Wednesday, March 08, 2006
The right to life
From this story about a little boy who has spinal muscular atrophy; the family are campaigning to ensure that the doctors will not remove the ventillator for their child. The father has said that it is up to God to give life and take it away.
Now... this strikes me (and the counsel for the hospital) as being a bit odd; if it was up to God, shouldn't they have refused all treatment in the first instance as if it is "up to God" then surely the fact that the child cannot survive without medical intervention should be taken as a sign that God does not want the child's life to continue.
This might sound overly harsh. In fact it is very harsh as I'm sure the family is going through a horrible time and I do feel sorry for them, but using 'God' as in an argument in this manner exposes the fundamental flaws with this way of thinking. If you accept that 'God' has the ultimate decision in all matters, then you should reject all human intervention.
Now... this strikes me (and the counsel for the hospital) as being a bit odd; if it was up to God, shouldn't they have refused all treatment in the first instance as if it is "up to God" then surely the fact that the child cannot survive without medical intervention should be taken as a sign that God does not want the child's life to continue.
This might sound overly harsh. In fact it is very harsh as I'm sure the family is going through a horrible time and I do feel sorry for them, but using 'God' as in an argument in this manner exposes the fundamental flaws with this way of thinking. If you accept that 'God' has the ultimate decision in all matters, then you should reject all human intervention.
# posted by Unknown @ 7:13 PM 
