A Steady and Dangerous Descent

Some have dubbed it the "slippery slope." Former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop called it "The Slide to Auschwitz." Now, the Netherlands is providing more evidence that once a society begins to devalue life, it's a steady and dangerous descent into a culture of death.

CNSNews.com reports today on a new directive that will be discussed in the Netherlands parliament later this month.

Four years after becoming the first nation formally to legalize euthanasia, the Netherlands is set to amend its legislation to provide for the euthanasia of newborn babies, under certain circumstances.

The report further states that child euthanasia has already been practiced in the Netherlands, and that a Netherlands hospital claims that the practice is also common in the United States.

The Groningen Academic Hospital, where doctors drew up the guidelines, made headlines last year when it admitted publicly that it had carried out euthanasia on terminally ill newborn babies.

The hospital claimed the practice was common elsewhere in the world, including in the U.S.

Government officials said there were 10-15 cases of child euthanasia in the Netherlands every year and doctors were eager for the directive to be adopted so they will not be prosecuted.

In "The Slide to Auschwitz," a 1977 address given to the American Academy of Pediatrics, C. Everett Koop stated that he saw "the progression from abortion to infanticide, to euthanasia, to the problems that developed in Nazi Germany..." The Netherlands seems to be eerily traveling that same road.

In April, soon after the starvation death of Terri Schiavo, I wrote an article on this same subject . The following is a paragraph from that article which talks about the acceptance of euthanasia in pre-Nazi Germany.

In 1920, well before the Nazis rose to power, German judge Karl Binding and psychiatrist Alfred Hoche wrote "The Release of the Destruction of Life Devoid of Value," a 60 page booklet which suggested that some lives were not worth living. Binding and Hoche justified euthanasia of "absolutely worthless human beings." Over time, the ideas presented by Binding and Hoche gained acceptance in German society.

Compare the acceptance in pre-Nazi Germany of the idea that some human lives were not worth living, with the following quotes from the CNSNews.com article about the current situation in the Netherlands.

The new directive, which will be debated in parliament later this month and most likely approved without a vote...

The 2001 euthanasia law and the new directive have drawn little public opposition in the Netherlands...

"We see there is more concern outside of Holland than in Holland itself."

In other words, the Netherlands was the first nation to legalize euthanasia. Now they are preparing to take another step by legalizing the euthanasia of babies, and nobody cares!

So where is the United States headed? To answer that question, simply look at where we have been and where we are. Since the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, over 45 million babies have been killed through legal abortion in the U.S. We've seen infanticide practiced ("Baby Doe," born with Down's Syndrome in Bloomington, Indiana is discussed in my article linked above). We've watch the court ordered starvation and dehydration death of Terri Schiavo. And just today, we've been hearing all about the debate over Oregon's physician-assisted suicide law.

It's a steady and dangerous descent into a culture of death.