Scottish “Children’s Advocates” Want Assisted Suicide for Children

This article is hard to write as it is so predictable — and completely frightening.   The history of assisted suicide/euthanasia in European countries has proven that there are no “safeguards,” and that additional populations are continually added to those included in these heinous acts.

You might think this would at least exclude children, but think again.  Belgium legalized euthanasia for children earlier this year, and now proponents in Scotland want to mirror the Belgians.

Assisted suicide is currently not legal in Scotland, but there is agitation for the law to be changed.  A group called “Together,” which represents a number of children’s charities in Scotland, has recommended that the age of consent to ask for assisted suicide — currently set at age 16 — is too high.   Too high!  These groups asked the health and sport committee, which is dealing with assisted suicide proposals, to look at other European countries for guidance.   

Consider what Paul Russell wrote recently about Belgium:  The Belgium Parliament, he wrote, “fell for the ‘stringent safeguard’ sleight of hand that has patently failed the Belgian people over the last 11 years.  In a country where nearly a third of reported euthanasia cases show no record of request or consent and where only a little over half of all euthanasia acts are reported to the government Euthanasia Evaluation Committee (both required by law) and, where this committee has not referred one case for consideration by the authorities, even the semblance of safety and due regard for process is little more than a macabre joke on the Belgian people.”

“Together” told the health and sports committee that “terminal illnesses do not discriminate based on the age of a person and, accordingly, neither should health care.”

The anti-euthanasia group “Care Not Killing” described the proposal as “monstrous” and “unthinkable.”  The views of proponents have become so extreme that putting someone to death by euthanasia is viewed as “health care.”   Who will protect the children if those who pretend to advocate for them won’t?   It is a piercing question.

Barbara Lyons