Euthanasia and the Culture of Death
According to the Natural Moral Law, imprinted on each man’s heart, nothing and no one can permit in any way 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, the moral law forbids that a person request this act of killing, either for himself or for another person entrusted to his care. Nor can any authority legitimately recommend or permit such an action. For it is a a question of the violation of the divine law, an offense against the dignity of the human person, a crime against life, and an attack on humanity. The moment a positive law deprives a category of human beings of the protection which civil legislation ought to accord them, the state is denying the equality of all before the law.
In the Netherlands, a policy originally encompassing only persistent requests for death from hopelessly suffering and dying patients has steadily expanded so that physicians have been allowed to kill patients who were physically healthy and handicapped children who never asked for death.
Dr. Eduard Verhagen, often referred to as “Dr. Death” has become famous in Europe for having presided over the medically induced deaths of four extraordinarily ill newborns. Verhagen describes himself as a bearer of peace and happiness to children. “When these suffering little ones die”, he says, “the child goes to sleep. . . . It's beautiful in a way. . . . They're children who are severely ill and in great pain. It is after they die that you see them relaxed for the first time. You see their faces in a way they should be for the first time.” The Netherlands stands as a stark reminder of the slippery slope leading from supposedly limited killing to a broader culture of death.
There exists in contemporary culture a certain Promethean attitude which leads people to think that they can control life and death by taking the decisions about them into their own hands. What really happens in this case is that the individual is overcome and crushed by a death deprived of any prospect of meaning or hope.
What any sick person needs, besides medical care, is love - the human and supernatural warmth provided by those close to him such as family, nurses and doctors.
Terry Schiavo’s public “execution” is a strong reminder that euthanasia, understood as an action or an omission which of itself or by intention causes death, is senseless and inhumane and should be opposed in all its forms.
Paul Kokoski
