Pro-life
groups are calling Belgium’s recent passage of a “right to die” law … that
allows terminally ill children the permission to end their own lives… “abhorrent
and inhumane.” They are questioning how
a civilized society would sanction such an option.
“No
civilized society allows children to kill themselves. Far from a compassionate law, this law hands
the equivalent of a loaded gun to a child with the astonishing belief that the
child should be free to pull the trigger if he or she so chooses. Belgium’s decision to allow this is
grotesquely abhorrent and inhumane,” said Alliance
Defending Freedom (ADF) Senior
Legal Counsel Roger Kiska in a statement. The Belgian Chamber of Deputies recently voted 86-44 in favor of the
controversial law. ADF added that it had sent the Belgian Parliament a legal analysis
that said the proposed law operated under the premise that life is not worth
living and children are somehow mature enough to make such a decision on their
own. ADF
added that the newly passed law “exploits vulnerable children by handing to
them a ‘freedom’ that they are completely ill-equipped to bear.”
Under
the ‘right to die’ legislation, all age restrictions will be removed from the
European nation’s existing euthanasia law.
Belgium,
where close to 75% of the population is said to be Roman Catholic, becomes the
first country in the world with such a law. Children who wish to end their own lives must
be tested by psychologists and must be “capable of discernment” when making
such a decision.
Supporters
of the law played down the controversy, arguing that it will only be used in
rare cases. “This is not about lethal
injections for children, this is about terminally ill children, whose death is
imminent and who suffer greatly,” said Carina Van Cauter, from the Flemish Liberal Democrats who back the
law. “There are clear checks and
balances in the law to prevent abuse,” she added.
Carine
Brochier from the European Institute of
Bioethics said, however, that the law is dangerous and questioned whether
it really would apply only to a small number of cases. “You don’t make a law for three people a
year, that’s really crazy,” Brochier said.
“People are getting used to this idea of euthanasia in order to say
okay, well if I don’t want to live anymore then I will ask for euthanasia. If I suffer, the answer is euthanasia,” she
continued. “If you offer euthanasia then
some parents might be tempted to act and to ask for euthanasia.”
The
Joni and Friends International Disability
Center (IDC), which serves as the
administrative center for ministries which provide outreach to thousands of
families affected by disability around the world, also criticized the law,
reminding readers that the U.N.
Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) specifically states that “every human being has the inherent
right to life and shall take all necessary measures to ensure its effective enjoyment
by persons with disabilities on an equal basis with others.” “I don’t understand how the Belgian
legislators can ratify the CRPD yet
at the same time, offer a so-called right-to-die not only to adults, but –
heart-breakingly – to children who may feel distraught by their incurable
conditions (which could include disabilities),” wrote Joni Eareckson Tada,
founder and CEO of IDC. “It is abhorrent that we should burden a
child with such an unthinkable responsibility in deciding when his or her life
should end. Society’s unwritten moral
law has always led us to save our children, not destroy them – and certainly
not to allow them to destroy themselves.”
The
head of the Catholic Church in Belgium, Brussels’ Archbishop Andre-Joseph
Leonard, led a prayer vigil last week against the law, and asked why minors
would be granted such responsibility when they had to wait until 18-years of
age to receive other legal rights. “The
law says adolescents cannot make important decisions on economic or emotional
issues, but suddenly they’ve become able to decide that someone should make
them die,” Archbishop Leonard said.
Other
European nations where euthanasia is legal, but not for children, include the
Netherlands and Luxembourg … while Switzerland permits assisted suicide.
Listen:
The heart of God cries out for His people to choose life: “Today I have
given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the
choice you make. Oh, that you would
choose life, so that you and your descendants might live! You can make this choice by loving the Lord
your God, obeying Him, and committing yourself firmly to Him. This is the key to your life …” (Deuteronomy
30:9-20)
Rev.
Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.
Chaplain
(Colonel-Ret), U.S. Army
Pastor,
Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel
No comments:
Post a Comment