Good News – Bad News
Have you ever read an article and expected to find a big “Gotcha” at the end? My wife gave me one she down loaded from the net and I read through it I kept hoping that that’s what would happen. Unfortunately it didn’t and that is the crux of the story for this week. Good news bad news is more of a polite introduction than accurate description of what we need to talk about this week.
The good news part, and it is indeed a small part, is that the United States doesn’t have an exclusive right to heartless and mindless judges. Just this past week, Mr. Justice Hedley, a judge on the High court of England ruled that an eleven month old baby would not be resuscitated, despite her parent’s wishes that the innocent baby be given the chance to fight for life.
It must be said that she has many significant medical problems, not the least of which is, according to the doctors she can neither see nor hear. Although she has lived eleven months since being born fourteen weeks premature, and needs constantly to be in an incubator with increased oxygen due to sever breathing difficulties, the judge ruled that the next time she stops breathing (which will likely be due to an infection she does not yet have), the doctors must make no attempt to revive her.
This is despite the fact that her parents, devoted Christians, begged and pleaded with the judge, the doctors, and anyone else that would listen, that the child be allowed to fight for life. They know the chances of her winning that fight are slim, but knowing God can and does work miracles, wanted not to interfere and let His wisdom and her will to live make the choice. The parade of doctors the hospital paraded through the court room claim that Charlotte is profoundly mentally and physically handicapped and suffers a “terrible quality of life.” Perhaps this is true, but since none of these doctors have been inside of her mind, have been unable to feel and experience what she does, how can they claim to know what her life is like.
The judge, saying he was “uncomfortable” with the decision, quoted the doctors grim predictions as he made his pronouncement of death for the baby, and totally ignored the wishes and testimony of the parents. Despite the fact Charlotte can and does grip their finger as the parents reach out to touch her and that she derived comfort from their presence and when they hold her, ignored them and ruled in favor of the hospital and doctors.
As Christians Charlotte’s parents believe that life should be preserved at all cost but the judge seemed to take no notice of their convictions. I say seemed because knowing how England has as a country gone over to the side of evil, a ruling against Christian parents must raise at least a little suspicion. It cannot be said with certainty that the judge ruled as he did because the parents are disciples of Jesus, but it most certainly cannot be dismissed as a possibility.
Knowing the child responds to her parents presence and touch, that she has survived for eleven months with the same difficulties she has had since birth, that the doctors differed in their guesses as to her chances for survival from less than one percent to as high as one chance in four, he ruled to let her die. Why? One reason he claimed is that “inherent in each of us is a deep desire, both for oneself and for those we love, for a ‘good’ death.” If it is planned and not allowed to happen on God’s schedule, if it is hastened by lack of treatment, if it is based on assumptions and not definitive knowledge of how the dying person actually feels, how can it possibly be “good?”
As Charlotte, Helen Keller could neither see nor hear and yet the contributions he made to the world are still being experienced by countless people. Had this judge been asked, perhaps she to would have been “allowed” to die, depriving the world of a courageous woman of God. A woman, who stands as an example of strength, courage, determination, and devotion to her Creator many years after a death on God’s time table, not mans.
With decisions like this plaguing the courts of the world what will be next? Downs syndrome babies euthanized because of their “quality” of life is less than what the courts think is acceptable? Will we withhold nutrition and water from the newborn who’s DNA shows he has a likelihood of developing Alzheimer’s sixty or seventy years in the future? Will it go so far as to prescribe euthanasia for the couple’s third daughter because she is not the son the parents wanted? Or perhaps we as a people will decide it would be better to “peacefully” end the existence of the baby who although deprived of oxygen for a few moments will have an IQ not quite at an acceptable level in our society?
The possibilities are endless as to what hedonistic tendencies such as Mr. Justice Hedley has demonstrated can lead to. I alluded to the idea earlier that the decision to ignore the Christian parents could have been based at least in part on the fact of their Christianity. This may sound a bit far fetched I know, but allow me leave you with these words of our Savior: “They will put out of the synagogue; in fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God." John 16:2 NIV
Have you ever read an article and expected to find a big “Gotcha” at the end? My wife gave me one she down loaded from the net and I read through it I kept hoping that that’s what would happen. Unfortunately it didn’t and that is the crux of the story for this week. Good news bad news is more of a polite introduction than accurate description of what we need to talk about this week.
The good news part, and it is indeed a small part, is that the United States doesn’t have an exclusive right to heartless and mindless judges. Just this past week, Mr. Justice Hedley, a judge on the High court of England ruled that an eleven month old baby would not be resuscitated, despite her parent’s wishes that the innocent baby be given the chance to fight for life.
It must be said that she has many significant medical problems, not the least of which is, according to the doctors she can neither see nor hear. Although she has lived eleven months since being born fourteen weeks premature, and needs constantly to be in an incubator with increased oxygen due to sever breathing difficulties, the judge ruled that the next time she stops breathing (which will likely be due to an infection she does not yet have), the doctors must make no attempt to revive her.
This is despite the fact that her parents, devoted Christians, begged and pleaded with the judge, the doctors, and anyone else that would listen, that the child be allowed to fight for life. They know the chances of her winning that fight are slim, but knowing God can and does work miracles, wanted not to interfere and let His wisdom and her will to live make the choice. The parade of doctors the hospital paraded through the court room claim that Charlotte is profoundly mentally and physically handicapped and suffers a “terrible quality of life.” Perhaps this is true, but since none of these doctors have been inside of her mind, have been unable to feel and experience what she does, how can they claim to know what her life is like.
The judge, saying he was “uncomfortable” with the decision, quoted the doctors grim predictions as he made his pronouncement of death for the baby, and totally ignored the wishes and testimony of the parents. Despite the fact Charlotte can and does grip their finger as the parents reach out to touch her and that she derived comfort from their presence and when they hold her, ignored them and ruled in favor of the hospital and doctors.
As Christians Charlotte’s parents believe that life should be preserved at all cost but the judge seemed to take no notice of their convictions. I say seemed because knowing how England has as a country gone over to the side of evil, a ruling against Christian parents must raise at least a little suspicion. It cannot be said with certainty that the judge ruled as he did because the parents are disciples of Jesus, but it most certainly cannot be dismissed as a possibility.
Knowing the child responds to her parents presence and touch, that she has survived for eleven months with the same difficulties she has had since birth, that the doctors differed in their guesses as to her chances for survival from less than one percent to as high as one chance in four, he ruled to let her die. Why? One reason he claimed is that “inherent in each of us is a deep desire, both for oneself and for those we love, for a ‘good’ death.” If it is planned and not allowed to happen on God’s schedule, if it is hastened by lack of treatment, if it is based on assumptions and not definitive knowledge of how the dying person actually feels, how can it possibly be “good?”
As Charlotte, Helen Keller could neither see nor hear and yet the contributions he made to the world are still being experienced by countless people. Had this judge been asked, perhaps she to would have been “allowed” to die, depriving the world of a courageous woman of God. A woman, who stands as an example of strength, courage, determination, and devotion to her Creator many years after a death on God’s time table, not mans.
With decisions like this plaguing the courts of the world what will be next? Downs syndrome babies euthanized because of their “quality” of life is less than what the courts think is acceptable? Will we withhold nutrition and water from the newborn who’s DNA shows he has a likelihood of developing Alzheimer’s sixty or seventy years in the future? Will it go so far as to prescribe euthanasia for the couple’s third daughter because she is not the son the parents wanted? Or perhaps we as a people will decide it would be better to “peacefully” end the existence of the baby who although deprived of oxygen for a few moments will have an IQ not quite at an acceptable level in our society?
The possibilities are endless as to what hedonistic tendencies such as Mr. Justice Hedley has demonstrated can lead to. I alluded to the idea earlier that the decision to ignore the Christian parents could have been based at least in part on the fact of their Christianity. This may sound a bit far fetched I know, but allow me leave you with these words of our Savior: “They will put out of the synagogue; in fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God." John 16:2 NIV
posted by Air Force 68-73 at
12:59 AM
1 Comments
