COMMENTARY: Lights are dimming in the city on a hill

c. 1996 Religion News Service (Charles W. Colson, former special counsel to Richard Nixon, served a prison term for his role in the Watergate scandal. He now heads Prison Fellowship International, an evangelical Christian ministry to the imprisoned and their families. Contact Colson via e-mail at 71421,1551(at sign)compuserve.com.) (RNS)-Some people may be unnerved by Pope […]

c. 1996 Religion News Service

(Charles W. Colson, former special counsel to Richard Nixon, served a prison term for his role in the Watergate scandal. He now heads Prison Fellowship International, an evangelical Christian ministry to the imprisoned and their families. Contact Colson via e-mail at 71421,1551(at sign)compuserve.com.)

(RNS)-Some people may be unnerved by Pope John Paul II’s assertion that we are members of a”culture of death,”but to me it is disturbingly precise.


Those who doubt the existence of this culture of death are able to drive unblinking past abortion clinics. They barely notice the murder rate in our inner cities and the mega-violence of our entertainments. They join in the clamor for the indiscriminate use of the death penalty. I wonder if the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals’ March 6 ruling that declared physician-assisted suicide a constitutional right will register on their radar screens.

Clearly, a legally supported”seamless garment”of death is being stitched together by the courts, one that codifies the right to end life not only in its earliest stages, but also at its very end.

This isn’t a surprise development. For nearly four years, I’ve argued that the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Casey vs. Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania was the legal cornerstone in the death culture’s Temple of Doom. The Supreme Court’s Casey decision did far more than affirm abortion rights. It also declared there was a constitutionally protected liberty to make”intimate and personal choices”that are”central to personal dignity and autonomy.” The justices held that”the heart of liberty is the right to define one’s own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life.”It has become the rallying cry for the death lobby.

A group named Compassion in Dying filed suit two years ago in Federal District Court challenging Washington state’s ban against physician-assisted suicide-one that was passed by public referendum.

Compassion in Dying argued in part that the Casey decision had created a constitutional right to kill oneself. Chanting the Casey mantra, the appeals court ruled that the decision of how and when to die”is … a choice central to personal dignity and autonomy.” It has been a short trip from abortion to”assisted”suicide, which is quite a bit closer to full-blown euthanasia than proponents will dare admit. It is only a matter of time, I believe, before we begin-with heavy hearts on our sleeves, no doubt-to dispatch the infirm and handicapped. The groundwork has been laid.

With these decisions, the judicial system has put on the shelf our traditional belief in the sanctity of human life. In its place is a belief that individuals can safely determine when life is”sacred”and when it is expendable. Legally speaking, life is no longer a sacred gift, but an option.

What will this mean in the short term? Those suffering from illness or those who are handicapped will increasingly recognize, or be told, that their lives really aren’t worth living. To be sure, assisted suicide has been sold as a pain-reliever, a compassionate”procedure”that releases patients from unendurable lives. But make no mistake: The culture of death represents an attack on the weak by the strong.


What’s more, the 9th Circuit’s suicide decision will add to our nation’s social upheaval. With the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision, which affirmed the right to abortion, laws outlawing abortion were overturned all across America. In one stroke of the pen, the democratic conversation on abortion, which had resulted in liberalized laws in some states and continued restrictions in others, was effectively ended. This, of course, created immense social antagonism, which has resulted in violence.

Once again, unelected judicial elites have short-circuited the democratic process. The voters of California and Oregon, both states in the 9th Circuit, have explicitly rejected ballot initiatives legalizing physician-assisted suicide. A panel of judges has given the culture of death another victory it could not win at the ballot box. Among other things, the ruling also opens the way to affirm other”lifestyle”choices, including homosexual marriage.

The message is twofold. Governing elites are contemptuous of the public’s belief in the most serious matters. And the culture of death has many friends in high places.

The lights have further dimmed in the city on the hill.

MJP END COLSON

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