Originally posted by Bodhi
I think that "euthanization" of "terminally ill" children to be at best barbaric, and at worst an attempt to play God. Who is to say these children will not recover, or that a cure will be found? Sounds to me that this is more of a state sponsored way to save money as opposed to caring for these poor souls.
for some reason the passage,"forgive them oh Lord, they know not what they do" is running through my head as I type...
Sad day indeed that any would consider the euthanization of any human being.
I think keeping people in pain and unecessary suffering to assuage some sort of personal religious guilt trip or principle is the barbaric option.
As to "playing god" - I call hypocrite: any medical treatment that saves a life is as much "playing the gaseous vertebrate of astronomical heft" as euthanasia. Who is to say the people treated weren't meant to die?
Keeping some poor kid in agony on the "off chance" they may develop a cure (it takes about 10 years for a cure to get to the "can be used on patients" stage) is just cruel. The options are realisitically: should we kill the kid now or torture them for a while until they die?
It's always puzzled me how the right wingers on this board are all so gung ho about protecting the unwanted/disabled/terminally ill babies and unborn, although they don't seem to want to spend a penny on looking after them once they grow up. I'm not sure what the cut-off age is.
It's even more puzzling in light of their support of the Invasion of Iraq, with it's attendent slaughter of thousands of civilians and the US-led sanctions that supposedly led to death of thousands of Iraqi babies. Surely a bunch of people that justifies the killing of so many on such flimsy pretexts should be able to righteously rest easy over the thought of a few more babies killed for a good cause?
And in the end if Euthanasia requires the parent's consent, you can still implement the drawn out torture you desire for your loved ones, if when it actually happens you have the stomach for it.
I've seen the results, I've looked into one of my family's eye as he desperately wanted out, but the good Xians of the hospital and the government kept him alive in unfathomable agony for three long, awful days to salve their precious little consciences. That, my dear Bodhi, is barbarism.
There should always be options available, and they should all be out in the open. Because real life events never seem to fit those off-the-peg moralities and ethics.
