Why does accepting euthanasia as a remedy for suffering in very limited circumstances inevitably lead to never-ending expansion of the killing license? Blame the radically altered mindset that results when killing is redefined from a moral wrong into a beneficent and legal act. If killing is right for, say, the adult cancer patient, why shouldn?t it be just as right for the disabled quadriplegic, the suicidal mother whose children have been killed in an accident, or the infant born with profound mental retardation?

There can be little doubt anymore that the ?slippery slope? of euthanasia has turned into an avalanche. As I?ve said before, once this kind of attitude starts to spread?as it did in Germany in the 1930s, to the world?s horror, and as it is spreading in America as well as Europe today?no one is truly safe. It can be only a matter of time before lawmakers and doctors determine that none of us needs to have any say in whether we or our loved ones live or die.

For further reading and information:

Wesley J. Smith, ? Now They Want to Euthanize Children ,? Daily Standard, 13 September 2004 .

Rita L. Marker and Wesley J. Smith, ? Words, Words, Words: Terms used in the euthanasia debate?their use and abuse ,? International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide.

Zenit.org, ? Doctors Criticize Euthanasia of Children ,? NewsMax.com, 6 September 2004 .

?Slippery Slope of Euthanasia for Children ,? interview with bioethicist Father Gonzalo Miranda, Zenit.org, 6 September 2004 .

BreakPoint Commentary No. 030113, ? Who Killed Grandpa?: ?Therapeutic? Death in a Dutch Nursing Home .? (Free registration required.)

BreakPoint Commentary No. 030114, ? Coming Soon to a Hospital Near You: ?Futile-Care? and the Culture of Death .? (Free registration required.)

??Terri?s Law? struck down ,? CNN.com, 23 September 2004 .

Gina Dalfonzo, ? Copying from the Same Script ,? BreakPoint Online, 10 November 2003 .

Charles Colson and Nigel M. de S. Cameron, Human Dignity in the Biotech Century (InterVarsity, 2004).

Arthur J. Dyck, Life?s Worth: The Case against Assisted Suicide (Eerdmans, 2002).