by Judy Brown
Alfie’s
parents lost all of their appeals and can do nothing else. In the
process, mankind has lost as well. The reasons are simple. The use of
the words “futile” and “best interests” are fraught with innuendo. They
are subjective terms that can mean whatever the person uttering them
wants them to mean! If you are wondering whose best interests are served
when planned death is arranged, then you are on the same page we are on
the fate of this sweet baby.
Alder Hey Children’s Hospital has violated Alfie’s basic human rights by making this decision, which has been upheld by a British Court of Appeals. Many have protested
with letters, with calls, and even with demonstrations outside this
deadly hospital, but apparently the court system has made a decision
that may, barring a miracle, result in the death of this baby boy.
The sad reality of this case, like so many others in Britain, the USA, and elsewhere, is that human dignity and parental authority matter not if a hospital staff, a medical ethics panel, or a judge decides that they know what is “best” for a child. While we might question where such thinking comes from, it does not take a genius to figure that out. After all, when man usurps the rights of others as he acts in what he may feel is for the greater good, all manner of evil can occur.
The sad reality of the #AlfieEvans case, like so many others in the UK and the USA, is that human dignity and parental authority matter not if a hospital staff, a medical ethics panel, or a judge decides that they know what is “best” for a child.
— Judie Brown (@Judie_Brown) April 27, 2018
John O’Sullivan at National Review nailed it when he wrote of Alfie’s case:
In
a movie, Alfie would survive in the last final scene. It’s hard to
believe that he will do so in life. We can understand the quite simple
emotions that move Alfie’s parents, the crowds of sympathizers, and the
Italian diplomats and their voters. But how are we to interpret the
official UK decisions? It seems to me (partly on the basis of earlier
such conflicts) that all involved will believe passionately that they
are doing the right thing. But something else has taken over their
thoughts and action: They are now determined to defend their claim to be
Alfie’s real parents and their compassionate administration of his
inevitable death without pain—against what they see as the primitive
sentimentality of those trying to rescue him. They grit their teeth and
get on with it, maybe feeling a little noble about it all. And they
don’t realize that they are moving by baby steps towards the compulsory
euthanasia of the weak and sick.
Yes, for mankind this is
the case. Those baby steps have become increasingly prevalent and have
generated very little from the community at large—a community that seems
to be asleep, unaware of what lies ahead.
This entire tragedy reminds me of Flannery O’Connor’s prescient quote: “In the absence of faith, we govern by tenderness. And tenderness leads to the gas chamber.”
Indeed, the Alfie Evans tragedy bodes badly for mankind.