced a video called To Be or Not to Be: The Human Family (a disabled man's plea), a presentation that shows how euthanasia and assisted suicide is viewed in North America.

"Everyone wants to turn away from sickness and death: that's why euthanasia can be so attractive," Pickup told his hometown audience at Beaumont High School.

Sitting on his motorized scooter, the activist for life said the new century is not only threatened by wars and terrorism. "We are looking at a ruthless, new age terrorism dressed in the white lab coat of bioethics, the vestments of the legal jurisprudence and a creeping faceless terror of public policy."

Pickup offered his views on the celebrated Latimer case, quoting from a variety of sources including news clippings, Canadian Charter of Human Rights and surveys made by different television networks.

If Latimer was motivated by love in killing his daughter Tracy, then murder is an odd way to show love, Pickup said.

But her death is just symptomatic of the hardening and even vicious attitude of today's society towards those who they deem less than perfect - the over-weight, older, emotionally ill, physically disabled, dying.

"We, the disabled of Canada, face the hard edge of an uncertain future, of an increasing societal hostility," said Pickup.

"It's a scary time to be disabled in Canada. We can't even guarantee that justices in Canada care to protect the lives of the incurably ill and the disabled."

He also explained how medical terminology uses words like genetic cleansing, selective reduction, genetic termination to twist people's understanding.

"We, the disabled of Canada, face the hard edge of an uncertain future, of an increasing societal hostility." - Mark Pickup

"All these words are used to sanitize murder," Pickup explained.

Pickup talked to the WCR following his presentation and said he does not have the energy to be doing what he is doing. "But not to do it is unthinkable."

His advocacy began when he was provoked by a well-orchestrated campaign that began in the early 1990s to legitimize assisted suicide and became an advocate for life. He began to speak widely across North America to community organizations, groups of health-care workers and federal government bodies.

His most recent mission found him touring major cities in Canada and the U.S. He received rave reviews in such diverse places as Toronto, Vancouver, Chicago, New York and Washington.

Pickup said he met some of the "finest citizens that any nation could want" in his travels. "It's been a real blessing. It's so nice to come across literally, thousands upon thousands of people, who are very troubled about the direction we're heading and want to do something about it."

Pickup did not plan to be an advocate for life. "I think this is something that the Lord wanted me to do," he said. Since then, he has become one of North America's leading defenders of human life.

While some celebrities, such as former movie actors Christopher Reaves and Parkinson's sufferer Michael J. Fox, argue in favour of embryonic stem cell research, Pickup says if embryonic stem cells were his only chance for a cure, he would refuse to take it.

He admitted that when he was first diagnosed with MS in the mid-1980s, his life became meaningless and he planned to end it - commit suicide. Not only did the relentless condition rob him of his mobility, but it also robbed him of his passion for art when he could no longer draw and paint.

He was in despair.

Thankfully assisted suicide was not allowed yet and a valiant Pickup recovered from his bout with depression.

"The media hype kept on telling me that my life is better off, if I were dead," said the father of two and a grandfather of one.

It was during his illness that Pickup realized "God is the God of love. He is love and he wants us to include everyone. We, the disabled or incurably ill, are afraid of being excluded . . . and being unwanted and unloved."

Pickup quells those fears with his message that "Every human life has something to bring to the world. Every human life is valuable and every human life is made in the image and likeness of God."

His video presentation can be purchased by calling, 1-877-205-4602 or visit www.humanlifematters.com.

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