If It’s Good ‘Medicine’ For Adults, Why Not for Kids, Too? by Charlie Butts

Children are now being considered for euthanasia in some countries where the practice is legal – which a proponent of patients’ rights laments is really just a natural extension of euthanasia when it is legalized.

Belgium and Canada are considering including children under existing euthanasia laws. And a LifeNews.com article reports that 84 percent of Dutch pediatricians want the freedom to euthanize children between ages one and 12.

OneNewsNow spoke with Rita Marker of the Patients Rights Council, who explains that the rationale behind the practice is: If it’s declared a good medical treatment for the terminally ill, why should it be denied for others?

“If it’s a good medical treatment for an adult, why wouldn’t someone who is 17 or 16 or 6 be able to get this?” she further explains the philosophy. “And if we look at other medical treatments, parents can authorize medical treatments for their children that the children themselves could not authorize.”

Marker describes it as the logical outcome at some point after euthanasia becomes the law of the land.

“This isn’t a slippery slope,” she continues. “It’s the recognition that once you change the law related to euthanasia or assisted suicide that you are transforming a crime into a medical treatment – and then it’s treated like any other medical treatment, the only difference being this particular medical treatment is cheaper than any other ways.”  …