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License to kill in GB
Peter Kopa, Prague, 8.12.2024
Euthanasia or the salami tactic
In Germany, there is a saying that, in order to achieve something difficult in politics, it is best to apply the tactic of cutting salami, in more or less thin slices, instead of consuming it all at once, because it would attract too much attention: first it was the contraceptive pill, then followed abortions, and now we come to assisted euthanasia. The next slice could be that the citizen has no more right to live than 75 years, after which a special service of the state would give the old man/ woman a lethal injection against the background of a song of angels, in the presence of the heir’s own family. In the face of serious illness or incapacity, if the family itself thought first of the inheritance, it could favor its father or mother the passage to eternity.
The dignity of life is denied
https://thinktanklatam.org/hanna-arendt-ii-sobre-el-mal/
The terrible vote of a few days ago in the British House of Commons allows euthanasia to be applied to those who are not considered worthy of life. This crime against the Fifth Commandment has unfortunately been allowed, for years, in other Christian countries such as Canada, Switzerland or Holland, with terrible consequences.
Until now, Great Britain still had the outward appearances and trappings of a Christian country. Now it is a different country, with post-Christian laws and government. It is the moral decay of a national Church, with a Christian monarch, adorned with all the paraphernalia of the old State Christianity: it is an illusion, a theatrical representation, a set behind which the emptiness is hidden. If the King signs this legislation, which he will, as happened with the legalization of abortion in 1967, the process initiated by Henry VIII, declaring himself Supreme Head of the Church of England, will have reached its final, ugly and fetid result.
Perhaps some will say that this kind of language is exaggerated; reservations may be expressed or it may be assumed that the “slippery slope” will not be reached, which in a few years would allow the coercion of the State, which would force people to die under the conditions that it decides according to its own interests. In the Netherlands, euthanasia can be applied even to children from the age of 12 and pensioners, economically unproductive, run the risk that the official health insurance will no longer cover expensive treatments.
https://thinktanklatam.org/the-good-and-the-evil-ii/
The Nazi state not only killed those it considered “unworthy of life”, cynically qualifying it as an act of mercy, but also liquidated a quarter of a million people for euthanasic reasons. In the Catholic Church there were those who raised their voices, who were not afraid, who were not cowards but courageous and firm in their convictions.
Thus, the Bishop of Münster, now Blessed Clemens von Galen, preached passionately and energetically against the Nazi euthanasia laws, at the risk of his own life. So powerful was his preaching and teaching that he became known as the “Lion of Münster. Another courageous leader was Fr. Alfred Delp, S.J., executed by the Nazis in 1945.
What to do?
Any person who is a bearer of Judeo-Christian culture, or at least convinced of the most elementary natural morality that resonates in the conscience, cannot remain silent. The cowardly silence allowed Hitler to rise to power, as in so many other nations or kingdoms in history that have been victims of tyrannies and despotisms.
Certain professionals are dramatically challenged by this question: in particular physicians, who have taken the Hippocratic oath to defend life, or nurses or any other medical professional. During the COVID 19 pandemic, we have seen how physicians in various countries lost their professional licenses for not applying the drugs or treatments required by the State or for protesting against it, which has unnecessarily cost the lives of thousands of people all over the world.
Who will speak, who will act, who will witness? It can only be men and women who, true to their conscience, do not participate in this crime. The Protestant theologian Stanley Hauerwas has written some very concise and simple words that offer us a blueprint for how to respond. He wrote, “I say that, 100 years from now, if Christians are known as a rare group of people who do not kill their children or their elders, we will have done a great thing.”
Source: Fr. Benedict Kiely / Anthony Esolen, art. 2.12.2024 Catholic Thing, USA
