SocietyWatch
‘Legal’ child suicide
Belgium has become the first nation in the world to remove an age limit for euthanasia—legalized suicide. On February 13, a bill passed the Belgian Parliament with relative ease granting children, regardless of age, the right to demand their own death.
The law states that the child must be terminally ill and facing tremendous suffering, and must ask repeatedly to die before euthanasia can be considered.
One of the law’s supporters, Dr. Jan Bernheim from the Free University of Brussels, claims that children with terminal illness are mature enough to demand their own deaths. “They’re not as young as the calendar says. They are in fact psychologically much older and more mature than their calendar age would suggest” (Deutsche Welle, February 13). This is an example of the reasoning that helped bring the new law to fruition.
Legalized killing is not new to Belgium. Medically aided deaths have been law for 11 years. In 2012, there were over 1,400 people legally killed.
Evidence that such a law cheapens life surfaced soon after the adult euthanasia law was passed. That law was originally created so people suffering from intense physical pain could be “relieved.” However, the idea of what constitutes “pain” has been watered down over the years. Today, the definition has come to include psychological pain.
A woman who underwent a failed sex change was legally killed in October last year, not because her life was in danger, but because she said her mental suffering after the failed procedure was “unbearable.” An inmate in a Belgian prison is currently awaiting legalized euthanasia after saying that he had suffered incredible psychological trauma while in prison and could not bear to live with it.
Killing for psychological reasons is becoming more prevalent in Belgian society. According to Dr. Bernheim, 30 percent of people who demand to be killed are denied.
Now that the age limit on euthanasia has been removed, even immature children with few life experiences will make the decision to end their own lives. In Belgium, you can’t buy alcohol or cigarettes until you are 16, you can’t drive until you are 18, but you can choose to die as long as there is enough mental “agony.”
Proponents of the new law might say that it will only be used in extreme circumstances, but history has proved that over time, restraints weaken.
How does God look at euthanasia? To God, euthanasia—which is really suicide—is not brave, courageous or romantic. Euthanasia is not self-deliverance. It is murder!
The Bible forbids this evil act, but few today live according to the Bible. Our loving and living God calls euthanasia a sin—a violation of the Sixth Commandment—which not only brings a life to a tragic end, but also causes indescribable suffering for those left behind.
There is way of life that produces true happiness, peace and lasting success. There is a way of life that teaches us how to face and overcome problems rather than resorting to suicide.
Facebook adds more than 50 ‘custom gender’ options
Facebook added 56 custom gender options on February 13 for users of the website that do not identify themselves simply as “male” or “female.”
Users who wish for their Facebook friends to know that they consider themselves to be “bigender,” “gender fluid,” “two-spirit” or something else can now convey that conveniently right on their profile page. The list also includes descriptions such as, “gender nonconforming,” “gender questioning,” “genderqueer,” “pangender,” “intersex,” and “non-binary.”
Users are now also given a choice of “preferred pronoun,” so instead of alerting a user’s friends to wish “him” a happy birthday, it would remind those friends to send the regards to “her” or “them.”
The offensive to reshape society in even more radical ways pushes forward.
An effort is gaining ground to create a world where not just “sexual orientation,” but sex itself, is a choice. Where boys can be girls and girls can be boys, or something in between. Where people are expected to ignore the biological reality of sex so that all people coexist androgynously, or according to whatever gender suits them at the moment. Where everyone pretends that gender confusion is normal, if not desirable, and anyone who doesn’t play along can be punished and silenced.
This demonstrates unprecedented contempt for reality and common sense, let alone morality and God’s law.
Children ignorant about the Bible
British children hear and read so little about the Bible that they confuse myth, modern fiction and Bible stories, according to a report published in February by the Bible Society. One in three did not know where the story of Christ’s birth came from, or that of the Good Samaritan. One in five did not know that Noah’s Ark and Adam and Eve came from the Bible. Even adults confused plot lines from the Bible with story lines from popular fiction such as Harry Potter or The Hunger Games. Bible ignorance is rampant throughout all of society. For more on the importance of getting to know this book, read our article “The Best Seller Nobody Reads.”
