DON VINCENZO writes:

The recent revelations of the actions of Planned Parenthood are just one example of the demise of conscience, but lurking in the background another moral travesty is gaining ground: euthanasia in the West as a legitimate and moral way of dealing with suffering, both physical and psychological.

In a recent article in The Washington Post, reporter Charles Lane revisits the impact of euthanasia in Western Europe, and also its growing acceptance in the U.S. He gives an example of a clinic in the Dutch (Flemish) speaking area of Belgium, where, between 2007 and 2011, 100 people went to the clinic requesting an injection of sodium thiopental, which would kill them. Thirty-five succeeded in doing so, killed by doctors satisfied that their conditions were either untreatable or unbearable, all perfectly legal under Belgium’s (once a Catholic country) 2002 euthanasia statute. However, Lane reports that the statute applies not only to physical illness, but also to psychological illness as well. He writes, “What’s noteworthy about euthanasia in Europe…has been its tendency to expand, once the taboo against physician-aided death was breached in favor of more malleable concept such as patient autonomy.” (Emphasis mine.) Warned one Belgian law professor: “What is presented at first as a right is going to become a kind of obligation.” And Belgium is just one such example: in the neighboring Netherlands, euthanasia deaths are taking place at three times the rate in 2002, when it began.

And the U.S.? In 1997, Oregon adopted a law for “physician-aided” suicide, in which the doctor prescribes, but does not administer, the fatal dose. Currently, 24 states and the District of Colombia are also considering assisted-suicide legislation. Those numbers should alert any sentient person that, with an aging population, what John Paul II called “the culture of death” will find more practitioners in this country, of that I am certain.

Graduates of medical schools today in the U.S. take “a modernized version” of the Hippocratic Oath which, in its original Latin form, stated: Primus, non nocet. (First, do no harm.) When abortion became legal and was widely practiced by doctors, that Oath was revised. But at its root, both the purposeful killing of unborn and the sick are part of another Western phenomenon: the loss of religious influence and conviction in the West. Perhaps the words of St. Justin, a martyr of the Church, are appropriate here: “The worst evil of all is to say that neither good nor evil is anything in itself, but only matters of opinion.”

— Comments —

Deana writes:

As things stand today, the greater risk is that patients will be kept alive way beyond what could reasonably be considered a person’s “natural” life due to a seemingly endless array of medical interventions at our disposal. As a nurse, I have taken care of plenty of patients who were so very ill. Short of a miracle, there was no hope that they would get better simply because our organs, our bodies, were simply not designed to heal themselves when the damage is that severe. Never once have I seen a physician not do everything possible in an effort to help these patients. If there is any hope that a treatment will work, we do it. The same doctors and nurses who would never choose to undergo the unending tests and procedures themselves and would be loathe to see their loved ones endure them would never dream of NOT offering to do absolutely everything possible in an effort to help the patients we take care of. There are several reasons for this: we feel compelled to do everything possible to try and help others; we do not want patients to feel as if we have given up on them; we do not feel we know better than the patient when it is time to stop treatments and let nature take its course; and honestly, most patients specifically tell us they want everything done, even when the physicians have been quite clear that there is almost no chance of improvement. It’s awful. I wish more patients understood that they do not have to do all of this and that doctors and nurses can help them navigate terminal illnesses in such a way to help reduce the chance they will wind up in ICUs hooked up to horrid machines that simply prolong the inevitable.

But this does NOT mean we actively help them die! When we can do no more, we stop what we are doing and we help that person AND honor God and the life He created. We do this by using medicines that help manage the symptoms the person is experiencing. We bathe the patient. We find them food and drink that tastes good to them. We have family and friends and the patient’s pastor or priest come in. And we simply wait for God to act. That time can be very special for the patient and family and I know that sometimes, the patient needs that time to address issues that could affect their eternity.

What scares me is that we have decided in our culture that whatever a person wants to do is fine, that their personal desires and wishes reign supreme and dictate everything. Quality of life is an important concept but it becomes extremely dangerous when it is taken out of the proper context. We are created by God. Our bodies are part of His creation. We do not have the right to decide when we will die because that makes us into some sort of god and does not honor the true God. It takes the focus off our Creator and puts it on the human who is weak, fallible, and blind to His great design. But now that we have decided that there is no God, just the individual whose wishes and whims are the ultimate authority, won’t many in the medical establishment feel compelled to honor that person’s wishes? Of course they will. And what happens to those doctors and nurses who don’t believe in actively ending someone’s life? At best, they will be accused of imposing their own religious beliefs on others. More likely, they will be told that helping end the lives of patients who have decided it is time for their lives to end is part of the normal “care” trajectory and we must offer our patients access to that service if we expect to maintain our licenses.

If this ever happens, there will be no boundary, no natural stopping point. Whatever condition or physical or mental characteristic that is currently out of favor will be done away with. In our desire to achieve perfection, we will throw out the good.

We humans are so dim-witted.

Laura writes:

Deana has explained the paradox of why we have, on one hand, these over-the-top efforts to keep some people with terminal illness alive and, on the other hand, a growing push for euthanasia. A lack of resignation characterizes the first group and too much resignation characterizes the second group. Death without God is a terrible thing. There is no dignity in dying if suffering is meaningless.

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