By Judie Brown
“‘Will you walk into my parlor?’ said the spider to the fly.” Such is the wily message of those who appeal to the base instincts that thwart selfless acts of love in favor of sating an ego. But thankfully in our age, there are heroes and heroines who never fall for the marketing ploys of the death peddlers—those who denigrate the intrinsic value of each human being in favor of wreaking mayhem as they treat people like disposable objects.
But not everyone falls for the gimmicks. Eva Edl is one such heroic figure. Edl fled a concentration camp and has lived a life full of appreciation for her fellow human beings, born and preborn. But now she is facing prison time because she dared to defend the babies!
Some say that because of her age and the length of her potential sentence, Edl may die in prison, but “she is already resigned to the possibility that she will be imprisoned until the end of her life for her protests, during which she and others attempted to dissuade women from going through with their planned abortions.”
Edl explained, “When I was indicted, I began to prepare to die there. . . . Right now, I am ambivalent. . . . I’m doing the best I can to get ready. Haven’t talked to a funeral director yet.”
If you doubt her sincerity as she speaks of her love of all babies, examine the sign she carried at the protests against abortion. It reads, “Human embryos are not disposable.” Having lived under a regime that treated human beings in such a cavalier manner, Edl knows and sincerely attests to the truth about the integrity of a single human being, no matter her age or state of residence, including the fallopian tube.
Dying for life is not a threat for Edl. It is an expected result, and she is ready for it. While some celebrate the killing of the preborn, others like Edl silently witness to truth.
Contrast her story with that of the disciples of planned death—those who advocate for assisted suicide and other forms of euthanasia. Wesley J. Smith is correct, writing that “killing/suicide isn’t a medical act. So why should it be restricted to doctors and nurse practitioners?” In our culture, as in that of Germany, imposing death on oneself is silently welcomed.
Smith points out that “Germany’s highest court declared a fundamental right to commit suicide, to be assisted in suicide by any willing accomplice, and to assist a suicide—without regard to why someone wants to die, meaning no health reasons required.”
Case in point is the story of 85-year-old former doctor Stephen Miller, who “plead guilty to manslaughter in the death of a 59 year-old woman who died in November 2023 at The Super 8 Hotel in Kingston New York. Miller is a retired doctor and assisted suicide activist from Arizona.”
Miller lost his license to practice medicine in 2006 due to tax fraud, but he is clearly honing his real profession—killing others—to this very day. And as his attorney said, “He’s an 85-year-old man who simply wanted to provide comfort and counseling to someone who couldn’t live with the pain in their life anymore. . . . For his life to end, dying alone in a jail cell in New York, is, frankly, disgusting.”
What is really disgusting is that there are attorneys and others who feign concern, not because someone was murdered, but because the killer is being charged with a crime. At the time of his sentencing, his lawyer said, “Morally, Stephen Miller did nothing wrong.”
In those few words, we see not only the distortion of the word morally, but the twisted logic of a murderous society.
Miller is a murderer, and Edl is a model for each and every one of us. Edl loves life and celebrates that gift, regardless of the vicious words and thoughts of those around her. Let this contrast between the two world views currently competing in our midst result in a renewal of homage and repentance before God.
Dying for life is far superior to extinguishing life in a moral free fall. But take solace and recall Christ’s words to His disciples: “I say this to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you; so that you may be children of your father in heaven, for he causes his sun to rise on the bad as well as the good, and sends down rain to fall on the upright and the wicked alike.”
Let us pray for all those who see such little value in human beings that they see no problem with taking a life.