Wesley Smith pointed my attention to a wonderful article by Joe Carter detailing how in a period of just 40 years, the Dutch went from allowing voluntary euthanasia for the terminally ill, to allowing it for the chronically ill, to allowing non-voluntary euthanasia for the disabled, to allowing for voluntary euthanasia for the depressed, to allowing for non-voluntary euthanasia of severely handicapped newborns, to debating whether or not healthy elderly people should be able to choose suicide simply because they are sick of living (“suffering through living”).
This is what happens when you abandon the idea of innate human value, and swallow the pill that says there is such a thing as a life unworthy of life. Sadly, America has begun its journey down this same road. Euthanasia begins to be accepted out of sympathy for those suffering with severe pain who are near death, but the logic of euthanasia always expands the circle of those who can be killed so that eventually, it includes many people and situations that no one in the beginning ever wanted to include.
March 14, 2010 at 1:46 pm
This is scary. What happens when they decide someone that is disabled (unable to work), yet able to take care of themselves, is considered to not be useful for society and a burden financially? Forced Euthanasia?
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March 15, 2010 at 9:07 am
Exactly. We would like to think that cannot happen, but we know that they already practice “involuntary euthanasia” in the Netherlands. The circle of people targeted for euthanasia always grows larger. Why? Because of the logic of euthanasia. If euthanasia is about personal autonomy and ending suffering, then it can’t just be limited to the terminally ill. It also needs to be an option for teenagers (as it is in the Netherlands already), for the depressed (Netherlands…check), and for those just tired of living.
And since the medical field sees euthanasia as an answer to curtailing medical costs, those whose care costs the most will be the next target. It would not begin with involuntary euthanasia. First it will begin with the general public buying into the idea that a disabled life is a life not worth living, and buying into the idea that continuing to live in such a condition is a burden to family and society. In other words, the culture will feel it is a duty to die if one finds themselves disabled and in need of expensive care. Only then will it become compulsory for those “insane” indidividuals who refuse to recognize their social and familial duty.
Jason
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October 10, 2013 at 10:55 am
[…] The Dutch Descent into Euthanasia Madness […]
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