Prepare for the time of your life

Specifically, for the end. And make arrangements now so that your end is natural and not untimely. It’s just another matter to attend to, like getting health care and life insurance. Actually, it involves both.

Now that Washington state has passed an assisted suicide law, it’s about to spread across the country. As it already has across parts of Europe. And assisted suicide “will not be un-invented”. That’s just one chilling thought Wesley J. Smith makes in this sobering article about where we’re headed as a culture that accepts the taking of life like never before. 

Soon, legislation will be introduced to legalize assisted suicide in state throughout the country—California, Vermont, Arizona, Wisconsin, Hawaii, perhaps Ohio, and others—to make it Oregon-plus-two, -three, -four, and -five.

The victory will also be used to further the euthanasia cause internationally. Every time a legal sovereignty says yes to mercy killing, it grants permission for others to do the same. Thus, expect I-1000’s passage to boost the cause in countries such as Australia, France, the United Kingdom, and New Zealand—to name just a few—all of which have been edging ever closer in recent years to joining the Netherlands and Belgium in permitting euthanasia, and Switzerland, which allows assisted suicide by lay facilitators.

But to get that far, it had to be (and was) marketed long and effectively as “mercy killing”, or the softer terminology of “Compassion and Choices” (the former Hemlock Society).

Beyond the politics of the thing, the passage of I-1000 begs a far more fundamental question: Why now, when for the first time in human history the pain and discomforting symptoms of serious illness can be substantially alleviated, do so many find mercy killing and suicide so appealing? Think of it as a symptom rather than a cause. The euthanasia movement reflects a profound nihilism that has been spreading like a cancer throughout the West for the past hundred years.

Look at the cases Wesley cites as examples. And consider this quote of Canadian journalist Andrew Coyne:

“A society that believes in nothing can offer no argument even against death. A culture that has lost its faith in life cannot comprehend why it should be endured.”

Don’t go there, watch out for that slope, because the incline just got steeper and more of our fellow citizens are sliding.

Maybe….start a file of information. Learn more at Wesley’s blog, Dr. Mark Mostert’s blog, the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition (where you’ll find Alex Schadenberg) and the Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation, for starters. Because a good knowledge of ‘end of life’ issues protects you and your loved ones from that end being untimely.