Meet the New Gods
Texas has a law allowing hospitals to cut off treatment to the terminally ill with just a ten day notice-despite the wishes of the next of kin or guardian. This situation is guaranteed a bad end, with people having the plug pulled despite the will of loved ones or even the patient himself. Texas has given doctors the power to play God.
This story is a case in point; doctors want to take this terminally ill baby off life support and let her asphyxiate despite the bitter protests of his family. Baby Emilio has Leigh`s Disease, a terminal neurological illness which will kill him. His family, while knowing he will die, are not prepared to watch the boy suffocate, not while he still shows signs of consciousness. Doctors at Brackenridge Children`s Hospital have decided to override the wishes of the parents and liquidate the child, so the Gonzalez family has brought suit and obtained an order giving them more time.
Increasingly we are witnessing this sort of thing; ``authorities`` determining who lives and who dies based on their own opinions. Those opinions may be right (or not) but America has traditionally believed that we are not the arbiters of who lives and who dies. That, Americans believed, was the province of the Almighty, and a doctor or other person who usurped that right was considered immoral.
Anyone remember the movie Malice? Alec Baldwin (perfect casting) played a doctor who removed the ovaries of his grifter girlfriend (Nicole Kidman) to scam the hospital which hadn`t given him a promotion out of a malpractice award. At the inquest, Baldwin say ``when those people are in the chapel praying, who do you think they`re praying to? You ask if I have a God complex? I AM God!`` Of course, this leads to a huge monetary award to Kidman.
The point I am making is that, while this attitude may have been a bit extreme, we are increasingly seeing this type of thinking in America today; ``experts``-real or self-appointed-believe they have the right to determine the future of others, up to the length of people`s lives. Gone is the humility which characterized American such issues, replaced by a blinding arrogance born of a purely material view of the nature of Man. One often wonders how Communists could be so cold-blooded in killing people, or how the Nazis could so casually enslave, murder, and dispose of the bodies of helpless individuals, but it should not surprise when utility is the guiding principle-of course communists and Nazis murder without thought those who are inconvenient or bothersome. They have usurped the Godhead, placed themselves in the position of ultimate judge. Communists were the high priests of economic necessity, Nazis of the Will of the Volk. In either case they discarded an absolute standard for an arbitrary one, with themselves are the arbitrators.
Increasingly, America is following suit with our enthrallment with the technology we have created, with our own arrogance, with our self-admiration for the science we have discovered. Increasingly ``Thy Will be Done`` is turning to ``My will over all`` and we no longer consider moral imperatives, but utilitarian concerns. This way will lead to our undoing.
It leads to a strange dichotomy; on the one hand we have those who insist we clone and cobble up fetuses for stem-cells, and those same individuals are often the ones who demand the right to pull the plug on people. If those stem-cells are our salvation, as they so often claim, isn`t it worth keeping the ill alive as long as possible? Isn`t a cure right around the corner? Yet they seem strangely willing to throw those individuals under the metaphorical bus.
It`s the desire to play God. They want the power to decide who lives and who dies, to control the human condition from cradle to grave. This is a malady guaranteed to bring down wrath upon us; there is only one God, and we aren`t Him. There are too many mistakes that can be made by pseudo-gods, and those who want to play at the godhead will find it is very, very difficult to get things right.
We need a return to the respect for the dignity of all human life.
This story is a case in point; doctors want to take this terminally ill baby off life support and let her asphyxiate despite the bitter protests of his family. Baby Emilio has Leigh`s Disease, a terminal neurological illness which will kill him. His family, while knowing he will die, are not prepared to watch the boy suffocate, not while he still shows signs of consciousness. Doctors at Brackenridge Children`s Hospital have decided to override the wishes of the parents and liquidate the child, so the Gonzalez family has brought suit and obtained an order giving them more time.
Increasingly we are witnessing this sort of thing; ``authorities`` determining who lives and who dies based on their own opinions. Those opinions may be right (or not) but America has traditionally believed that we are not the arbiters of who lives and who dies. That, Americans believed, was the province of the Almighty, and a doctor or other person who usurped that right was considered immoral.
Anyone remember the movie Malice? Alec Baldwin (perfect casting) played a doctor who removed the ovaries of his grifter girlfriend (Nicole Kidman) to scam the hospital which hadn`t given him a promotion out of a malpractice award. At the inquest, Baldwin say ``when those people are in the chapel praying, who do you think they`re praying to? You ask if I have a God complex? I AM God!`` Of course, this leads to a huge monetary award to Kidman.
The point I am making is that, while this attitude may have been a bit extreme, we are increasingly seeing this type of thinking in America today; ``experts``-real or self-appointed-believe they have the right to determine the future of others, up to the length of people`s lives. Gone is the humility which characterized American such issues, replaced by a blinding arrogance born of a purely material view of the nature of Man. One often wonders how Communists could be so cold-blooded in killing people, or how the Nazis could so casually enslave, murder, and dispose of the bodies of helpless individuals, but it should not surprise when utility is the guiding principle-of course communists and Nazis murder without thought those who are inconvenient or bothersome. They have usurped the Godhead, placed themselves in the position of ultimate judge. Communists were the high priests of economic necessity, Nazis of the Will of the Volk. In either case they discarded an absolute standard for an arbitrary one, with themselves are the arbitrators.
Increasingly, America is following suit with our enthrallment with the technology we have created, with our own arrogance, with our self-admiration for the science we have discovered. Increasingly ``Thy Will be Done`` is turning to ``My will over all`` and we no longer consider moral imperatives, but utilitarian concerns. This way will lead to our undoing.
It leads to a strange dichotomy; on the one hand we have those who insist we clone and cobble up fetuses for stem-cells, and those same individuals are often the ones who demand the right to pull the plug on people. If those stem-cells are our salvation, as they so often claim, isn`t it worth keeping the ill alive as long as possible? Isn`t a cure right around the corner? Yet they seem strangely willing to throw those individuals under the metaphorical bus.
It`s the desire to play God. They want the power to decide who lives and who dies, to control the human condition from cradle to grave. This is a malady guaranteed to bring down wrath upon us; there is only one God, and we aren`t Him. There are too many mistakes that can be made by pseudo-gods, and those who want to play at the godhead will find it is very, very difficult to get things right.
We need a return to the respect for the dignity of all human life.
posted by Timothy Birdnow | 5:32 AM
2 Comments:
I read some interesting commentary on it over at the Free Capitalist website today. The author argued that it was in the best interest of the child to take him off life support. Summary of the artlice is that Wwen another person’s life hangs in the balance, a choice must be made between selfish compassion and loving compassion. The only endurable and principled choice is love. -- medford
Thanks for giving us that link, Medford; it was a poignant piece and made some excellent points.
By the way, I agree with him that the mother shouldn`t keep this child on the border between life and death, but I believe (as does this author) that the parents should make the final decision, not the State or doctors.
Thanks again!
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