For all the horror stories we?ve heard about euthanasia in recent years, there are still many people who think of it as ?mercy killing.? Those people need to take a long, hard look at what?s happening in the
According to Wesley J. Smith in the Daily Standard,
As Smith writes, ?For anyone paying attention to the continuing collapse of medical ethics in the
Remember those gruesome statistics the next time someone tries to tell you that euthanasia doesn?t hurt anyone, that it?s just a way of helping people die with dignity. That argument is flawed in itself?because killing destroys a human life created in God?s image. No matter how ?humanitarian? the reason, killing is by definition harmful.
But the harm caused by euthanasia goes beyond that. It inevitably changes our attitude toward all human life. In fact, our attitude toward the weakest members of our society is the real test of how we view life. If we don?t see any inherent value in their lives, we soon and necessarily lose sight of what makes all lives sacred.
Wesley Smith puts it this way:
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
For further reading and information:
Wesley J. Smith, ? Now They Want to Euthanize Children ,? Daily Standard,
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,
?Slippery Slope of Euthanasia for Children ,? interview with bioethicist Father Gonzalo Miranda, Zenit.org,
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,
Gina Dalfonzo, ? Copying from the Same Script ,? BreakPoint Online,
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).