Euthanasia expands to Dutch children

by Staff                                                                                                                                                     Vol. XVII, No. 9, Nov/Dec 2004

The latest market for some euthanasia promoters is children. The Dutch government recently approved the euthanasia of children under the age of 12 in one hospital, and two legislators in Belgium are seeking to bring the same lethal result to minors in their country.

In the Netherlands, doctors at the Groningen University Hospital will be able to euthanize children under the age of 12. Physicians will be able to take the lives of their young patients if they "believe their suffering is intolerable or if they have an incurable illness," lawyer and ethicist Wesley Smith wrote in a Sept. 13 article in The Daily Standard.

"But what does that mean?" Smith said. "In many cases, as occurs now with adults, it will become an excuse not to provide proper pain control for children who are dying of potentially agonizing maladies such as cancer, and doing away with them instead. As for those deemed 'incurable' -- this term is merely a euphemism for killing babies and children who are seriously disabled."

The euthanizing of the young is not new in the Netherlands. A 1997 study published in the Lancet, a British medical journal, found 45% of neo-natologists and 31% of pediatricians had secretly euthanized infants, Smith wrote. About 21% of infant deaths by euthanasia took place without the request or the consent of the parents, Smith said.

Meanwhile, Belgian senators Jeannine Leduc and Paul Wille have introduced legislation expanding euthanasia to terminally ill teenagers and children, Reuters news service reported Sept. 8. Minors have as much right to choose when they want to die as others do, the bill says, according to Reuters.

A Belgian law removing criminal penalties for euthanasia took effect in 2002, Reuters reported.

Euthanizing children means there "can be little doubt anymore that the 'slippery slope' of euthanasia has turned into an avalanche," Charles Colson wrote in his Oct. 5 BreakPoint commentary. "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."

[Editorial Comment: Euthanasia is simply the next terrible step in the continuing downgrade of civilized standards that has resulted from the adoption of evolution as the dominant religion of our worldwide society. After all, if humans are but the progeny of pond slime, if there is no Creator, then there can be no absolute right or wrong, marriage is merely a convenience to be scrapped whenever “I feel like it”, homosexuality? Ho-hum, why not? Animals should have rights equal to those of humans. And if life has no ultimate meaning, its termination in abortion or euthanasia is “natural”, fully acceptable. Yet our government schools religiously inculcate the evolutionary lie on our children. TCP]