December 1, 2004

Down the Slippery Slope

I've been mulling over this story about the latest development in Holland's pro-euthanasia policies.

I don't think you have to be 100 per cent "pro-life" or "anti-abortion" to be concerned about this. Especially when the doctors openly take the matter into their own hands. Marcus Welby M.D. is dead, and good medicine involves some pretty invasive procedures and a necessary distancing. for doctors to be the authorized keepers of the gate between life and death concerns me.

There has always been some euthanasia -- the 50-year husband who hastens the death of his wife has bone cancer -- and decisions not to use aggressive or heroic measures at the end of life. But active killing, without consent, led in Germany to active killing of healthy people who happened to be on the undesirable list.

If you believe, as I do, in the bottomless capacity of human beings to do evil, to infect even their noblest goals with greed, lust, pride and whatnot, the lifting of this taboo is scary.

Theres an intelligent Christian take on this story here. I don't necessarily buy it all, but it's worth reading.

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