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The Groningen Protocol: Shorthand For An Appalling Brutality

Just a brief recommendation that everyone interested in the issue of euthanasia read a short essay published by friend of the CADRE Apologia Christi at his blog Resting on the Shepherd's Portico entitled "The Groningen Protocol: Shorthand For An Appauling Brutality". Here is a portion of the essay:

The Abstract Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in the Netherlands suggest that a person's "quality of life" is the criterion to decide whether or not they deserves to live or be terminated. This argument states that humans are only valuable at a stage of existence. If the infant doesn't immediately qualify then regardless of it's instrumental worth, it can be discarded. The issue here is "suffering." The doctors and parents want to end the life because the potential life of the child is arbitrarily deemed to suffer. What if the euthanasia doesn't end their suffering though? What's being imposed here is that this life is all that exists. Now I know that last statement can refer to some sort of theistic elements, but isn't that even in the realm of possibilities here? What if there is life beyond this and by taking the life of the infant, you've condemned them to endless misery and greater suffering than before? Is personal autonomy the goal here? If that's the case then anyone who has a migraine or allergies has the right to commit suicide because their are no restrictions; The choice is relative to the person. This normative relativism digs deep at the libertarian, which I think is morally bankrupt.

"What if euthanasia doesn't end their suffering?" "What if there is life beyond this and by taking the life of the infant, you've condemned them to endless misery and greater suffering than before?" Wow! This is, of course a very difficult question, and I find the suggestion that some infants will go to hell before they even have the chance to really live very uncomfortable.

Some denominations hold that a child prior to the age of consent goes to heaven, and in those denominations, this would not be considered an issue. However, isn't it possible that until someone confesses with their lips and believes in their hearts that Jesus Christ is Lord, original sin will confine them to eternal separation from God? Personally, I don't think so due to my own view of how infants are saved (which is admittedly outside the mainstream). But this is a very interesting question, and one worth thinking about.

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