Killing Children Legally

Belgium Extends Euthanasia to Children

I felt sick when I read that Belgium had, on Thursday 13 February 2014, passed a law that permitted children to ask to be euthanised. What kind of sick society have we become that we think it is morally acceptable and responsible of us to allow our children to make a decision to end their lives?

I, as I am sure have many others, have often looked back over my life and considered the decisions that I made and the things that I did or said when I was a child or even a young adult. There are many occasions in my past that now in hindsight cause me to cringe in embarrassment. There are also occasions that I now realise I was exceptionally lucky that I didn’t get myself into more trouble than I did or that I didn’t have more serious repercussions than was the case. There are also occasions that I am ever so grateful that my parents intervened and prevented me from doing what I had wanted to do at the time.

The important thing is of course that I got to learn from all these experiences and I can now look back at them and use them in a positive way in my life. I am of course also comforted by the fact that as young people we all do make mistakes and that this is part of growing up. It is the process that we have to go through and part of the life lessons we must learn, hopefully together with the mentoring of our own parents, to enable us to progress to being mature adults.

The problem with euthanasia, even for mature adults, is that it is final. There is no opportunity, at least not in this life, to reconsider and learn from the decision.

Knowing what we know as adults about the learning experiences of young people and the number of bad or silly decisions we have all made as children, what on earth would possess any mature adult to give a child the authority to choose to end his or her life? Have the people in countries like Belgium gone stark raving mad?

As for organisations that promote euthanasia for adults, claiming that they are seeking this legalisation only for terminally ill adults who are capable of making their own decisions. What more evidence do they possibly require to enable them to see the reality of what euthanasia legislation will eventually lead to? How can they continue to deny that they are actually trying to implement legislation that will create a slippery slope that will lead to legislation like that of Belgium?

If you want to read more about the decision in Belgium go here to read “Belgium Extends EuthanasiaTo Children” by Paul Russell.