Finally a European Official Criticizes the Dutch
Carlo Giovanardi, an Italian government official, is in hot water for likening the pending legalization of infanticide in the Netherlands to what happened during World War II in Germany, when doctors murdered hundreds of thousands disabled infants and adults. I am not a big fan of raising the Nazi specter, partly because nothing we are talking about today matches that mother of all death cultures in scope or magnitude, and partly because, ironically, bringing up the Nazis allows people deserving of strong criticism to deflect the reproach. Thus, Giovanardi says that killing disabled babies is what the Nazis did, and the Dutch merely retort (correctly) that they are not Nazis, allowing his deserved and righteous criticism falls on happily deaf ears.
Not that there isn't a rough analogy: German doctors were hanged at Nuremberg for having committed infanticide, an act some Dutch doctors do today with near impunity, and which will soon be formally legalized. The apologists for the Dutch claim that their infanticide and the German euthanasia program were different: The former, they claim, is based in compassion and patient welfare, the latter was steeped in bigotry.
Well, a killed baby is a killed baby, but even beyond that point, the Dutch defense doesn't exactly hold water: The German euthanasia program was considered a "healing treatment," and seen as a compassionate act that was best for the killed infant as well as the family and society. Moreover, it was driven by doctors and not by "the Nazis."
It's too involved to go into here, but it is an important issue worth revisiting in this age of creeping medical utilitarianism. I hope to write at greater length about this matter soon.
For now, let us say good for Signore Giovanardi. It is about time someone important in Europe began calling the Dutch on the carpet for their infanticide program.
posted by Wesley J. Smith @ 7:03 PM
1 Comments
1 Comments:
As a Dutchman, I think I have a slightly different perspective on this, which I'd like to share. You use the word utilitarianism and this is the crux of the dispute, I think. I wouldn't call the decision of a doctor to perform euthanasia utilitarian. It's intended as an act of mercy for a fellow human suffering unbearably.
In the Netherlands, euthanasia may only take place when the patient has a condition medically diagnosed as incurable and unbearable and has made a request for euthanasia when the patient was in full possession of his mental faculties. Compare it to assisted suicide when someone insists their situation is unbearable and physicians agree on this -and- know of no way to cure the situation.
Ofcourse this is extremely complicated in the case of children being born with uncurable problems. And some of these may be open to discussion, like open spina bifida with serious complications. In these cases, the subject can't decide and make requests for themselves. Nor can anyone get an insight into whether or not the condition is 'unbearable'. Parents and physicians are left with an almost impossibly hard dilemma.
However, Giovanardi crosses all boundaries of decency with his (false) claims. He states that Dutch hospitals would be killing off kids with Down syndrome, which is simply outrageous. There's nothing unbearable or uncurable about it, as any person with Down's will agree. As such, it would never qualify and this Italian politician is clearly ill-informed and crossing some boundaries he shouldn't.
Note: the notion of 'unbearable' applies to the subject, not their parents, partners or whoever is taking care of them in their condition.
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