Another country down

Luxembourg has fallen for the euthanasia movement.

Luxembourg became on Tuesday the third European country to legalise euthanasia after the Netherlands and Belgium, as a new law went into force.

A law published in the official register said that doctors who carry out euthanasia and assisted suicides would not face “penal sanctions” or civil suits for damages and interest.

The law was the source of great controversy in the tiny country where the head of state, deeply catholic Grand Duke Henri, refused to sign off on the bill, triggering a constitutional crisis.

To get around his refusal and avoid such problems in the future, Luxembourg’s parliament voted for legislation to give the monarch a purely ceremonial role.

So that’s two dangerous precedents: Give people the right and power to end life, and take from the monarch the rightful power to save it.

This is what happens when just enough people in office form a consensus. It’s is what Pope Benedict referred to as the “tyranny of the majority”.