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Life is a blessing
By Michael Coren
December 10, 2009
Michael Coren
Pride hides beneath most that is wrong, from the thinnest of failing to the fattest of crime. The pride that we, rather than God, are always in control and that our bodies are ours to do with what we want, whenever we want. Sometimes this attitude is invincibly malicious, sometimes understandable. When it comes to the subject of euthanasia we see both aspects. For those promoting the cult of death it is horror, pure and simple. For those who are suffering, far more complex and delicate.
We need, however, to take back the argument and deal with some of the propaganda and accepted wisdom. The usual litany claims that the dying always suffer, that disability is a curse, that we have the right and wisdom to make our own decisions about when to die and that so-called mercy killing is administered only after layers of consideration.
We need, however, to take back the argument and deal with some of the propaganda and accepted wisdom. The usual litany claims that the dying always suffer, that disability is a curse, that we have the right and wisdom to make our own decisions about when to die and that so-called mercy killing is administered only after layers of consideration.
Nobody approaching death should experience pain and nobody need do so. All physical pain can be controlled but insufficient time and money is spent training doctors and nurses to deal with end-of-life issues. If we genuinely valued life we would spend money on hospices and medication rather than abortion clinics and missiles.
The notion that a person who feels they want to die can make an objective, informed decision about whether to live or die is, frankly, absurd. In reality they are the least qualified people because they are, yes, so terrified and agonized that they want to die. Any of us who have experienced any sort of pain or nausea know that it is difficult to see beyond the immediate need to be free of distress. The answer is not to help someone die but help them to live.
Nor can elderly and ill people, even when not in pain, make truly independent decisions. The media tells them that only the young and sexy matter, their families often put them in institutions and then wonder why they feel rejected and a culture that once revered the aged as temples of wisdom now looks on them as slums of irrelevance.
It is no accident that the most intimidated by, and active against, euthanasia are the disabled. While we boast equality we violently discriminate against disability at the earliest opportunity by aborting babies that are considered imperfect. Imagine how a Downs Syndrome person feels knowing that many desire a future society where they do not exist.
It’s worth remembering that when in 1993 Robert Latimer killed his little girl Tracy he claimed he was putting her out of her misery when, of course, he was putting her out of his. But even the phrase likens this unique human, made in the image of God, to an animal. The difference is that pigs, cows and baby seals attract celebrity support whereas children with cerebral palsy do not.
Equally pernicious, and more subtle, is the idea that euthanasia would be rare and only at the request of a dying person. The truth is that there are myriad cases of abuse of what is already a murderous procedure. In most of the regions where such killing is legal the boards of inquiry are composed of the very people who introduced the policies in the first place, which explains so few prosecutions in cases of obvious crime.
One particularly obnoxious episode involved a terminally ill but comfortable and well-adjusted woman in Holland who had visited her doctor in hospital for a check-up. He advised her to take advantage of the visit and stay overnight for some well-deserved respite. When the doctor did his rounds the following morning the woman was dead — given lethal drugs by another medic who had assumed, this being the climate of Dutch health care, that the patient was there for termination.
Remember that euthanasia ideologues believe that if a depressed teenager or healthy but troubled young adult wants to die, they should have the right to do so and that the state has the duty to help them. The caricature of the desperate person eager to die and pleading with loved ones to stop the pain and hasten an inevitable death is hardly typical.
Life is not a sentence but a blessing. Death is guaranteed but to encourage it is a curse.
The notion that a person who feels they want to die can make an objective, informed decision about whether to live or die is, frankly, absurd. In reality they are the least qualified people because they are, yes, so terrified and agonized that they want to die. Any of us who have experienced any sort of pain or nausea know that it is difficult to see beyond the immediate need to be free of distress. The answer is not to help someone die but help them to live.
Nor can elderly and ill people, even when not in pain, make truly independent decisions. The media tells them that only the young and sexy matter, their families often put them in institutions and then wonder why they feel rejected and a culture that once revered the aged as temples of wisdom now looks on them as slums of irrelevance.
It is no accident that the most intimidated by, and active against, euthanasia are the disabled. While we boast equality we violently discriminate against disability at the earliest opportunity by aborting babies that are considered imperfect. Imagine how a Downs Syndrome person feels knowing that many desire a future society where they do not exist.
It’s worth remembering that when in 1993 Robert Latimer killed his little girl Tracy he claimed he was putting her out of her misery when, of course, he was putting her out of his. But even the phrase likens this unique human, made in the image of God, to an animal. The difference is that pigs, cows and baby seals attract celebrity support whereas children with cerebral palsy do not.
Equally pernicious, and more subtle, is the idea that euthanasia would be rare and only at the request of a dying person. The truth is that there are myriad cases of abuse of what is already a murderous procedure. In most of the regions where such killing is legal the boards of inquiry are composed of the very people who introduced the policies in the first place, which explains so few prosecutions in cases of obvious crime.
One particularly obnoxious episode involved a terminally ill but comfortable and well-adjusted woman in Holland who had visited her doctor in hospital for a check-up. He advised her to take advantage of the visit and stay overnight for some well-deserved respite. When the doctor did his rounds the following morning the woman was dead — given lethal drugs by another medic who had assumed, this being the climate of Dutch health care, that the patient was there for termination.
Remember that euthanasia ideologues believe that if a depressed teenager or healthy but troubled young adult wants to die, they should have the right to do so and that the state has the duty to help them. The caricature of the desperate person eager to die and pleading with loved ones to stop the pain and hasten an inevitable death is hardly typical.
Life is not a sentence but a blessing. Death is guaranteed but to encourage it is a curse.
Michael Coren