Family Restoration is not Fostered by Physician Assisted Suicide

The increasing interest in and promulgation of euthanasia and physician assisted-suicide reveals a most ironic twist of fate and rather incredible phenomenon. We are now witnessing proactive advocacy for the annihilation of a people group: the elderly. While horrific, it is also undeniably ironic. The very people who advocated for abortion in the sixties and seventies are now Medicare eligible, and now, under the guise of compassion, younger generations of law makers, policy shapers and academics stand ready to terminate their lives.

Disregarding the sanctity of life at its conception has indeed fostered an inability to preserve the sanctity of life at its end. The value we attribute to life at its beginning is directly correlated to the value we attribute to life at its end, and at the crux of this value determination is the idea of “wantedness.” Antionette Duck has written an excellent article setting forth this premise, and detailing how it is being carried out in American society and health care – and how it is affecting individuals and their families. Here’s an excerpt:

“When a human being is wanted, society treats him well. Society makes room for him, (makes allowances) for him, provides for him. When a human being is unwanted, society no longer feels compelled to treat him well. Rather, unlike his wanted counterpart, the unwanted human being must suffer a society that pushes him out and refuses to provide for him.

To illustrate this concept of wantedness, I submit two points: terminology and life-saving measures. When a human being is wanted, society invokes flowery terminology emphasizing the individual's value. When a human being is not wanted, society invokes terminology depicting, in essence, that the individual has become a nuisance, a burden, and a bother….”

Read the entire article here.