THURSDAY STUFF: AWAKE YOU WHO SLEEP -X C

Before I post today’s Awake Article, I would first like to apologize to all those who may have been disgusted or offended by the joke I posted yesterday. After thinking about it today, I have to admit that it is a bit tasteless (no pun intended).

AWAKE X:

A Closer Look at the One World Order and

Bible Prophecy - Part III - C

The Devaluation of Life:

Will a society which has assumed the right to kill infants in the womb - because they are unwanted, imperfect, or merely inconvenient - have difficulty in assuming the right to kill other human beings, especially older adults who are judged unwanted, deemed imperfect physically or mentally, or considered a possible social nuisance?

“The next candidates for arbitrary reclassification as non-persons are the elderly. This will become increasingly so as the proportion of the old and weak in relation to the young and strong becomes abnormally large, due to the growing antifamily sentiment, the abortion rate, and medicine's contribution to the lengthening of the normal life span. The imbalance will cause many of the young to perceive the old as a cramping nuisance in the hedonistic lifestyle they claim as their right. As the demand for affluence continues and the economic crunch gets greater, the amount of compassion that the legislature and the courts will have for the old does not seem likely to be significant considering the precedent of the non-protection given to the unborn and newborn.” [Francis Schaeffer, Whatever Happened to the Human Race?]

Euthanasia:

Joseph Fletcher, the author of "situational ethics," in his 1973 discussion of death with dignity gives this argument for euthanasia:

“It is ridiculous to give ethical approval to the positive ending of sub-human life in utero as we do in therapeutic abortions for reasons of mercy and compassion but refuse to approve of positively ending a sub-human life in extremis. If we are morally obliged to put an end to a pregnancy when an amniocentesis reveals a terrible defective fetus, we are equally obliged to put an end to a patient's hopeless misery when a brain scan reveals that a patient with cancer has advanced brain metastases.” [Joseph Fletcher, "Ethics and Euthanasia," American Journal of Nursing, 1973.]

One is reminded of the slave holders who devoutly espoused the theory that slavery was really for the good of the black man and that in the end he would be thankful for the opportunity to share in the white man's culture, even from the distance of the garden shed. The Nazis also argued that their victims were being sacrificed for the high end of the general good of society. Many well-meaning people are attracted to what might seem to be the beneficial aspects of some sort of euthanasia program, because they think they can be free of the guilt of responsibility.

The "right-to-die" movement is not calling for a right to die; they're mostly talking about a right to kill. The advocates of euthanasia are asking the government and courts to step aside and allow people who are feeble and elderly to be snuffed out.

Language is an important tool in convincing others of your position. Euthanasia advocates have been skillful in masking their true intent with slogans like "death with dignity" and "a right to die." These phrases easily capture people's attention. Everyone believes in a death with dignity. But these slogans take on new meaning when they are interpreted by our courts. The right to die may sound wonderful - until we realize that legally it means that you can kill yourself or someone can kill you, even if you don't want to die. Language is powerful. But when it is interpreted by the courts it becomes much more than mere slogans. It becomes the law of the land, and often that interpretation is not at all what we expected. Pretty soon it will become a person’s duty and obligation to have their life ended when they become elderly, disabled or handicapped in any way.

Daily, senior citizens and accident victims are starved to death because their families have been convinced that even food and water are extraordinary means to preserve their life.

Critics of the U.S. Supreme Court' Roe v. Wade decision have long claimed that legalized abortion would lead to legalized euthanasia. Supporters of Roe have often scoffed at the idea, insisting that decisions to eliminate a human fetus in no way devalue the lives of born persons. Yet recent court cases in Michigan and Washington have reversed the debate: Euthanasia supporters are openly citing Roe as precedent for a constitutional right to "rational" suicide. In the case of People v. Kevorkian, a trial judge has relied partly on Roe and the later abortion case, Planned Parenthood v. Casey, to find a constitutional right to assisted suicide. Jack Kevorkian's attorney, Geoffrey Fieger argues that such a right is even better grounded than a right to abortion, because no unwilling 'third party' is involved.

Imagine your health care needs being met by a government agency. Our country has an excess of debt and a shortage of morals. We already kill preborn children; there is violence in virtually every city; drugs and weapons are in our schools; and what a few years ago was called pornography is piped into our homes 24 hours a day on television. The people raised with these norms will constitute the government running the health care system, in which every patient will be an expense. In our present system, every patient is a potential profit. Consider the following scenarios:

A 70-year old retired man needs cataract surgery. This is going to cost the bureaucracy $2,000 for some guy who wants to see, but doesn't make any money. No surgery. (Medicare has already advocated allowing people to go virtually blind before we fix their cataracts.)

A 60-year old grandmother who doesn't generate any income needs dialysis because of kidney failure. That's going to cost thousands. Forget it.

A 50-year old man who makes $25,000 a year needs bypass surgery because of his chest pain. This guy may pay $3,000 a year in taxes; his surgery is going to cost $40,000. His ledger sheet doesn't balance. No surgery.

A baby is born with a handicap that's going to require frequent doctor visits, physical therapy, and multiple medications. What a drain on the system. Deny the baby adequate health care and let him die.

When euthanasia becomes law it will start out on a strictly voluntary basis for the terminally ill. Then it will become available to anyone who wants it, and finally it will be involuntary, practiced on anyone who is a strain on the system: the elderly, the handicapped, and the unemployable - potentially anyone who doesn't benefit the system. Holland has euthanasia. They started out killing the terminally ill, but have veered markedly from this approach. Some estimate that over 50% of those euthanized in Holland are killed without consent. Some of the elderly are afraid to go to the doctor, for fear they will receive involuntary euthanasia. [ Dr. Tom Tolomeo, "Big Brother, M.D.," All About Issues, July-August 1993]

Infanticide:

When the United States Supreme Court made its ruling about abortion in 1973, Justice Blackmon delivered the opinion of the Court. The first section in his opinion was titled "Ancient Attitudes." In it he referred back to pre-Christian law. He said, "Greek and Roman law afforded little protection to the unborn. If abortion was prosecuted in some places, it seems to have been based on a concept of a violation of the father's right to his offspring. Ancient religion did not bar abortion." Thus, as his first point, Justice Blackmon based his opinion on the practice of pre-Christian Greek and Roman law. Most people who read this did not realize the logical result concerning babies after their birth. Roman law permitted not only abortion but also infanticide. As we think this over, we ask ourselves, "Now that this door is open, how long will it be before infanticide is socially accepted and perhaps legalized?"

On June 14, 1981, the Hartford Courant ran an expose entitled "Defective Newborns Are Dying by Design" about infanticide at Yale-New Haven Hospital. The author, Diane Brozek, explained "In some of the cases... parents approached doctors about the possibility of overdose. Other times... doctors suggested the option, assuring parents they would sign the death certificate, no questions asked. The parents ended their infants' lives with morphine or Phenobarbital prescribed by the doctors and usually dissolved in a baby bottle."

Peter Singer, who recently was seated in an endowed chair at Princeton’s Center for Human Values, said, “Killing a disabled infant is not morally equivalent to killing a person. Very often it is not wrong at all.” In May 1973, James D. Watson, the Nobel Prize laureate who discovered the double helix of DNA, granted an interview to Prism magazine, then a publication of the American Medical Association. Time later reported the interview to the general public, quoting Watson as having said, "If a child were not declared alive until three days after birth, then all parents could be allowed the choice only a few are given under the present system. The doctor could allow the child to die if the parents so choose and save a lot of misery and suffering. I believe this view is the only rational, compassionate attitude to have." In January 1978, Francis Crick, also a Nobel laureate, was quoted in the Pacific News Service as saying "... no newborn infant should be declared human until it has passed certain tests regarding its genetic endowment and that if it fails these tests it forfeits the right to live." At a population-control conference in Washington D.C. one speaker saw "no reason why anyone who accepted abortion should balk at infanticide." Another urged certain medical qualifying tests for all newborns. These would determine their genetic characteristics and, thus, whether their right to life should be forfeited. Of course, at present only a few hold these ideas, but unfortunately they are presenting these ideas again and again. Taken a little more seriously each time, they become just a little more thinkable each time.

Sad to say, certain segments of the church are also not without a positive opinion on the subject of infanticide. A task force of the Anglican Church of Canada reached a conclusion in a 1977 report that it could be morally right to terminate the lives of newborn infants with severe brain damage. The callousness of the report is evident in its phraseology: "Our sense and emotions lead us to the grave mistake of treating human-looking shapes as if they were human, although they lack the least vestige of human behavior and intellect. In fact the only way to treat such defective infants humanely is not to treat them as human." Happily, the general synod of the Anglican Church in Canada did not approve the report, but that such a report came forth from an official group of a major denomination in our day says much about the direction taken by certain segments of the church in regard to infanticide.

How far have our Congressmen and Senators slid down that "slippery slope" of abortion toward infanticide? Is it right to kill a fully delivered child? Consider the exchange between Sen. Rick Santorum (R., Pa.) and Senator Russ Feingold (D., Wis.) during the Senate debate on whether to override Clinton's veto of the ban on Partial Birth Abortions:

Sen. Santorum: "If that baby were delivered breech style and everything was delivered except for the head, and for some reason that that baby's head would slip out - that the baby was completely delivered - would it then still be up to the doctor and the mother to decide?"

Sen. Feingold: "The standard of saying it has to be a determination, by a doctor, of health of the mother, is a sufficient standard that would apply to that situation."

Sen. Santorum: "That doesn't answer the question. Let's assume the head is accidentally delivered. Would you allow the doctor to kill the baby?"

Senator Feingold: "That is a question that should be answered by a doctor, and by the woman who received the advice from the doctor."

One cannot underestimate the enormity of the battle before us. For over a decade pro-infanticide forces have been preparing us to accept legalized infanticide. Legalized abortion has made infanticide the next logical step in the devaluation and destruction of innocent lives. Technology such as amniocentesis and ultrasound has enabled us to diagnose a variety of handicaps in the womb. We can legally kill a handicapped child or any child up until the day it is born. But what is the difference between killing a child two days before it is born or two days after its birth? The pro-infanticide forces are also using the same methods now that the pro-abortion advocates used to see abortion legalized. That is, they now focus on the "hard cases" in a way that opens the door. Later, as has happened in abortion, these "hard cases" will be forgotten as infanticide becomes normal practice.

The logical step would then be for the government to limit the number of babies a family may have. In 1971, at the national Conference on Population Education in Washington, D.C., Martha Willing, co-director of Population Dynamics of Seattle, Washington, first proposed tax disincentives for parents who have more than two children. Then the state should proceed "to penalize deliberate violations of a small family norm and set up controls which prevent such violations." She went on to say:

“After the third child is born, both mother and father will have to present themselves at a hospital to undergo sterilization procedures. If the couple does not appear, there will be no birth certificate issued to the third child, but instead a "third child paper." The mother can be tattooed or marked to signify a third birth to any subsequent doctor. Instead of the missing parent, the child can be sterilized on the spot, insuring that this undue share of the gene pool will not be carried forward.”(How monstrous and evil).

SINCE NEXT Thursday is Thanksgiving and since I will

Be leaving on Tuesday to enjoy the holiday with my son who is stationed in Dover, DE, my next Awake post, “The Death of a Nation” won’t be until Thursday, Nov. 29^th.

Happy Thanksgiving to ALL!

“Abouna” Gregori