Just a quick post to remind you to come to the Healthcare in Crisis Conference I discussed in my last post. I think it will be well worth your time to attend if you are in the area. I will be on a panel with Elizabeth Graham of Texas Right to Life.
There are only four days left to sign up. You can find additional details here with samples from some of the speakers. This is an incredibly timely conference which will address topics of significance well beyond Texas. Let me give you a very broad overview of things including some developments in this area just this week.
As you know, Texas has set a very bad example on end of life/denial of care issues but other states are looking to do likewise. Virginia is looking to pass a Futile Care law. Oregon already has legal assisted suicide as the Brittany Maynard case made very public.
This push will not end with voluntary euthanasia, even were that morally licit and it most certainly is NOT.* As we already see in Texas, doctors and hospitals (whose "ethics boards" approve of a doctor's recommendation to withdraw care to patients he deems futile) have the right to take your life against your will. This blog has been almost entirely dedicated to this issue. Virginia looks to have some wanting the same sort of law. While this law is supposed to be limited (as if that makes it okay), it is in no way moral, ethical, or Constitutional. Nor is it all that limited, despite what supporters of Texas' law contend.
Let us be aware of what is going on, work hard to prevent its spread, and try to get Texas on solid pro-life footing in this regard. If you've read my posts, you know how difficult this task is before us. You know how even "pro-life" organizations and religious leaders have become - at best - "confused" about what is actually the morally correct position on this issue. You have seen that certain lobbyists have anything but the welfare of patients and patients' rights in mind with their goals and who they fund in elections. You have seen the disdain some have for those who work for the right to life of all people whether ill, elderly, or special needs. You have seen how those deemed unworthy of having the opportunity to continue life until natural death are at risk.
But you should also understand that the euthanasia push is not something unique to Texas or the US. Indeed, we might be considered "behind" by the powers pushing it. There are tremendous efforts worldwide to promote and advance euthanasia, particularly in Europe. Belgium has the dubious distinction of being on the forefront of this appalling advancement of the culture of death and has now begun euthanizing children!
Moreover, we are on an incredibly steep, slippery slope that - like abortion and all other social ills - is veering further into depravity. We are now seeing a call to starve dementia patients to death. As heartbreaking and difficult as this diagnosis is for the patient and his caregivers, that is no death with dignity. Rather, it is excruciatingly painful and inhumane.
But that is part of the process here; there is a method to this madness. Can't you see it? As Wesley Smith writes: "Yes, of course, the point is to open the door [to] lethally injecting dementia patients." And then who else? Whoever those in power think deserves a "dignified death" by injection, but no right to life.
My friends, this is not going to end well for any of us. This is not progress or sophistication. This is barbarism and profoundly immoral. A person does not cease to be human and deserving of life and care because they suffer from dementia or a terminal illness or even depression which is a "valid" basis for euthanasia in Belgium. Yet, this is happening and the call for its spread is never-ending. No one is immune to the effects of this practice. Everyone has a responsibility to stem the tide and protect the most vulnerable.
I hope you can make it to the conference and learn about what is going on and what you can do.
Thanks for reading! See you Saturday!
*In time, I hope to begin writing about why euthanasia - even by choice - is immoral, why it still poses a risk to those who would not choose it by simply being legal, and why, for that reason alone, it should always remain illegal.
