Active Euthanasia

Independent reported Doctors are urging health regulators to consider allowing the "active euthanasia" of severely disabled newborn babies.

If we failed to abort them in the womb, kill them in the nursery

The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecology has put forward the option of permitting mercy killings of the sickest infants to a review of medical ethics.

If you are considering this your ethics definitely need a review

It says "active euthanasia" should be considered for the overall benefit of families who would otherwise suffer years of emotional and financial suffering.

Kill them to avoid financial suffering.

Leo blogged When one is god-less, one tends to fill the void by playing the part himself, and invariably failing miserably at it. Nothing illustrates that concept better than this news story.

As an educator who works with some severely disabled children, I am here to say that every life has value. Every life has purpose. I have worked with some severely disabled children who are more loving, and yes, more human than the many pointy-headed arrogant intellectuals who claim to know better.

To value life based solely on outward functionality and/or arbitrary level of/ contribution to society, rather than on its inherent sacredness, is to engage in the same god-less mentality that led to the gas chambers at Auschwitz, the Stalinist purges, the killing fields in Cambodia, and every instance of man's inhumanity to man since time immemoriam.

Dr. Melissa blogged

By the way, the picture used for an article about this is of a preemie bigger than my sons were when they were born. One died. The other one is in the kitchen learning his multiplication tables.

The boys were born at 24 weeks gestation. One pound, eight ounces (at birth--he dropped serious weight after that) or 750 grams at birth. There are doctors today who recommend that these children be denied medical care. Death.

My son is moderately disabled (he doesn't know this.) Slow development, lung problems, lack of coordination, muscle weakness, autism, nearly every milestone years behind, executive functioning problems.

Life was transcendent bliss and hell at the same time for the first few years. It still isn't easy. My trials with my son have lead me to levels of empathy, patience and understanding on the one hand and frustration, isolation and rage on the other hand. I had to relearn how I looked at life. And I'm so glad to have had the opportunity.

And yet, we are lucky. Some parents have children who require round-the-clock care and do live in hell and their child was bigger and born later than my sons. Some children are suffering because of medical mistakes. Do you see the temptation for a doctor who just screwed up big time?

No one can predict life and death or level of disability right after birth in so many cases. One child who was on ECHMO, who I thought for sure would die, lives today. How do you know which way it will turn out? What if you make a mistake? What if a doctor believes a baby will turn out fine...and doesn't?


Sister Toldjah blogged Sounds like there are a few (too few) voices of sanity on this issue in the UK. I’ll be very eager to read about the results of the “ethics review” for this proposed “option.” I’m usually reluctant to throw the Hitler card on the table, but I can’t resist doing so here because what the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecology are suggesting sounds all too familar.