Anglican Mainstream

In a weekend when Bishops spoke about embryo research and a culture of greed (among other things), Bishop Tom Wright raised issues of abortion and euthanasia in his Easter Sermon. This was very welcome.  It is good to hear a Bishop engage with these issues. However, there will have been many constraints that prevented him dealing with this in depth. So lest this become just another item in list of ‘issues’, we take the opportunity to elaborate what we hope Bishop Tom and other Bishops might draw attention to if they have the time.

200,000 unborn baby girls and boys are killed annually in the UK now, some in the third trimester, and the figures continue to rise. They do not commit suicide like some of the poor immigrants mentioned by Bishop Tom - they are deliberately targeted and ‘terminated’ (great euphemism, that) by respected members of our medical profession. Of course, our totals are dwarfed by the 48,000,000+ abortions which have occurred in the US since Roe versus Wade. Finally, though many may not realise it, euthanasia is presently practiced in the Netherlands under the Groningen Protocol. This progressive way of doing ethics is openly articulated and advanced in the literature and through respected ethicists like Princetons Peter Singer. Chuck Colson describes the latest developments.

Deadly Trend By Chuck Colson

3/14/2008

The Infanticide Protocol

Sociologist Stefan Timmerman has observed that ‘Humans in every society studied to date are more likely to be murdered on the day they are born than on any other day of their lives’. Timmerman was quoted recently by bioethicist Wesley J. Smith in the online publication ‘To the Source’.

Smith rightly claims that while infanticide was commonly accepted in ancient times, only the Jews and the Christians actively opposed it. The strength of their opposition paid off when infanticide was outlawed by Emperor Valentinian, a Christian, in the 4th century.

So, as Western culture abandons its Christian roots, we ought not to be surprised that infanticide is making a comeback.

Take a look at what is already happening in the Netherlands. In 2004, doctors from Groningen University Medical Center admitted to killing, or ‘euthanizing’, to use the euphemism, dying or profoundly disabled babies. That practice came to be known as the Groningen Protocol.

Under those guidelines, not only are dying infants killed, but so are disabled infants who do not even require intensive care. The criteria for euthanizing a baby are subjective: Either the baby is judged to have no chance of survival; may survive after intensive treatment but with a grim future; or endures suffering (that) is severe, sustained, and cannot be alleviated. These criteria depend on the doctor’s whim.

So much for the Hippocratic Oath.

By judging which life is valuable or not, doctors are doing precisely what the Nazis did over 60 years ago. The Nazis even had a phrase for this, which translated means life not worth living - and not because of the individuals suffering, but because of their burden and cost to society.

‘As the West loses some of its Biblical moral footing’, writes Smith, ‘there is a new effort to decriminalize infanticide’. ‘In fact’, he asserts, ‘the notion is positively trendy’. Most notably, of course, is Princeton Professor Peter Singer who has advocated for some time killing disabled infants. But he is not the only one. When the Groningen Protocol was revealed, others began not condemning it but, sadly enough, defending it.

Smith noted a New York Times feature and a New England Journal of Medicine report, both giving credence and sympathy to Dutch infanticide proponents. And now the Hastings Center Report, the most respected journal on bioethics, has published another pro-Groningen Protocol article in which the authors not only support lethally injecting dying babies, but also those who are disabled.

‘The article assumes that guidelines will protect against abuse’,writes Smith, but, as he points out, ‘infanticide is by definition abuse’. And, as Smith reminds readers, ‘Dutch euthanasia guidelines for adults and teens have been violated for decades,so why should we expect anything different with infanticide guidelines?’

‘(W)e are moving toward a medical system’, says Smith, ‘in which babies are put down like dogs and killing is redefined as a caring act’.

But this can happen only in a society that has forgotten that every human life is made in the image of God and, therefore, worthy of protection. Think worldviews do not matter?

Think our Christian heritage is irrelevant? Too bad we cannot ask the infants of Groningen what they think.

 Bishop Tom Wright, The Uncomfortable Truth of Easter, Easter Day 2008

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