|
By Judie Brown
Dr. Seuss wrote those words, “Today you are you” in his book, “Happy Birthday to You”. As is the case with all his books, it is a perennially favorite children’s book. The entire quote is “Today you are you, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is youer than you.”
Only
Seuss could get away with language like that, but there is a strong
lesson in those words for those of us who struggle to focus attention on
the value of a single person, an individual, an unrepeatable you.
Placing
those words in the context of the pro-life worldview, we could say that
if one is honest, certain people and institutions are killing more
human beings now than ever before. The culture is denying the tragedy of
these deadly acts at an alarming rate not only in our nation but around
the world.
I think particularly of a young Australian named Lily Thai, who died under the protection of Australian aid-in-dying laws.
Lily suffered from AAG—autoimmune autonomic ganglionopathy—and the pain was too difficult for her to bear. The disease is very rare and treatment options are limited, but there
are ways to handle the disease that do not require killing.
Unfortunately, Lily’s situation came to the public’s attention because
she wanted to die not because physicians ran to her aid to help her
live.
But
why should they when such medical professionals are killing people
right and left? Whether they are unwanted, inconvenient, or simply the
“bad” result
of a one-night stand, erasing their lives is protected by law. Life is cheap and getting cheaper around the world.
This
ghastly view of so-called inconvenient people applies to little babies
who are residing in the womb or in fallopian tubes, people the world has
suggested would be better off never to be born! These children are, as
Lily was, simply too much of a challenge in a utilitarian world that
focuses on pleasure and rejects pain or discomfort at any cost.
What
if Lily had been surrounded by unfathomable love like Christ’s love for
her rather than the ethically flawed people who opted to do as she
desired? We will never know. You see Lily died “peacefully” within seconds after the lethal IV drip was administered. A tragic story but not uncommon in our faithless world.
When St. John Paul II recalled this quote from the Vatican’s Declaration on Euthanasia, he was reminding us of a teaching that will never change:
Nothing
and no one can in any way permit the killing of an innocent human
being, whether a fetus or an embryo, an infant or an adult, an old
person, or one suffering from an incurable disease, or a person who is
dying. Furthermore, no one is permitted to ask for this act of killing,
either for himself or herself or for another person entrusted to his or
her care, nor can he or she consent to it, either explicitly or
implicitly. Nor can any authority legitimately recommend or permit such
an action.
It is in those last few words that we acknowledge the truth in the words of Dr. Seuss: “Today you are you.”
Every person is precious; Lily was precious, an unrepeatable miracle,
and yet the world concurred in her request for death in exactly the same
way medical personnel agree to kill preborn children every day by any
method requested. These are not legitimate practitioners of ethics but
human beings who have devoted themselves, whether they realize it or
not, to being the snake oil salesmen within the culture of death.
When the question is asked, Would you entrust your life to them? the answer should be a resounding no. “Today you are you,” thanks be to God.
|
