May God richly bless you on this wonderful day as we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ and reflect on His incarnation!
For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. - Isa. 9:6
Thank you for blogging for Life.
The Amber Alert System was used yesterday to locate a kidnapped child after her mother was killed. Zeb Stinnett, the father, said in a news conference, "I want to thank family, friends, Amber Alert and law enforcement officials for their support during this time." [more from ABC]
The gruesome news report drew international attention because at the time of the mother�s death the child was unborn, a "fetus". While news organizations struggled at first with whether to use "fetus" or "child" to describe the missing person, everyone agreed this little girl needed to be found and protected.
For more information and commentary see:
Kenyan Nobel peace prize winner, Mrs. Wangari Maathai, said "abortion is wrong," in a conversation with Norway's Dagen newspaper reporter Jostein Sandsmark Tuesday. Professor Maathai is Kenya's deputy minister of the environment. [LifeSite via AfterAbortion]
If abortion is so widely accepted and practiced, can infanticide be far behind? The same evolutionary rationalization used to justify abortion might also be used to justify the murder of unwanted children, specially those with birth defects or illnesses that will prevent their contributing to society later on. [Henry Morris, The Long War Against God, pg. 140, 1989]
A hospital in the Netherlands - the first nation to permit euthanasia - recently proposed guidelines for mercy killings of terminally ill newborns, and then made a startling revelation: It has already begun carrying out such procedures, which include administering a lethal dose of sedatives. [Associated Press, Nov. 30, 2004]
Hugh Hewitt [more here] has covered this story from the beginning with exceptional commentary and calls to action. Pro-life bloggers followed suit with many, if not most, quoting Hugh. Here are some of their comments:
The Groningen Protocol: Infant Euthanasia and the Substance View of Personhood - The recent news that doctors in the Netherlands have been administering lethal doses of sedatives to terminally ill newborns has received little notice in the U.S. Neither the mainstream media nor the blogosphere seems to have taken much interest in the �Groningen Protocol� � the policy that doctors have the authority to end the child's life if they think a child is suffering unbearably from a terminal condition. [snip] I must admit that the most surprising aspect of this story is that people find the practice of euthanasia surprising. For the past thirty years almost all Western nations have embraced some form of abortion and in doing so have accepted the premise that human life in not intrinsically valuable. The shift from abortion to active euthanasia of infants does not require tumbling down the slippery slope; it merely requires people to act consistently with their views.
Euthanasia - These children are the canaries in the coalmine for the rest of us; their deaths warn of a nightmarish future. The "right to die" will become "the duty to die", in less time than we might imagine.
The Groningen Protocol - The Groningen Protocol is a logical extension of the abortion activists� position. Indeed, if you support abortion rights, especially partial birth abortion, you would not be able to make a rational argument against infant euthanasia without contradiction of your abortion views. That the mainstream media seems unwilling to address this story, either pro, con or unbiased, leads one to believe that they see the relationship between their support of abortion rights and the killing of infants and children and are afraid to admit it! [more here and here]
The Creeping Evil of Good Intentions - What we are talking about, though, is the next step after consensual, doctor-assisted suicide. Namely, the non-consensual termination of life. More bluntly, they are killing these babies. They are killing babies for noble (in their minds) reasons, but they are killing babies nonetheless. [see also The Groningen Protocol-Update]
If you're an infant and Dutch, you're not much - Why haven't government prosecutors in the Netherlands done anything? Has their lack of respect for life slipped so far that breaking the law and killing infants is no big deal?
The Culture of Death - I am sure that to the Dutch, this is just a very rational situation, reflecting the limits of a socialized medical system. That's the scary part. Had this line been crossed in other times and places, it would have denied the world the benefits of Stephen Hawking's genius, Franklin D. Roosevelt's leadership, and the valiant fight Christopher Reeve fought to overcome his paralysis.
Netherlands Killing "Unfit" Babies - Conservative Eyes quotes the following, "Four times in recent months, Dutch doctors have pumped lethal doses of drugs into newborns they believe are terminally ill, setting off a new phase in a growing European debate over when, if ever, it's acceptable to hasten death for the critically ill."
Groningen - I Make Sense has a useful set of relevant links.
Thousands Pray for Baby--Doctors Confounded - I can think of no better thing than to pray that God will give many more families the courage to defy earthly wisdom and choose to protect this precious gift of life.
Dutch Euthanasia - Yep. We're talking about state-sanctioned murder based on the decision of some committee that a given person is mentally inequipped to decide whether they ought to live.
Post Birth Abortions - The tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.
Update: Captain's Quarters has an entry that is well worth reading. Captain Ed states, "The lack of widespread horror following Groningen's announcement betrays a world where human life only matters for its commercial value, not as a sacred or unique gift. Even the revelation that Groningen proposes to kill children it deems too inconvenient to live despite their parents' wishes, up to age 12, fails to shock a world desensitized to humanity and wrapped up in its so-called secular 'humanism'."
New Posts:
The Groningen Protocol - Two Catholics� Views
The Gronigen Protocol: A Crime Against Humanity In the Making
The Groningen Protocol - shades of pre-war Germany - AZ Right to Life President John J. Jakubczyk
New (12/17/04): The Groningen Protocol: Death by Committee
Final Comments
The murder of newborns by Dutch doctors is a horrific practice but not surprising considering the ongoing devaluation of life by a culture that embraces abortion, embryonic stem cell research, and assisted suicide. An important point is that the evil practice of infant euthanasia is equivalent to abortion and embryonic stem cell research. The only difference is the visibility and the presence of the baby that enables both parents and the doctor to identify with him or her.
The good news is that more and more individuals are standing up for the sanctity of human life and are taking action to defend the defenseless. Thank you for blogging for life.
