Réponse de lAssociation mondiale des médecins chrétiens : euthanasie des enfants comme chez les nazis ?
Responding to a just-published article in the New England Journal of Medicine, the head of the nation's largest faith-based association of physicians today responded to revelations that Dutch doctors now openly euthanize infants. David Stevens, M.D., Executive Director of the 17,000-member Christian Medical Association, said, "The tragic irony is that Dutch doctors once risked their lives to oppose the Nazi euthanasia program. Dutch euthanasia doctors today indignantly contrast their motives with the Nazis', yet there is little difference in the final result between the involuntary euthanasia of Dutch infants and non-consenting adults and the Nazi euthanasia program. "In just a few generations since World War II, the has slid from firm opposition to medical killing to tolerating it illegally to endorsing it in law and now to expanding it to children. On the face of it, Dutch euthanasia is all about pain and suffering and patient autonomy, but in reality, Dutch euthanasia is all about money, convenience and physician autonomy. "Dutch elderly patients were the first to feel the dark force of the euthanasia culture, as they faced life-threatening illness while fearing the lethal needles of life-threatening doctors. Now euthanasia has found its ultimate victim in infants who are unable to speak for themselves and powerless to defend their own right to life. "Once promoted as the ultimate exercise in autonomy, the published evidence of thousands of involuntary medically induced deaths makes it clear that euthanasia is the fastest way to lose one's autonomy. Dutch euthanasia activists like to say they keep euthanasia out in the open and not behind closed doors. Yet after the evidence came to light that Dutch doctors were killing nearly 1,000 patients a year without the patients' consent, they simply shrugged their shoulders and mused that the patients would have wanted to die anyway. Dr. Stevens responded to an article in the March 10 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, “Infant Euthanasia in the ” by Eduard Verhagen and Pieter Sauer. Contact: margie@cmdahome.org. The Christian Medical Association