Were there to be no support in the whole history of ethical and moral thought, were there no acknowledged confirmation from medical science, were the history of legal opinion to the contrary, we would still have to conclude on the basis of God's Holy Word that the unborn child is a person in the sight of God. He is protected by the sanctity of life graciously given to each individual by the Creator, Who alone places His image upon man and grants them any right to life which they have.
“Assist Us to Live, Not Die” is
what a poster reads in a recent demonstration against assisted suicide.
If this sounds like an overstatement, stay tuned. The situation in the
world of euthanasia advocates right now is not only disturbing but
deadly.
Across the world, proponents of assisted suicide are gaining ground. And these are the very people who are using the panic created over the coronavirus to convince people that assisted dying is a good idea.
The Atlantic published a report about the “extraordinary decisions” that confront Italian physicians in the wake of the pandemic. The writer explains:
The Italian College of Anesthesia, Analgesia, Resuscitation and Intensive Care (SIAARTI) has published guidelines for
the criteria that doctors and nurses should follow as these already
extraordinary circumstances worsen. The document begins by likening the
moral choices Italian doctors may face to the forms of wartime triage
that are required in the field of “catastrophe medicine.” Instead of
providing intensive care to all patients who need it, the authors
suggest, it may become necessary to follow “the most widely shared
criteria regarding distributive justice and the appropriate allocation
of limited health resources.”
While
such extreme measures are not mandatory for doctors, the
recommendations give us cause to stop and consider what is going on in
medicine right now. Steven Ertelt observes:
“The irony is that the guidelines are called ‘distributive justice.’
But there’s no justice when treatment decisions are based on who is
considered too old or too ill.”
Yet this sort of prejudiced justice has been advocated in many scenarios over the years. One writer says:
“When it was first made legal, doctor-assisted death was seen as a way
to spare terminally ill, pain-racked patients unnecessary suffering in
their final days. But definitions of what kind of anguish is unbearable
have in many cases widened over time, leading to debate about when a
doctor is justified in helping a patient die.”
But
what is missing from this rhetoric and similar comments is the
fundamental truth that nobody should have the right to take another’s
life for any reason any more than someone should be encouraged to take
his own life.
Having
said that, clearly more and more medical professionals are twisting
words and creating wide areas of confusion to drive their anti-life
agenda. Efforts to brainwash physicians, nurses, and others with alleged
facts that are truly fiction are spreading like wildfire.
For example, Nancy Valko, RN,
recently wrote in an e-mail to me that a student nurse expressed
concerns to her about what might be on her licensing exam: “She was very
concerned about the key points on death and dying to know for her
nursing exam for licensure. . . . She was especially concerned about
this one: ‘Terminal dehydration has been shown to be palliative in reducing pain. IV hydration is not indicated unless it is a patient’s choice.’”
In
other words, denying hydration to an extremely ill patient will result
in that person’s death. That does indeed reduce physical pain, since the
dead do not feel pain.
Regarding
the current pandemic, Diane Coleman of Not Dead Yet addresses this
virus as someone who, herself, is disabled. She points out the failures
of a medical system that have created another kind of crisis. She writes:
This
pandemic resource shortage will touch people who previously felt safe
from healthcare rationing. How we treat people in need is a reflection
of the priorities of the policymakers we elect. All too often, the
voices of people with disabilities and other justice communities have
been drowned out. Perhaps the unnecessary loss of life from this
pandemic due to healthcare capacity limits will cause others to join
with us in re-evaluating the priorities that got us here.
Such
justice communities include defenders of the preborn and the elderly as
well. Imposing death on a fellow human being for any reason—including
neglect, rationing, abortion, or infanticide—is always wrong.
“Assist us to live, not die” is not just a slogan; it is a battle cry for anyone fighting for the right to life.
