Dutch hospital euthanizes newborns

This is the same country where a person wearing a fur coat can be stoned by local townfolk. Strange that animals are considered more sacred than a human life... very strange.

Where there is no respect for the gift of life, we can expect more horror stories.

Strange that animals are considered more sacred than a human life... very strange.

I know....it's very odd.

Where there is no respect for the gift of life, we can expect more horror stories.

I stumbled across a website the other day that had pictures of aborted fetuses on it.  All of them, even the ones that were only 8 or 9 weeks gestation, were easily recognisible as human.  It hit me pretty hard...it made me slide a little more towards being pro-life.  Anyway, I'm rambling....I understand your feelings about it.  This, to me, is another rung down the ladder of depravity and indifference.  I understand that these children are born with these conditions, but.....how can someone who has carried that child to term, birthed it, seen it, had hands on it, bonded with it...how can they kill it, or make arrangements for it to be killed?

We euthanize animals, not humans.

For seriously ill patients there is often very little between assisting them dying and just not keeping them alive. A number of recent court cases in the UK have backed doctors decisions to remove life support from terminally ill children or not to resussicate them if they stop breathing.

I do however feel that for minors, decision for euthanasia need to be made both by the parents and by an impartial (and emotionally unattached) legal guardian. If both parties agreed that the child will never have an acceptable quality of life then I have no problems with it. This can especially be the case with premature babies where they can be kept alive, but because they were so pre mature will never develop properly.

paul.

I do however feel that for minors, decision for euthanasia need to be made both by the parents and by an impartial (and emotionally unattached) legal guardian

Is God emotionally unattached enough?

A number of recent court cases in the UK have backed doctors decisions to remove life support from terminally ill children or not to resussicate them if they stop breathing.

I know, I read the British papers every day. 

I too have a DNR and a living will.  I, however, am a consenting adult, able to make decisions for myself.  These are infants, they have no such ability, which means that someone else has to make that decision for them.

I'm not advocationg it, nor am I condeming it......I just think that the legal and moral implications are far-reaching and extremely complicated.

The article, and your comments say it all Dharma. I guess they could call these post partum abortions. That way they would at least get the support of NARAL and the other kooks.

Manopeace,
recent UK court cases centrered on teh fact that doctors could keep children alive after God pulled the plug, by resuscitating them or leaving them permanently on ventilation machines. This could be kept up for years with severely mentally under-developed kids (not brain dead, but with under developed brains making noraml human functioning impossible). UK doctors (medical trusts to be precise) took some cases to court when the doctors and parents couldn't agree what was best for the child. in all instances the courts have ruled for the doctors, basically saying that terminally ill children should be allowed die naturally when ther is no hope of curing them or giving them quality of life.
So God already pulled the plug on these kids and they keep trying to die. It's a question as to whether modern medicine should keep them alive, just because they can.

Paul.

Guy,
you haven't been very clear on where you draw the line making it hard to respond. You obviously oppose aborrtions but what are your views on euthanasia? Do you believe that terminally ill patients should not have the right to die, or just terminally ill children? Do you believe doctors should keep patients 'alive' at any cost, or that at some stage the quality of life should be considered?

Paul.

several years ago, my brother-in-law (who was also one of my closest friends for many years) was diagnosed with a very aggressive case of bladder cancer.  altho it was detected nearly as soon as it became symptomatic and received exceptional care by a team of experienced, skillful doctors, within 9 months a relatively young, very strong (the kinda guy who was naturally well-muscled) man could have easily been mistaken for a concentration camp victim. his last few days were clearly very painful and i kept hoping someone would accidentally triple his pain meds. 

 i recently spent two weeks watching another relative go from seriously ill to 'improved' thanks to a tracheotomy and stomach intubation that left him unable to speak.  it was nearly impossible to tell when or if he was lucid (all of this complicated by alzheimers). he would continually draw his legs up and then relax them...whether in pain or just some sorta reflexive thing was impossible to determine.  because he was no longer 'critical' he was returned to a nursing home, a room shared by three strangers who were also totally dependendt, unable to communicate and about whom the best one could say was they were alive--altho that's giving best a very wide latitude. several days later--after enduring the best care insurance could buy--he died.  at best he endured 17 days of fear, pain and near-total loss of dignity.  altho id previously had difficulty dealing with open casket services (when i personally knew the decedent), this time it wasnt a totally unpleasant experience because i could clearly see none of the signs of torment hed exhibited while still alive.

perhaps im being too subjective or permitting two extremely horrific experiences to cloud my thinking, but just as life isnt always what it should be, neither is death.   should a newborn who is clearly suffering and will clearly not survive on its own be forced to suffer needlessly?  are infants somehow immune to the type of pain adults experience?   someone please try to explain to me why or how this is in any way noble, moral or demonstrates a respect for life.

i live in the netherlands and i often find that all these choices available to an individual can't be good...not in the long run anyway.