Tolerating Infanticide - Tolerating Murder

A recent study indicated that young Christians are interested in a broader array of social issues and ending abortion has become a lower priority.  Some theologians and social activists encourage us to broaden our agenda, but somehow in that broader agenda abortion is not usually mentioned, and ending it is not a goal.  There are a number of important concerns wrapped up in "social justice," but abortion always has to be a high priority because it has tremendous ramifications on our view of humanity, and that in turn results in further social injustices.

Wesley J. Smith warns that our society is growing more tolerant of infanticide because we've sacrificed the fundamental principle of intrinsic value in accepting legalized abortion and its philosophical companions that undermine the humanity of the most vulnerable.

A few years ago we were introduced to the "Groningen Protocol" from Holland.  Shocking.  Yet, the ideas weren't greeted by universal horror.  The New York Times and the New England Journal of Medicine wrote sympathetic articles about Dutch infanticide.  Princeton ethicist Peter Singer has been endorsing infanticide for years.

And now in "Ending the Life of a Newborn," the Hastings Center Report —the most important bioethics journal in the world—has just published another pro Groningen Protocol article, granting even greater support for Dutch infanticide among the bioethics intelligentsia. Not only do the authors, a Dutch and an American bioethicist, support lethally injecting dying babies, but also those who are disabled, writing, "Critics charge that the protocol does not successfully identify which babies will die. But it is precisely those babies who could continue to live, but whose lives would be wretched in the extreme, who stand in most need of the interventions for which the protocol offers guidance."

The article assumes that guidelines will protect against abuse, but infanticide is by definition abuse....

With growth of personhood theory that denies the intrinsic value of human life, and with the invidiously discriminatory "quality of life" ethic permeating the highest levels of the medical and bioethical thinking, we are moving toward a medical system in which babies are put down like dogs and killing is redefined as a caring act.

But bigotry is bigotry and murder is murder—even if you spell it c.o.m.p.a.s.s.i.o.n.

(HT:  Breakpoint)

Comments

[Heath Griner]

If we don't speak out right now against these practices, they will gain traction and become part of what is accepted and normal here. That's what happened with abortion. Christians sat on their hands and said nothing when they had the chance. Then the opposition won enough hearts and minds to convince people that abortion was OK.

[ScottK]

I agree wholeheartedly.

I believe that the root, however, is in the general lack of Christianity in the populace - which produces a lessening of Christianity in the culture.

The reason that a human life has intrinsic value is because God says it does...God finds it valuable. Society has given up the notion of God. So it is reasonable in societies view to give up the notion of intrinsic human value.

Evangelize!

[Letitia]

First the fetus, then babies. How about young children like this one?

http://talithakoumfiles.blogspot.com/2008/02/i-can-can-you.html

*Letitia*

[Heath Griner]

We should keep in mind that a fetus is a human being at a different stage of development. If you devalue life at one stage of development, you have effectively devalued life at all stages. Wasn't it just a short step from saying it's OK to abort in the first trimester to allowing partial birth abortion? Now infanticide is up for discussions.
Sure is a slippery slope, isn't it?

[SPQR333]

I saw a very interesting German movie recently at a Pro-Life film evening in San Francisco called "After the Truth". It's not a new film and I don't know much about it, but it's about Josef Mengele being put on trial in modern day Germany for crimes against humanity. His defense ends up being all the jargon and vaccuous nonsense about "compassion" and "they were going to die anyway" we hear from people like Peter Singer. See the movie if you can.

[Heath Griner]

SPQR333, it's interesting to me that you mention that particular German film because I've always seen parallels between abortion and what happened in Germany. Both cases involve average citizens turning a blind eye to suffering and blood-letting.
I preached against abortion one year during Sanctity of Life Sunday. At one point I said, "Is this topic making you uncomfortable? Good. Sometimes we need to be uncomfortable."
Most of us wait until it's far too late to get involved. History is never kind when it comes to apathy in the face of suffering.