By Judie Brown
The Oregon scene these days puts a new veneer on the killing machine we recognize as assisted suicide. The state’s lawmakers are considering a legislative proposal that would remove the residency requirement from the state’s Death with Dignity Act. Some have referred to this as the first step in making Oregon the first “death tourism” state. Not necessarily a moniker any Oregonian should be proud of, but again, this is 2023!
In Florida, Mr. and Mrs. Jerry Gilland planned well in advance for the moment when Mrs. Gilland would fatally shoot her husband. The plan included her then taking her own life, but at the last minute she could not do it. She has been charged with first degree murder and is being held without bail.
But the underlying questions surrounding such premeditated acts of suicide and murder have escaped scrutiny given the tendency America has to feel a distorted sense of compassion toward those who claim their suffering is too great for them to continue living.
It is clear that in the USA four dogs scheduled to be euthanized in Texas deserve compassion and adoption, but when spouses kill their mate, their actions are somehow a sign of heroic virtue. As Flannery O’Connor said, “In the absence of faith, we govern by tenderness. And tenderness leads to the gas chamber.”
Yet we must ask ourselves whether or not a half century of blindly killing children before birth by naming it something else has led us to a point where taking anyone’s life is fair game.
When the mainstream media become frenzied because abortion pills could be taken off pharmacy shelves, something has run off the rails. And that something is humane treatment of innocent people. Perhaps it is time to be less concerned for our four-legged friends and more caring toward our children before and after birth.
We are currently living among people who, according to some pollsters, are salivating for more, not fewer, abortions. A recent Gallup Poll found these disturbing trends:
- 69% of U.S. adults are dissatisfied with the country’s abortion policies, a record high since Gallup started polling on the question in 2001.
- A 46% plurality think the country’s laws should be less strict, marking a 16% jump from January 2022
Further, a mere 15% want more restrictions on abortion, and worst of all, not a single question appeared concerning whether or not people were aware that aborting a child takes the life of a human being.
God forbid that we advocated more animal control, but apparently the more people-killing the better.
A stunning picture emerges in the numbers and reports cited here, and it is that for Americans, at least, the value and dignity of the human person has become a distant second in concerns about the path our public policies are taking. Clearly, we are more worried about animals than we are about people.
In the struggle to defend the ones God created in His own image and likeness, there must be a greater emphasis on the value and dignity of the human being, or this train wreck we call society will simply crash and burn.
We find the motivation to expose the horrors in our midst in these words from the Church’s pastoral constitution Gaudium et Spes:
The truth is that only in the mystery of the incarnate Word does the mystery of man take on light. For Adam, the first man, was a figure of Him Who was to come, namely Christ the Lord. Christ, the final Adam, by the revelation of the mystery of the Father and His love, fully reveals man to man himself and makes his supreme calling clear.
As pro-life people of God, we cling to this truth; we insist that human beings have an innate dignity that is a gift from God.
We do this because we know that where there is no respect for that gift, the blood will run, and hatred will grow. Let us pray for the strength to fend off such evil every single day lest our nation become one that reveres animals but that treats people like parasites.