"Euthanasia: Right or Wrong?"

What do Luxembourg, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Holland have in common?

Euthanasia.

But Belgium wants to crank it up a notch--and extend the law to children.

"The principle of euthanasia for children sounds shocking at first, but it's motivated by compassion and protection," said John Harris, a professor of bioethics at the University of Manchester. "It's unfair to provide euthanasia differentially to some citizens and not to others (children) if the need is equal."

Advocates argue that euthanasia for children, with the consent of their parents, is necessary to give families an option in a desperately painful situation.

Belgium legalized the practice for adults (or emancipated minors beginning at age 15) in 2002. The ruling Socialist party has (after 2 years of debate) proposed a bill that would expand the right to children of any age, as long as their parents agree.

The Christian perspective believes in the sanctity of life from the moment of conception until natural death. That disqualifies:

• abortion
• assisted-suicide
• euthanasia

The argument that "everyone has a right to do what they want with their own body" doesn't hold water.

When human life is trivialized, there are dire consequences for everybody. It inevitably escalates.

For instance:

Arguments for abortion in the case of "rape, incest, or the mother's health" morphed into"a woman's right to choose", followed by late-term abortion, partial-birth abortion, and finally, infanticide moments after birth.

It takes little imagination to see assisted-suicide and euthanasia taking the same slippery slope to include the:

• elderly
• disabled
• mentally challenged

"Modern medicine," says the National Hospice Organization, "offers sophisticated methods of pain control that enable patients to carry on an alert, pain-free life." They reject the practice of voluntary euthanasia.

As Christians we believe God has a reason for everything under the sun. Even suffering. (Ever hear of a death-bed conversion?)

To take life out of the hands of God and change laws so that doctors, relatives and others can directly and intentionally end another person's life is wrong.

To allow a child to decide? Insanity.

A wise man once said: "One of our major problems as Americans today is that we want only the joy, not the sorrow. Many of us mistakenly believe that life is life only when it is healthy and comfortable. But God knows better. To make us whole, He makes sure that we experience every season--not only the springtime of youth, but also the austerity of winter. As C.S. Lewis remarked,'this fullness of experience is so necessary to our souls that perpetual springtime is not allowed.'" --Chuck Colson

"You shall not murder." --Exodus 20:13, Deuteronomy 5:17

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