Does History Repeat Itself?

< Idiot Alert >
Something terrible is happening in the land of wooden shoes, windmills, Rembrandt (search) and wonderful breakfasts.

A Dutch hospital is euthanizing ? killing ? newborn babies who don't measure up to an arbitrary standard set by the hospital. The hospital at first requested guidelines for so-called "mercy killings" of newborns. It then revealed it has been engaging in the practice without any guidelines at all. Three years after the Dutch parliament passed a law allowing doctors to actively kill patients they deemed terminally ill, in great pain and with no prospects for recovery, it has come to this. At least with the elderly sick, they had to be consulted about their wishes. Newborns receive no such privilege.

I'm not surprised.

Once a single category of life is declassified as having no intrinsic value and a right to life, it is a very short step to declassify other categories when they are considered inconvenient, or burdensome.

Holland is a perfect example of what happens when there is no governing moral standard. The Dutch have decriminalized most drugs and people smoke dope openly in venues set aside for the practice. Prostitutes display their wares like mannequins in department store windows. And now we have at least one hospital murdering already born babies because someone has decreed them unworthy of life.

If ever there was a slippery slope to be studied, this is it.

The Dutch are now grappling with their open border policy. They have admitted thousands of radical Islamists who have not assimilated and are threatening the stability of the nation. A Dutch filmmaker was murdered last month by a radical who didn't like a film he made criticizing Islam's treatment of women.

And now we have the killing of newborns. All of this in a country where the Nazis murdered Ann Frank just because she was Jewish and therefore less than human.

Does history repeat? In Holland, apparently it does.
< /Idiot Alert >

< First of all, individuals have the right to choose their own life or death, a right they are afforded in the modern society. The criteria are anything but arbitrary. Triage is a necessary part of medicine and no matter what you think or say it not only should not but CAN NOT be eliminated. The "right to life" with these people always means the right to Try to Survive, a far cry indeed from having an actual life. One small reason that NOONE gets appropriate medical care without lots of money is that the extra that could be spread around is poorly spent. Decriminalizing drugs has led to a huge reduction in drug problems. >